Denny Hamlin collected his fifth NASCAR Cup Series win at his hometown track, Richmond Raceway, on Sunday night (March 31) in a drama-filled overtime finish.
“This trophy needs to go to each one of these pit crew members,” he told FOX Sports.
Hamlin collected his second points-paying victory of 2024 and the 53rd of his career.
“He [Hamlin] jumped the start and then just used me up in turn one,” Martin Truex Jr., who fell back to fourth from second after the final restart, told FOX Sports.
Truex also expressed frustration with how Kyle Larson raced him in the final two laps.
Joey Logano finished second ahead of Larson in third and Truex in fourth. Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Josh Berry rounded out the top 10 in fifth through 10th, respectively.
Stage one began with NASCAR informing all teams to begin on wet weather Goodyear tires. After 30 laps, the track was deemed dry enough to incorporate a competition caution on lap 30 to move from wet weather to slick tires.
The stage entertained with side-by-side racing between pole winner Larson and Wallace. The stage ended under caution after a bump from Berry spun Daniel Suarez.
Larson won the stage over Wallace. Alex Bowman, Truex, Logano, Todd Gilliland, Elliott, Ross Chastain, Berry and Ryan Preece completed the top 10 from second through 10th, respectively.
Stage two saw various strategies emerge with teams choosing between one or two trips to pit road for tires. Among those two strategies, Larson looked to lead the one-stop cars, while Truex was top among the two-stop cars. The two-stop strategy wound up being the better choice following a caution for contact with the outside wall by Kyle Busch.
Truex maintained a gap over Berry to win his 63rd stage win, the most of all drivers. Logano, Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Buescher, Wallace, Byron and Tyler Reddick collected the remaining stage points from third through 10th, respectively.
Richmond Cup Race Results
Next Sunday (April 7), the Cup Series continues short track racing at Martinsville Speedway with the Cook Out 400. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. E.T. on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM.
About the author
Ty joined the Frontstretch team in February of 2024 as a Contributor covering Sunday news. He has two books available on Amazon: A Perfect Sundae and Chartreuse: Crime & Horror Short Stories.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
The caution for Baby Busch’s scrape along the wall was ridiculous. But Bubba was the first car a lap down and Brian’s sycophants in the tower knew it. If that was Carl Long there wouldn’t have been a caution and NA$CAR would have made him pay for repainting the wall.
I wonder what would have happened if Larson had beaten Truex in a GWC after Bubba went brain dead and spun Larson with two laps to go and a teammate leading. I’m sure Reverend Joe was not impressed and didn’t use Christian language. Bubba needs to get a helmet that doesn’t put as much pressure on his brain(?).
Berry had a really impressive run in Brian’s product.
Suarez came down on Berry and everybody could see it and Berry said so.