The NASCAR Cup Series closed out the weekend at Richmond Raceway Sunday afternoon. Martin Truex Jr. was the defending winner of the race, having won two of the last three races at Richmond. Truex won the pole by a metric qualifying system. His teammate, Denny Hamlin, started second. The “Choose Cone Rule” returned for this race. The rule allows drivers to pick a lane before the race begins. No cars went to the rear, and NASCAR put in a competition caution for lap 30.
Denny Hamlin missed a shift when the green flag dropped. Luckily, he only lost one spot to third place as Chase Elliott quickly took second. It took Hamlin three laps to get second back from Elliott. Truex led 32 laps before the competition caution came out. The leaders went to pit road with Hamlin beating Truex off pit road. The race resumed on lap 38, with Hamlin choosing the outside lane.
Logano dove to the bottom to take second away from Truex. Towards the back, Chase Elliott, who restarted fifth, lost several positions during stage one. On lap 53, Kyle Larson fell to 20th after dropping eleven positions on pit road as his crew was adding a packer to the front end of the car. Upfront Denny cruised to a stage one win over Truex to get ten points towards the playoffs. Elliott, on the other hand, finished 17th.
Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Hamlin maintaining the lead by beating Truex off pit road. Hamlin once again chose the outside lane as stage two was underway on lap 91. Hamlin got a great jump to keep first place while Truex settled for second. On lap 101, Truex challenged Hamlin for the lead. They battled for three laps before Truex was able to pass Hamlin for the lead on lap 104.
On lap 137, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, and Martin Truex Jr. headed to pit road to begin the green flag cycles. During the cycles, Ryan Newman came down on the track and clipped Austin Cindric, sending Newman around to bring out the third caution. Those who didn’t pit under green went during the caution. Truex was the new leader, with Harvick sitting in second when the race restarted on lap 148.
Harvick quickly lost the second spot to Hamlin on the same lap. On lap 184, the second scheduled green-flag stops started with Truex, Hamlin, and William Byron in for service. By lap 191, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, and Ryan Blaney were the only drivers to not pit. They were hoping for a caution to come out that would’ve put many of the leaders down a lap, but it never happened. Four laps later, Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney went to pit road, leaving just Keselowski the only driver to not pit.
This strategy did not work for Keselowski as Hamlin passed him to get his lap back. Not only did Hamlin get his lap back, but on lap 231, he got the lead back and put Keselowski a lap down. Brad lost his chance at a free pass as Hamlin would win stage two. Everyone went to pit road with Hamlin once again beating Truex off pit road. Hamlin chose the outside lane as the final stage was underway on lap 248. Logano got around Truex to take second place.
Logano then challenged Hamlin for the lead, but Hamlin used some lapped cars to pull away. On lap 288, the third scheduled green-flag stops started with Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez in first. During the stops, Truex, who pitted on lap 294, was penalized for speeding while entering pit road. He had to serve a drive-through penalty. Once everyone came in for their stops, Hamlin resumed the lead.
Five laps later, Logano would challenge and succeed in passing Hamlin for the lead. Five laps later, the fourth round of scheduled pit cycles started with Bowman, Elliott, Byron, and Erik Jones heading in for service. Logano would pit one lap later. Kyle Busch was the latest driver to be penalized for commitment line violation during pit stops and served a drive-through penalty.
Once everyone had pitted, Logano resumed the lead. Twenty-two laps later, Hamlin caught Logano to battle him for the lead, but Logano held on to first for now. On lap 381, Kevin Harvick’s right rear tire blew, sending him around and into the wall at turn one to bring out the race’s fifth caution. Everyone made their final pit stops during the caution, with Hamlin beating Logano off pit road. Hamlin chose the inside lane for the restart with eleven laps to go.
Logano lost the second spot to Alex Bowman on the restart. With ten laps to go, Bowman passed Hamlin for the lead. He led the last ten laps to win his third career race by .381 seconds over Hamlin. This was the first time the No. 48 went to victory lane since Dover in June of 2017, and it was Ally’s first win as a sponsor.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Joey Logano third, Christopher Bell fourth, Martin Truex Jr. fifth, Aric Almirola sixth, William Byron seventh, Kyle Busch eighth, Matt DiBenedetto ninth, and Austin Dillon tenth. Hamlin led 207 laps, the most in the race. There were twenty lead changes and five cautions for 39 laps.
The Cup Series will now head to Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday, April 25th, at 2 pm on FOX.
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