Kyle Larson had to battle his way to a win in the Toyota Owners 400 at the short track of Richmond Raceway Sunday (4/2). However, it wasn’t the short track battle you would typically think of.
When you hear battle and short track used in the same sentence about a NASCAR race, most think of beatin’ and bangin’. That was not really the case at Richmond. There were some accidents. IN fact there were eight caution periods during the race. Three were for the competition caution and the ends of stages one and two. William Byron was the winner of stage one and led the most laps in the race at 117 laps out front. Denny Hamlin was the winner of stage two.
Kyle Larson led the second most laps in the race with 93 circuits out front. He and William Byron were the class of the field all afternoon. Kyle had a small incident during pit stops that could have ended his chances. Luckily the damage was minor and the team was able to adjust for any affects it had on the handling of the car.
As the race was winding down the final caution flag waived for an incident that involved Kyle’s stiffest competition for the win. When the race re-started Kyle was able to get out front and remain there to claim his first win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was his second win at Richmond and 20th career win in NASCAR’s top division.
Josh Berry (who is filling in for Chase Elliott in the #9 car) finished in second-place. Ross Chastain took home the third-place finish. See the complete race results for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway here.
Following the race at Richmond, Alex Bowman sits in the top spot in the point standings. Ross Chastain is in second with Christopher Bell in third. See the complete NASCAR Cup Series Point Standings here.
The “Short Track Swing” continues this week as NASCAR goes Dirt Trackin’ at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City Dirt Race Sunday evening, April 9th.
By: Buck Stevens
