‘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:
- William Byron, four times for 113 laps
- Kyle Larson, four times for 93 laps
- Denny Hamlin, three times for 71 laps
- Martin Truex Jr., twice for 56 laps
- Christopher Bell, three times for 26 laps
- Ross Chastain, 16 laps led
- Josh Berry, 10 laps led
- Alex Bowman, twice for 8 laps
- Kyle Busch, one lap led
- Bubba Wallace, one lap led
- Brad Keselowski, one lap led
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com