Denny Hamlin wins at Richmond, wins 1st race of 2022 season (4-3-22)
By: Becca Cottingham
Headline Photo Courtesy: NASCAR Twitter Page
We head to Richmond Raceway for a beautiful day for an afternoon of short-track racing. This is the first of the three-race stint of short-track racing. The sun is shining and there is a slight gust in the air that will help make the track slick for drivers. Ryan Blaney will lead us to green and will keep the lead through the first caution for Kurt Busch who seems to have a fuel pressure issue on his car. Since it is a mechanical issue he has unlimited time to fix the issue but it will make it hard for him to get back to win this race. With the caution that Kyle Busch brings out some of the drivers did decide to hit pit road and make needed adjustments. Kyle Larson led several drivers down pit road for adjustments. Other drivers opted to stay out such as Chase Briscoe and he has fallen back through the field instead of moving forward. Ryan Blaney instead has continued to lap the field and lead the entire field. He will go on to lead all of stage one and win stage one at Richmond.
We prepare for stage two with two big penalties for Alex Bowman pitting outside of the box. As well as Cody Ware for man over the wall too early which sent both drivers to the rear of the field. Ryan Blaney will bring us to the green flag for stage two. We will see green flag pit stops and based on the way things are looking Martin Truex Jr will take over the lead. Martin will maintain the lead for a while, but once drivers start with the top two strategies in this stage Christopher Bell will take the lead back over. However, later in the stage, Martin Truex Jr will use a three-wide move and another drive as a pick to get around Christopher Bell for the lead position. There also are tempers flaring between Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastin. They have made contact. Martin Truex Jr will keep his lead and win stage two.
We start stage three with four-wide racing. Drivers are trying to make moves early. That is until Cody Ware had an issue and also got part of another driver. Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse also had an on-track accident as well for that same caution. We get back to green flag racing and Ty Dillion hits the wall hard. He will make the first trip to the infield care center to be checked. He will be checked and released. William Byron is currently leading the race and will do so through the green flag pit stops. It will all depend on how green flag pit stops work out. As Martin Truex Jr is on a different pit schedule than other drivers as they did something different in stage two. Kyle Busch gets the black flag due to the tape being on the incorrect area on the car. It was on the front of the grill section and not on the broken duct as they wanted. Tape is not allowed on the front of the grill section of the vehicle which is just about four inches apart. This was an extremely costly mistake for the team. It also caused a lot of other teams to come down pit road. With all of this confusion, we only have less than thirty laps to go. Denny Hamlin appears to be on the move with William Byron still leading the group. Martin Truex Jr is trying to make moves as he is trying to get to the lead to win another Richmond race. Denny Hamlin is looking determined and by the sounds of the radio, they want to break the streak. He makes his way past Martin Truex Jr. Denny Hamlin will get the unofficial hometown win at Richmond.
