Larson, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, had a strong start to the 2023 season, leading laps at Las Vegas and Phoenix earlier this year but coming up empty-handed. He had also seen possible wins slip away in the late stages of a couple of races earlier in the season. However, at Richmond, Larson overcame an early setback to capture his first victory of the season.
During the second stage of the race, Larson made contact with Daniel Suarez on pit road, damaging his right front fender and hurting his handling. Larson’s team was eventually able to fix the damage, allowing Larson to continue racing and eventually win the race. Larson expressed relief that the damage was not the reason for his car’s slow performance, saying, “I was hoping that they could fix it and our car could go back to normal. I was surprised how bad I was after that.”
Larson’s win was emotional not only for him but also for his team. The victory capped a solid week for Hendrick Motorsports, which had won its appeal of penalties issued a few weeks ago from louvers confiscated at Phoenix. While the appeals board upheld the four-race crew-chief suspensions and the $100,000 fines to each of them, Larson’s win came with interim crew chief Kevin Meendering atop the box, and it was the first victory as a crew chief for Meendering.
The win also came on what would have been the 43rd birthday of Ricky Hendrick, the son of team owner Rick Hendrick who drove a paint scheme similar to the one that Larson drove. Ricky was among 10 people who died in a Hendrick plane crash in October 2004. Team vice chairman Jeff Gordon said, “When you know what Ricky’s impact could have been on our company and the people and the 5 car and that paint scheme and what that means to the whole company, it’s very rewarding to know that we’re still kind of thinking of him and paying tribute to him as often as we can.”
While Larson’s win was the highlight of the race, there were other notable performances as well. Larson’s Hendrick teammate Josh Berry had a career day with a second-place finish. Berry, who was filling in for Chase Elliott, rebounded from an early spin to finish second, despite having no track time with the car at Richmond due to practice and qualifying being rained out on Saturday. Berry drives full-time in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports, and his strong performance at Richmond may lead to more opportunities in the Cup Series.
Ross Chastain finished third, Christopher Bell in fourth, and Kevin Harvick in fifth. Chastain was not taking the blame for an incident late in the race when he was running the inside lane while Bell tried to get to his outside with William Byron in the outside lane. Bell and Byron ended up having contact, sending Byron spinning. While Byron was most perturbed with Bell, Bell initially blamed Chastain before apologizing to Byron on Twitter.
Overall, it was an eventful and emotional race at Richmond, with Larson finally getting the win he had been seeking all season, Berry impressing in his Cup Series debut, and a bit of drama unfolding among the other drivers on the track.
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NASCAR, Racing, Hendrick Motosports, Sport, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Richmond Raceway, Nascar Cup Series
