NASCAR: Larson wins Richmond Cup race

A battle not only between drivers but between teams was the go-to staple at Richmond Raceway Sunday afternoon, with Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing setting the pace with the majority — if not all — of their lineups finding lengthy lap times inside the top 10 and top five. However, it was Kyle Larson in the No. 5 Chevrolet who prevailed over the rest after a mix of speed, pit-road execution and prowess on restarts helped net him the win.

Larson, in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, took the lead for good with 21 laps to go to earn his first NCS victory of the season and the 20th of his career.

Josh Berry, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.  It was a Chevy 1-2-3.

It was business as usual through the early going for Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway winner William Byron, who led 50 of the race’s opening 75 laps en route to his fifth Stage win of the season. Hendrick Motorsports’ strong day at the track continued even after the No. 24 Chevrolet no longer called the top position home after a resurgent Larson took the lead on Lap 124.

The Joe Gibbs Toyotas led by Bell and Denny Hamlin passed both and eventually found the latter atop the field to close out Stage 2. The stage win was Hamlin’s first of the season.

The final stage continued the theme of JGR dominance, with Truex settling atop the field on Lap 309 and maintaining it until a battle with Byron eventually saw the latter prevail on Lap 367. However, a Byron spin with 21 to go eventually saw Larson captain the Hendrick car to Victory Lane after finding enough speed over the race’s final 25 laps.

Following contact on pit road that sent him back in the field during the second stage, Larson moved back into the top-five on Lap 283 and kept coming forward until he controlled the field for the final 13 green-flag laps and took the checkered flag.

WINNER – LARSON QUOTES

It’s really cool. We’ve been close to winning a couple. William has been extremely good this year. It was going to be between probably him, the 19, us, and the 20 was really good.

So just things worked out. My pit crew had a great stop. So shout out to Brandon Johnson. He is our jackman. He just turned 30 today. Our spotter, Tyler Monn, he turned 30 today. Great day for them guys.

What an awesome Hendrickcars.com Chevy. Can’t say enough about it. I got into the 99 on pit road there sometime in the second stage, and we were awful after that. I was hoping the damage was the reason why, but they had to calm me down a little bit and get refocused and was able to get it done.

Thanks to everyone on this team, Cliff Daniels, for everything he does to prepare the team to be as strong as we are without him on the box. So good to get a win, and hopefully many more.

2ND PLACE JOSH BERRY (Subbing for Chase Elliott) QUOTES 

Man, this is really cool. I have to give all the credit to this NAPA team. Tom, Alan remotely, of course, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They made some great calls.

When we got some clean track, we weren’t running bad lap times. I’m so glad they tried something different to get us there at the end. Felt like we were decent the whole time. Just getting in cleaner air. We were free to run with Kyle. Man, what a huge day.

You know, to come here and start in the back, no practice, qualifying, get spun out, work through the field like that, just second place, it’s pretty cool.

Race Results