April 1, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Hamlin wins in overtime at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. — Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team gave him a clutch pit stop to emerge with the lead out of the pits and then he was able to hold the advantage on a two-lap overtime shootout to claim the Toyota Owners 400 victory Saturday night at his home track, Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

It was Hamlin’s 53rd career NASCAR Cup Series win, second of the season and his fifth victory at the three-quarter mile Richmond oval – a .269-second margin of victory over Team Penske’s Joey Logano. And it came at the expense of his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. who finished fourth despite leading a dominant 228 of the race’s 407 laps.

“This was a team win for sure,” said Hamlin, who led 17 laps on the night. “Each one of these pit crew members just did an amazing job, they’ve been killing it all year.

“Such a great feeling when you can come in and have a pit crew like that.”

It was a certainly a frustrating ending for Truex, who had been out front 54 consecutive laps in his No. 19 JGR Toyota when a caution flag flew with only two laps of regulation remaining. On the ensuing pit stop, Hamlin beat him off pit road and Truex was unable to take the lead back in that final two lap run, ultimately getting passed by Logano for second and polesitter Kyle Larson for third.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s happened a few times over the years,” Truex said. “We were in a great spot and had a great Auto Owners Camry all night long and the guys did a really good job. Just got beat out of the pits and then he [Hamlin] jumped the start and just used me up in Turn 1.

“Definitely sucks. Another car capable of winning, we’ll just have to come back next week and try to get one.”

The silver lining for Truex, is that he still holds the championship lead by 14 points over Larson, who had a busy ending to the race. Contact between Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace brought out the final yellow flag to force the first overtime period for a NASCAR Cup Series race this season.

Larson was still able to come out fourth place on the pit stop and challenge for the win, although he and Truex banged doors in the closing laps fighting for position.

“My pit crew did a really good job to get us off pit road and get us those spots to restart fourth and gain one more,” Larson said. “I’ll take third after what could have been a lot worse there on the front stretch. Proud of the HendrickCars.com team.

“It was a good weekend for us, winning the pole, winning a stage and getting back to third. Happy about that.”

As for the late race contact between him and a frustrated Truex, Larson said. “I think he was just mad. He was mad the 11 [Hamlin] used him up on the restart and that’s probably where it really started from.

“I think he was more mad at Denny but I was the closest one for him to take his anger out on,” Larson added with a smile.

Larson’s Hendrick teammate – and fellow front-row starter – Chase Elliott finished fifth.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Hendrick’s William Byron, RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounded out the top-10. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry finished 11th, having run in the top-10 most of the night and Wallace, who also ran top-10 most of the race finished 13th after that late race contact with Larson.

Of note, with the track still damp from afternoon showers, the field started the race on wet weather tires. NASCAR threw a competition caution at Lap 30, bringing the cars down pit road for a mandatory change to racing slicks. And cars returned to the track in the order they were running at the time of caution. The move to use the wet weather tires allowed the race to start only a few minutes late and was widely praised.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to another short track challenge next Sunday with the Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Larson is the defending race winner.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 7
Race Results for the Toyota Owners 400 - Sunday, March 31, 2024
Richmond Raceway - Richmond, VA - 0.75 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 407 Laps - 305.25 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/31/2024 @ 11:30 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 11 11 Denny Hamlin Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota 407  5 46 Running 2 17 5
2 10 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 407 5 3 49 Running  
3 1 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 407 1 4 51 Running 2 144 1
4 7 19 Martin Truex Jr. Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota 407 4 1 50 Running 5 228 1
5 2 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 407 7  36 Running 1 5
6 29 20 Christopher Bell Mobil 1 Toyota 407  6 36 Running 2 9
7 13 24 William Byron Liberty University Chevrolet 407  9 32 Running  
8 23 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 407   29 Running  
9 14 17 Chris Buescher Nexletol Ford 407  7 32 Running  
10 19 45 Tyler Reddick SiriusXM Toyota 407  10 28 Running  
11 30 4 Josh Berry # SunnyD Ford 407 9 2 37 Running 2 2
12 17 10 Noah Gragson Superior Essex Ford 407   25 Running  
13 5 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald's Toyota 407 2 8 36 Running 2 2
14 27 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 407   23 Running  
15 3 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Chevrolet 407 8  25 Running  
16 8 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 407   21 Running  
17 4 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 407 3  28 Running  
18 32 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 407   19 Running  
19 12 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Duracell Ford 407   18 Running  
20 15 8 Kyle Busch Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet 407   17 Running  
21 6 38 Todd Gilliland FARXIGA(dapagliflozin) Ford 407 6  21 Running  
22 20 99 Daniel Suarez Quaker State Chevrolet 407   15 Running  
23 9 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 406   14 Running  
24 22 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 406   13 Running  
25 18 42 John Hunter Nemechek Safeway Toyota 406   12 Running  
26 31 34 Michael McDowell Long John Silver's Ford 406   11 Running  
27 25 77 Carson Hocevar # Delaware Life Chevrolet 406   10 Running  
28 16 41 Ryan Preece United Rentals Ford 406 10  10 Running  
29 33 16 Ty Dillon(i) Chevy Accessories Chevrolet 406   0 Running  
30 34 31 Daniel Hemric LA Golf Chevrolet 405   7 Running  
31 35 15 Kaz Grala # N29 Capital Partners Ford 405   6 Running  
32 36 51 Justin Haley Walmart Health & Wellness Ford 405   5 Running  
33 24 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger/NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet 405   4 Running  
34 26 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 405   3 Running  
35 28 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 404   2 Running  
36 21 7 Corey LaJoie Gainbridge Chevrolet 404   1 Running  

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 14 Mins, 41 Secs. Average Speed: 94.076 MPH Margin of Victory: .269 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 23, 48, 19, 22, 38, 9, 1, 4, 41
Stage 2 Top 10: 19, 4, 22, 5, 11, 20, 17, 23, 24, 45

Caution Flags: 5 for 54 laps; Laps: 32-48 (Competition - Weather Package Change [Red Flag: 00:02:16] [None]); 65-79 (#4, 99 Incident Turn 1 / Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 171-177 (#8 Incident Turn 2 [43]); 232-240 (Stage 2 Conclusion [48]); 400-405 (#5, 23 Incident Frontstretch [1]).

Lead Changes: 16 among 7 drivers; K. Larson 0; C. Elliott 1-5; K. Larson 6-48; B. Wallace 49; K. Larson 50-150; B. Wallace 151; M. Truex Jr. 152-171; J. Berry # 172; M. Truex Jr. 173-234; J. Berry # 235; M. Truex Jr. 236-286; C. Bell 287-294; M. Truex Jr. 295-335; D. Hamlin 336-345; C. Bell 346; M. Truex Jr. 347-400; D. Hamlin 401-407.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: April 7, 2024 - Martinsville Speedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875