After a spin by Tyler Reddick brought out a late caution, Kyle Larson capitalized with a quick pit stop to take the lead from William Byron and Martin Truex Jr., who had been side-by-side and set to battle for the win before the yellow flag came out. With those two out of the picture, Larson drove away from Josh Berry over the final laps to win the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond, his first win of 2023 and the 20th win of his Cup career.
Had circumstances played out just a little bit differently in two races this season, Kyle Larson could very well have already gone to Victory Lane in 2023. But sometimes, races that get away from a driver can end up coming back to them in other ways -- including by winning races in which circumstances put them in a position to take it from someone else.
In a race that played out in large part because of tire strategy, the pivotal moment came when Reddick's spin brought out the caution flag with 29 laps to go just as Byron and Truex were racing for the lead. The caution sunk Truex's chances to win, as was out of fresh sets of tires and stood little chance on scuffs, falling outside the top 10 to 11th at the finish. But it ended up bringing Josh Berry, who ran the last green flag run long on an alternate tire strategy to try and gain track position, into the mix.
Larson's pit crew would get him off pit road ahead of Berry, Byron and Truex, and Byron's chances of winning would come to an end when he got spun by Christopher Bell on a restart with 21 laps to go. After one more quick caution, Larson was able to drive away from Berry and off into the sunset, finishing the job after two missed opportunities for wins earlier this year at Las Vegas and Phoenix and also after mid-race contact with Daniel Suarez's car on pit road altered the handling of Larson's car for the worse.
"We've been close to winning a couple," Larson told Fox Sports. "William's been extremely good this year, and it was gonna be between probably him, the 19, us, and the 20 was really good. Just things worked out. My pit crew had a great stop ... I got into the 99 on pit road 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."
Larson's win was also the first Cup win for interim crew chief Kevin Meendering, who is filling in for Cliff Daniels as he continues to serve a four-race suspension for illegally modified hood louvers found in each Hendrick car at Phoenix.
Nothing about Hendrick Motorsports' No. 9 Chevrolet -- other than the NAPA paint scheme -- looks the way it's supposed to, as driver Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson are both indisposed due to a leg injury and a suspension respectively. In their stead, substitute driver Josh Berry and interim crew chief Tom Gray now lead the way, and both wound up putting the No. 9 in a familiar spot -- out front with a chance to win -- at the finish.
After running alternate strategies on long green flag runs throughout the day following an early-race spin, Gray elected to have Berry stay out for as long as he could on the last long run of the day in an effort to try and gain track position. Berry would lead 10 laps on that strategy, and he was running fourth when the caution came out for Reddick's spin, giving him incredible track position and an extra set of fresh tires to work with.
The strategy would end up getting Berry a second-place finish in just the sixth career Cup start for the 32-year old short track ace and Xfinity Series star.
"This is really cool," Berry told Fox Sports. "... When we got some clean track, we weren't running bad lap times. I'm so glad they tried something different there at the end to just get us up front, because I felt like we were decent the whole time.
"Just getting in cleaner air there, we were a little too free to run with Kyle. But man, what a huge day."
Only three years ago, it looked as though Berry had settled in as a driver who would be enormously successful in late model short track racing, but one who wouldn't get the opportunity to showcase his talent against NASCAR's best. But after he won the 2020 NASCAR Weekly Series championship, longtime advocate and car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Berry the chance to run a part-time Xfinity Series schedule in 2021, and he has since blossomed into a winning driver and championship contender at that level.
The only thing that would have made Berry's day bigger would have been a victory, something which hasn't been pulled off by a substitute driver in over 20 years. The last time a substitute driver won a Cup race was the fall of 2022 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, when Jamie McMurray won in just his second Cup start filling in for an injured Sterling Marlin.
The final incident of the day with 21 laps to go occurred when Christopher Bell got into the left rear fender of William Byron, spinning his car into the outside wall and out of a chance to win. But after the race, one of the seemingly-innocent bystanders in the affair was dragged into the picture.
Speaking to reporters on pit road, Christopher Bell blamed Ross Chastain for the accident, claiming that "the wrecking ball" had taken him three-wide late.
"The banzai came in and put us three-wide," Bell told reporters. "... He didn't do anything wrong, but that's just his M.O. I feel bad for the 24 because he obviously probably didn't get the memo that we were gonna be three-wide, because I barely got the memo that we were three-wide."
Bell's assessment was somewhat puzzling, as replay seemed to suggest that there was plenty of room between Bell and Chastain's cars and that Bell had been moving up on the entry to turn one when he and Byron came together. Chastain disputed Bell's assessment of the accident, pointing out that he never saw the 24 car nor made contact with anybody.
"He can say what he wants. Like other guys, he walks right by me and doesn't say anything to me," Chastain told reporters. "I don't think I touched anybody. I was just down there on my line. ... I mean, if he's gonna call me a wrecking ball, I just, I don't understand."
Bell would later apologize on Twitter, saying that he had much more room than he thought after watching a replay of the incident.
It's Dirt, Baby! The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the lone dirt race of the 2023 season, the Food City Dirt Race on Easter Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET on Fox.
Kyle Larson had two wins get away from him early in the season, but he's going to get one of them back! Kyle Larson wins the Toyota Owners 400 at RIchmond, his first victory of 2023!
1 - #5 - Kyle Larson
2 - #9 - Josh Berry
3 - #1 - Ross Chastain
4 - #20 - Christopher Bell
5 - #4 - Kevin Harvick
6 - #34 - Michael McDowell
7 - #22 - Joey Logano
8 - #48 - Alex Bowman
9 - #54 - Ty Gibbs (R)
10 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
Martin Truex Jr. is trying to hang onto a Top 10 finish. He just lost eighth and is under fire from Ty Gibbs for ninth.
Three to go for Kyle Larson.
The gap has stabilized between Larson and Berry, and it's even started to grow a little bit. The lead is up to about a second coming to five to go.
Martin Truex Jr. is getting swallowed up on scuffed tires. He's dropped back to sixth and is now under attack for that spot from McDowell and Bowman.
10 laps to go for Kyle Larson, whose lead continues to grow on Josh Berry.
A great restart by Josh Berry, but he wasn't able to get the drive off he needed to stay alongside Kyle Larson on the exit of Turn 2. Larson now opens up a couple carlengths on Berry.
Larson and Berry make the same choices at the choose zone that they did last restart. Larson to the inside and Berry to the outside.
Berry's chances here may come down to whether or not his tires have leveled off with everyone else's under caution. Restart comes with 14 laps to go.
That'll effectively end William Byron's chances of getting his third win of the year. This is what he said on the radio:
AROUND GOES WILLIAM BYRON! Christopher Bell tagged him in Turn 1 and sent Byron spinning into the outside wall. Caution is out again almost immediately.
Josh Berry will choose the outside line for this restart with Kyle Larson on the inside. 21 laps to go at the restart.
Remember: Three races yesterday between Richmond and Texas yesterday, three first-time winners. Josh Berry is trying to become the first first-time winner at Richmond since 2005, when Kasey Kahne -- in the No. 9 car -- got his first win.
Denny Hamlin was too fast exiting on pit road. That'll take him out of it for good this time.
Field comes to pit road. Six lap scuff tires going on Martin Truex's car. William Byron uses his last set of sticker tires.
Kyle Larson takes the lead as Josh Berry comes out second ahead of Truex and Byron.
Tyler Reddick was a lap down and got loose underneath Kevin Harvick as those two both tried to pass Michael McDowell on old tires.
That caution is exactly what Josh Berry and Michael McDowell wanted to see. Not only do they have better track position than they would have on a conventional strategy, but they also have an extra set of fresh tires now to work with -- As opposed to a number of the leaders who are now going to have to get scuffs.
