Posted April 2, 2023 by Jonathan Fjeld Cup

‘Kyle Larson Bags First NASCAR Cup Series Win of 2023

Kyle Larson led a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2 finish and earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win of 2023 in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Larson beat teammate Josh Berry to earn his first Cup Series win since Watkins Glen last year.

During a pit stop on lap 375, Larson took the lead from fellow teammate William Byron and held on. He beat Berry for his 20th Cup Series win and second win at Richmond.

“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,” Larson said. “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.”

In second, Josh Berry earned his best Cup Series finish through five races filling in for Chase Elliott.

“This is really cool. I gotta give credit to the team. They made great calls, I’m so glad we tried something different. We had a good car and ran decently but just needed clean air,” Berry said. “What a huge day. To have no practice or qualifying, then get spun out [on lap 96] and finish like this, is great.”

Top 10 finishers are as follows: Larson, Berry, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Brad Keselowski

The rest of the top 20 is as follows: Martin Truex Jr., Chase Briscoe, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland, Tyler Reddick, Chandler Smith (debut), Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin

There were eight cautions for 54 laps.

J.J. Yeley hit the wall after Denny Hamlin bumped him in in turn one on lap 46. Ryan Blaney spun Josh Berry in turn four on lap 96.

Two incidents occurred in turn two. On lap 307, Noah Gragson wrecked and, on lap 373, Tyler Reddick spun.

Reddick’s spin set up a restart where Christopher Bell bumped William Byron, who spun and wrecked in turn one on lap 381.

Byron led a race-high 117 laps but finished 24th.

There was a competition caution on lap 32 and stage cautions on laps 72 and 232.

11 drivers swapped the lead 22 times. The leaders were as follows: