Kyle Larson Holds Off Josh Berry To Win Toyota Owners 400 (4-2-23)
Headline Photo Credit: Kristina Roulo-LMS Network
We head to Richmond for our first of three short-track racing tracks in a row. The drivers have had no practice and did not have qualifying due to the rain in the area most of the weekend. Alex Bowman will bring us to the green flag with Kyle Busch right beside him. Drivers will be racing hard for the first thirty laps on the tires so that they can get a good check on tire fall-off during the competition caution. William Byron will make his way around his teammate for the lead. We have drivers running at several different lines all over the track to try to find the best speed. Drivers will be wanting tires every chance they can get, but this will be the first chance for drivers to make the needed changes they need to make. Drivers will also have to make sure that they do not make mistakes on pit roads. We had a three-wide race out of the pits and it was close. Denny Hamlin will get hit with a penalty with too fast exiting. Todd Gilliland will also have a penalty for taking equipment interference. Ricky Stenhouse Jr is also having issues with a possible break line. Denny Hamlin made moves forward after his penalty and he slammed into the back of JJ Yeley. Brake shaking is already a complaint and we are only about sixty-sixty laps into the four-hundred-mile race. William Byron will keep the lead and will win the stage.
William Byron will bring us back to green right next to his teammate Kyle Larson. Ryan Blaney and AJ Allmendinger both had speeding penalties on pit road and had to go to the rear at the start of stage two. Ryan Blaney gets into the back of Josh Berry and sends him around to bring out the fourth caution of the day. It does not look like it was on purpose but Josh Berry was not able to get around the corner well. On this set of stops, we had both Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano make sure that at least one tire was secure on the car. Joey’s resulted in two stops due to them feeling they had a loose wheel, but it was better for them to catch it early than for it to come off during the race. We get back to racing and William Byron will keep the lead for a good portion until Kyle Larson was able to get around him. We have issues on pit road once again with Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson making contact on pit road. Ryan Blaney then gets a penalty for taking equipment out of the pit box. William Byron passes his teammate Kyle Larson due to Kyle radioing something is happening with his car. They believe the issue on Kyle Larson’s car is where he made contact with Daniel Suarez on pit road. William Byron then gets in a battle with Christopher Bell. They all went three wide with Harrison Burton and Christopher Bell was able to make the pass. William Byron did radio into his team his frustration with Harrison Burton and his blocking during the battle with Christopher Bell. It was not long before Denny Hamlin was able to move up and take over second place. He then went to battle his teammate Christopher Bell to try to win stage two. On a last-minute pass, Denny Hamlin got around Christopher Bell for the stage two win.
Denny Hamlin will get out first after pit stops to start stage two. The back of the field is three wide on the restart trying to make passes early. Drivers will probably make two or three pit stops in this final stage. Bubba Wallace and multiple drivers are still complaining about brake shake. Every team has tried their best to do what they could to help the brake shake with tape over the front of the car. We see teams start coming in just before lap two hundred eighty-nine. Denny Hamlin had an issue on pit road with a right front tire not being tight. So they had to re-jack up the car and get that tire tight. The gun was going backward for the right front tire. Bubba Wallace’s team then got a safety violation on their pit stop. As a crewman went to grab a tire that was not going in the right direction. When that happened he did not have a helmet and this called for a safety violation. Noah Gragson hits the wall and brings out the caution. This hit may end Noah Gragson’s day. Then Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell make contact on the pit road. Martin Truex Jr got a great jump on the restart once they went back to racing. Martin Truex Jr is down to the end of his sticker tires already. This could hurt the team if we get a late caution. We see another round of pit stops and overall everything seems to be going in the team’s direction. That is until Tyler Reddick spins and brings out the caution. When the caution came out, NASCAR ruled William Byron the leader and not Martin Truex Jr. Denny Hamlin who had previously asked his team to give him three spots due to a bad pit stop getting caught speeding on pit road. We get back to racing and Christopher Bell makes contact with William Byron and sends William into the wall. This will end William’s day after he has led the last at Richmond today. Kyle Larson and Josh Berry will bring us back to green with fourteen to go. Kyle Larson gets a great start and secures the lead. At one point he has almost an eleven-second lead over Josh Berry. Kyle Larson will become our unofficial winner while Josh Berry comes home second.
