April 3, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Denny Hamlin defies doubters with hometown win at Richmond

Denny Hamlin shifted from apologist to celebrant with his first win of the season on Sunday.

At his hometown track—Richmond Raceway—the 41-year-old from Chesterfield, Va., quieted his critics by breaking Toyota’s winless streak and ending a 12-race run of the under-30 victors.

A two-pit strategy in the final stage provided Hamlin with fresher tires and the ability to run down the leaders over the final 20 laps for his fourth Cup win at the .75-mile in the Toyota Owners 400.

“It was just a matter of time,” Hamlin said. “We weren’t just going to hang back where we were, but everyone worked so hard on my JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Toyota Camry team.

“You just have a tough season and things aren’t going well. 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.”

Kevin Harvick finished second using a similar strategy—his first top-five result of 2022. Harvick trailed Hamlin by .552-seconds at the line.

"Just proud of everyone on our Ford Mobil 1 Mustang for staying there and having a great strategy and doing everything they did all day," Harvick said. "First clean day we've had all year. Cars have been fast. 
Had a shot there at the end. I wanted to be close enough with the white to just take a swipe at him. Yeah, the lap cars there kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. 

"Still a great day for us. Just hopefully a little momentum in a positive direction."

William Byron, who led 122 laps in the final stage, finished third followed by Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.

Blaney led the first 128 laps from the pole, scoring the first stage win and his third of the season in the process. The only caution in the first segment came when Kurt Busch stalled on the backstretch after 11 laps. After repairs, the No. 45 Toyota returned to the track 109 laps off of the pace.

Truex took the lead on Lap 155 and after pit stops, cycled back to the lead to win Stage 2 on Lap 231—his third stage win of the season. He held serve to start the third stage but the action was slowed by two quick cautions. Cody Ware was collateral damage following contact between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones on Lap 246. Ware hit the Turn 2 wall to draw the fourth caution.

The race returned to green on Lap 253, but five laps later, Ty Dillon bounced into Cole Custer, who collected Austin Cindric.

"I have no idea what happened to deserve that,” said Cindric, who was running 14th at the time.

Truex led the lead lap cars to pit road on Lap 259 but Byron, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon remained on the track for position. Joey Logano, who had been running second behind Truex prior to the fifth and final caution, dropped to 18th after a jack post broke during his pit stop.

The race returned to green on Lap 264 with Truex running fourth. In three laps, Truex was second and closing in on Byron. Hamlin, who had restarted ninth, cruised up to third by Lap 277. Thirty laps later, the first round of green-flag stops began with Harvick and Chase Elliott ducking off the track. Hamlin and Bell came one lap later followed by Byron from the lead on Lap 310.

Truex returned to the lead and set a mark of leading at least 80 laps in seven of the last eight Richmond races. He pitted on Lap 323—his final stop—and turned the lead over to Byron with Hamlin running second.

With less than 50 laps remaining, NASCAR black-flagged Kyle Busch for having tape on his grille. Busch was running sixth when he pitted on Lap 351 to remove the tape. Hamlin pitted three laps later.

Meanwhile, Byron held a five-second lead over Truex, who was closing in on the No. 24. With 13-lap newer tires, Truex cut Byron’s advantage to under a second with 20 laps remaining but Hamlin was on the move.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s part of it,” Truex said. “It’s part of the whole day. We did good there for a while. James (Small, crew chief) did a great job all day with the strategy—getting us up-front, getting us the lead. Our Auto-Owners Camry TRD was super-fast out front. Super-fast in clean air. At the end there, I think we just tried to gamble on beating the 24 (William Bryon) and then he ended up doing our strategy and we both screwed up.”

Hamlin passed Truex with six laps remaining and took the lead from Byron one lap later.

“I just rely on the crew chief (Chris Gabehart) and his information to me says we are going to be racing this guy and this guy,” Hamlin said. “As long as you run this pace and do everything you can in traffic, you’ve got a great shot to win. I don’t pay attention to where we were or anything. He told me where the leaders were. I just drove the car as smooth as I could.”

Hamlin earned his 47th career Cup win on Sunday and tied Buck Baker for 17th on the all-time win list.

Blaney moved into the points lead. He and Chase Elliott both have 241 points.