Denny Hamlin passed William Byron with five laps to go and then held off a charge from Kevin Harvick to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Hamlin had to get by teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Byron inside the last 10 laps to score the victory, which is the first for Toyota in 12 Cup races (Bubba Wallace, Talladega).Â
Byron had led the previous 71 laps before Hamlin got to him. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was on tires that were 13 laps older than the other leaders.
Hamlin only led the final five of the race’s 400 laps. Hamlin, 41, is the first driver over the age of 30 to win this year.
“You just have a tough season and things aren’t going well,” Hamlin said. “It seems like everything is not going your way and the law of averages say things are going to work out and we’ll get our performance better and today’s the day where it all matched up.”
Prior to Sunday, Joe Gibbs Racing had just one top-finish in the first six races of the season. Hamlin himself hadn’t finished better than 13th.
“We needed a data point, we needed a good run to kind of balances ourselves on other tracks,” Hamlin said.Â
Hamlin, a Virginia native, now has five career wins at Richmond. He’s finished in the top three in four of the last five Richmond races.
For Harvick, it’s also his first top five of the season. It’s his best result since he was second in the Bristol night race last fall.
“It’s really the first clean day we’ve had all year,” Harvick told Fox Sports. “Cars have been fast. Had a shot there at the end. I wanted to be close enough at the white flag to take a swipe at him. But the lapped cars got in the way.”
The top five was completed by Byron, Truex and Kyle Larson. Like Harvick and Hamlin, it was Truex’s first top five of the season.
Click here for the race results.
First Stage
Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney took the lead at the initial green flag and kept it until the first caution on Lap 10. Kurt Busch lost power on Lap 8 and slowed on the track, resulting in the yellow flag.
Busch took his No. 45 Toyota to the garage where his team attempted to fix an issue with fuel pressure on the car, he ultimately returned to the race 107 laps down.
The race resumed on Lap 16 as Blaney kept the lead. After starting eighth, COTA winner Ross Chastain moved into fourth and then third near the end of the stage.
After not leading any laps at Richmond before Sunday, Blaney led the entire 70-lap stage. He went on to lead a race-high 129 laps and finished seventh. The Team Penske driver is now 0-10 when it comes to races where he leads 100+ laps.
Blaney won the stage for his third stage win of the season, which leads the series. Blaney is also tied with Chase Elliott for the points lead.
“It’s tough,” Blaney said after the race. “There were a handful of cars that could kind of run up and run in traffic pretty good and we just weren’t really good enough to run in traffic. Once we lost track position I struggled a little bit, but it’s nice to win a stage. It’s cool to get the pole and good stage points. We finished seventh, my best finish here. Overall, a fun day. It was kind of frustrating because we were running so good early. I wanted to run better, but I can’t complain about it too much.”
The top 10 after 70 laps: Blaney, Byron, Chastain, Truex,. Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Harvick.
Keselowski was one of the big movers, ending the stage in ninth after starting 19th.
In the pits, Blaney was the first off pit road, beating Chastain, Elliott and Bell. Byron dropped six spots to eighth after his crew had difficulty removing a wheel.
Second Stage
Blaney kept the lead on the restart. However, around Lap 90 he reported that he was experiencing a vibration in his brakes.
By about Lap 115, the problem had disappeared.
Green flag pit stops began on Lap 128 with Truex. pitting first.
Blaney pit from the lead on Lap 130. When the pit sequence had cycled through, Truex was ahead of Blaney.
Truex officially took the lead on Lap 155 when Bell finally made his pit stop. A second round of green flag stops began with Truex pitting on Lap 177. That gave the lead back to Bell.
Truex would take the lead back with the aid of lapped traffic on Lap 212. He’d go on to win the stage, which went caution free. It was his third stage of the season after he swept both stages in the Daytona 500.
The top 10 after 230 laps: Truex, Bell, Chastain, Logano, Blaney, Elliott, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Larson and Keselowski.
Truex was first off pit road ahead of Bell, Chastain and Logano, while Busch gained three spots.
Final Stage
After the restart with 160 laps to go, the race saw its first caution for an incident seven laps later.
Cody Ware spun into the outside wall in Turn 2 after apparent contact with Erik Jones.
Under the caution the teams of Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher were among those that elected to pit.
The second caution for an incident came on Lap 258 when Cole Custer bounced off Ty Dillon exiting Turn 2 and into Austin Cindric, which sent the Daytona 500 winner into a slide.
By the time of the caution, Hamlin had made his way into seventh.
During the break all but three drivers pit: Byron, Suarez and Austin Dillon. The race returned to action with 136 laps left.
Byron managed to stay in the lead until the next round of green flag stops despite being on older tires.
The next pit cycle began with 92 laps to go. Byron pit from the lead with 89 to go. Truex didn’t pit until 76 to go.
At the end of the cycle, Byron reclaimed the lead over Hamlin.
With about 53 laps to go, Kyle Busch’s team was penalized by NASCAR for having tape on the grille of his car, which isn’t allowed. Busch had to pit from sixth to serve the penalty. The tape had been placed there by the team 200 laps prior. Busch finished ninth.
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