Kyle Larson Wins At Martinsville, Grabs 2nd Win Of The Year (4-16-23)

By: Becca Cottingham Quimby

Headline Photo Credit: USA Today

We will finish the short track racing weekends at Martinsville Speedway. It is a cloudy day with a chance of rain at any point. This will lead to drivers driving with passion from the start of the race. Ryan Preece and Daniel Suarez bring us to the green and they go battling up front for the lead. Ryan will get around Daniel and maintain the overall lead. While behind them we see some drivers going three wide. Harrison Burton and Ross Chastain have made contact several times already. The front three cars have made a decent break away from the next group of cars of Martin Truex Jr and Tyler Reddick. In less than thirty laps, Ryan Preece has caught the tail end of the lead lap and has started putting drivers down a lap. With Ryan coming up on traffic this is allowing Daniel and Aric to catch up to him. For most of this stage we have stayed single file with an occasional two wide to pass another driver. Joey Logano who used to race with Ryan did not put up much of a fight when Ryan went to put him a lap down. He does come up on Ross Chastain to put him a lap down and he makes it a little more difficult. Ross Chastain will just stay on the lead lap during stage one. Ryan Preece led all laps of this first stage and will go on to win the first stage.

As we head to stage two it will be important for drivers and crews to not make mistakes on pit road. This is one of the smallest pit roads we deal with and has a pit road speed of only thirty miles per hour with that five-mile-per-hour buffer. Ryan Preece will win the race off-pit road. However, we had multiple pit road penalties: Kyle Busch with Pit interference and Zane Smith with speeding on pit road. Chris Buescher also obtained a pit road penalty for equipment interference on this stop. All three will go to the rear to start stage two. Ryan will get another great start and will keep the lead. Most everyone else behind him will be two wide for the first several laps. The front group will start getting in a single file line. Teammates are right behind one another as Aric Almirola got around Daniel Suarez for second place. Harrison Burton will bring out the first actual caution for cause as he goes around. It looks like possible contact with Erik Jones. All the leaders go into pit road and the race off pit road is three wide. It comes down to the camera view of who will be the leader. Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, and Martin Truex Jr all had speeding penalties on this round of stops. This will send them all to the back of the field. This will probably end Ryan’s reign on leading this race. Ross Chastain did decide to stay out. This will allow once again teammates to be right up front together. Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez will start one and two. However, Aric will passes Daniel but not for long as Daniel will fight back for his fight for his position back. Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick will also back some contact. Most drivers in the middle of the pack are two and sometimes three wide racing into the turns. Kevin Harvick will make a move and get around Ross Chastain after he did not pit for tires. Ross has fallen backward with Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick moving forward. Kevin Harvick will hold the lead and will stage two.

Chase Briscoe will win the race off of pit road just in front of his teammate Kevin Harvick. Chase Briscoe, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin have completed a large break away from the rest of the group. This has allowed them to catch the tail end of the cars to once again start placing cars a lap down. The first cars up will be both Rick Ware cars of Zane Smith and JJ Yeley. Then Anthony Alfredo and Harrison Burton. We do see some contact with Bubba Wallace and Austin Dillion. Denny Hamlin gets around Kevin Harvick and then goes to work on Chase Briscoe. Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were neck and neck. Denny does get around him. Kyle Busch repays a driver who made contact with him. We start to see green flag pit stops just before lap three hundred. Drivers and crews cannot make any mistakes on this stop. AJ Allmendinger will be the first to get hit with a speeding penalty and has to do a pass-through penalty. Anthony Alfredo loses a tire coming out of turn four and that will be a huge penalty for the seventy-eight team. Anthony is also being held in his pit for some number of laps as well. Erik Jones was penalized for improper fueling. This means the fueler did something more than fuel or direct the tire with his foot. JJ Yeley hard into the wall of turn three with what looks like a possible blown tire, the teams have roughly fifty-five laps to go. Kevin Harvick came in for two tires and returned to the track to have a tire go flat on him. This forces him back to pit row for an extra pit stop he did not need. He was running very well. We get back to green as multiple drivers decided to stay out on the track and not take any tires. Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson took two. Denny Hamlin starts trying to make passed and gets around Aric Almirola to grab second place. All the while Kyle Larson is steadily moving forward on the front group. Kyle Larson will catch up to Denny Hamlin and will cleanly get by him for second and next up will be the leader Joey Logano. Joey has been all over the track today. So taking the lead from him will not be easy. The fans are truly getting a show now as both Joey Logano and Kyle Larson battle it out for the lead. Kyle Larson makes a move to get around him and Joey slams the door shut. There are multiple dive bomb attempts by Kyle Larson to get around Joey Logano. With just under thirty laps to go Kyle Larson will get the edge in turns one and two and clear Joey Logano. From there Kyle Larson takes off. He puts a large gap between himself and the rest of the team. All the while Chase Elliott breaks the top ten for the first time today. Martinsville is known for a late caution and Kyle Larson is hoping we do not get one today. We have some bumping and banging behind Kyle Larson but everyone keeps it clean through the remaining laps and Kyle Larson will become the unofficial winner of Martinsville.