By AMANDA VINCENT
Denny Hamlin was victorious in overtime at his home track Sunday night, driving his Toyota to the win in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. It was his second win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and his fifth-career Cup Series win at Richmond.
“This is a team win for sure,” Hamlin said. “This trophy needs to go to each of the pit crew members”
Joey Logano finished second, Kyle Larson was third, Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. fourth, and Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.
Larson spun after getting loose, checking up and receiving contact from Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. on lap 399 of the race that was scheduled for 400 laps. The fifth caution of the race for Larson’s spin extended the race to 407 laps.
“Just got spun, there, down the frontstretch,” Larson said. “Thankfully, I didn’t get turned all the way around, and I only lost one or two spots, there. My pit crew did a great job all night to gain those couple of spots back on pit road for us to line up fourth and get one spot out of it. Proud of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. I’m really, really happy about the execution all night long. My pit crew kept putting us in position to have a shot to win, so can’t say much more.”
Truex was the leader, Logano second and Hamlin third at the time of caution, but Hamlin was first off pit road for the lead for the final restart. Despite the spin, Larson restarted fourth after his pit stop.
Hamlin held the lead on restart, and Logano and Larson both passed Truex for position in the final two laps.
“I had a chance,” Logano said. “I didn’t get a good enough restart. I really wanted to pressure them down into one and force them to work up Truex, but I spun my tires, there, just trying to stay with them, and that ultimately cost me to be close enough to do something. I don’t know. It feels good to be towards the front again. We haven’t had a run like that in awhile, but it also stings to be that close and not capitalize on the win. I guess I have mixed emotions. We had a really good car, a car that was capable of winning if we were in the front, but we didn’t execute everywhere else good enough to get there.”
Truex and Larson combined to lead most of the race with Truex leading a race-high 228 laps. Larson led 144 laps.
Truex was the leader and Larson second before they pitted during the last cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 336. Larson beat Truex off pit road, but Truex passed Larson on the track to be the leader when the cycle completed on lap 347.
Hamlin pitted several laps later during the cycle and was 11th when it completed. With newer tires, he soon drove up to the top-three. After Logano took second from Larson on lap 367, Hamlin got by Larson for third on lap 372.
Pole sitter Larson dominated and won the opening 70-lap stage. Wallace Jr. was second. The stage ended under caution because of a lap-64 spin by Daniel Suarez, caused by contact from Josh Berry.
The start of the race made history, as cars took the initial green flag with wet-weather tires. It marked the first time Cup Series cars made competitive laps on wet-weather tires on a short track in a points-paying race.
Elliott took the lead on lap one, but Larson retook the position on lap six.
NASCAR threw a competitive caution on lap 30, mandating teams switch to their regular dry-weather slick tires. Pit stops were non-competitive, because pit road was still wet.
Wallace raced Larson, side-by-side, for the lead for a few laps after the restart, but Larson eventually retook command of the race.
Truex won the 160-lap second stage on lap 230. Berry was second, Logano third and Larson fourth.
Pit strategies varied in stage two. While most teams planned to divide the stage into thirds and make two stops, seven teams, including those of Larson and Wallace, planned a single-stop strategy. Larson gave up the lead to make his stop on lap 150 and Wallace a lap later. But before others made their second pit stops of the stage, Kyle Busch hit the wall, bringing out a caution on lap 170.
Truex was the leader at the time of caution. After yellow-flag pit stops that included most of the cars originally on the one-stop strategy, Truex retained the lead, and Larson restarted sixth.
Truex and Larson were the first two drivers off pit road after stage two to restart top-two with under 170 laps remaining.
A third JGR driver, Christopher Bell, finished the race sixth; another HMS driver, William Byron, was seventh; Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher eighth and ninth; and Tyler Reddick finished 10th.
“It was a grind today,” Byron said. “I think we really got the car handling well, there, at the end; we just needed a little bit more. I’m proud of my guys, though, for pushing through and turning it around when things weren’t going right early on. We’ll take what we learned tonight and build for next weekend.”
