Kyle Larson spent the week watching videos of his 10-win championship 2021 season, he said, «to remind me that I used to be good.»
He still is. Larson pulled away on a restart with 14 laps to go and easily won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday.
«I really wanted to look at an old tape of myself and see where my mentality was and see my confidence,» Larson said after his 20th career win in NASCAR’s premier series.
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Kyle Larson (5) celebrates at Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series car race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Richmond, Virginia. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)
Larson started the final green flag race with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Josh Berry on the outside and beat Berry into the first turn. Berry, who replaces the injured Chase Elliott, remained in second place, followed by Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick.
It’s the third victory of the season for the four-car Hendrick team and it came less than a week after a NASCAR appeals panel overturned a 100-point penalty against each driver for using an illegal part. It also came with a substitute crew chief in Kevin Meendering because the appeals panel upheld the four-race suspensions of all four crew chiefs.
«I was happy to fill a void and help these guys out in a tough situation,» Meendering said. «This is a testament to all the hard work, but to those guys on that team and to Hendrick Motorsports.»
Chevrolet held the top three spots and has now won five of the seven races this season.
All of Hendrick’s cars except Berry ran in contention for the entire race, with William Byron, the only two-time winner this season, leading a race-high 117 laps and running fourth for a restart with 21 laps to go. the end. The field piled up heading into Turn 1, and Bell hit the left rear quarter panel, sending Byron spinning into the wall. He finished 24.
Kyle Larson with his trophy after winning a NASCAR Cup Series car race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Richmond, Virginia. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)
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«It looked like the 1 (Chastain) was inside the 20 (Bell) and the 20 overcooked the corner, had the fronts locked up and nailed us to the left rear,» Byron said. «It is what it is. I had a great race car.»
Bell said that he was trying to keep Chastain at bay.
«I tried to protect myself from him by going to the inside and he still made three wide there at the last minute and there wasn’t enough room,» he said.
The cars never made it to the track on Saturday due to rain, prompting NASCAR to give them an extra set of tires, and even then, teams pitted for minor scrapes for the final green-flag race. That paid off for Berry and Michael McDowell, who stayed on the track through the final green flag stop and then received the warning that paid off.
«Everyone on the team made some great decisions,» Berry said. «I’m really glad they tried something different there at the end to put us in front.»
McDowell made it a sixth place. Todd Gilliland, the third driver to stay on the track, finished in 15th place.
William Byron (24) completes a pit stop during a NASCAR Cup Series car race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Richmond, Virginia. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)
«Our car was really good in the long run and I think we were going to be 15th or 16th, so you might as well give it a try and see if you can find something good and it worked,» McDowell said.
THE HOLES
Denny Hamlin won the second stage on a last-lap pass from Bell, then made a big pit stop to get him out first to start the final stage.
A bad next stop during that stage sent him back, and he was working his way back into contention when, for the second time, he incurred a pit road penalty that took him out of contention. He finished twentieth.
NUTS AND BOLTS
Hendrick’s drivers led 229 of the 400 laps with Larson setting the pace 93, Berry 10 and polesitter Alex Bowman 9. … Former NFL tight end Vernon Davis, who finished his career with the Washington Commanders , was the honorary driver of the pace car.
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UNTIL NEXT TIME
The second of three consecutive short track events comes next Sunday night at the dirt track at Bristol Motor Speedway.