Denny Hamlin Wins, Grabs 10th Career Win at Richmond (3-31-24)

By: Becca Cottingham Quimby

Headline Photo Credit: USA Today

We head to Richmond Raceway for a race under the lights. There has been some rain in the area with rain on and off most of the afternoon and even just before the race. Crews put wet weather tires on the cars just before the start of the race. This should lead to a great race for all to enjoy as we are truly getting a demonstration of what wet weather tires can do. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott will lead us to the green flag and Chase Elliott will take over the lead quickly. Drivers quickly go three and even four wide once they pass they get the green flag. Kyle Larson will find his proper grip and where his car works best and will move back to battle with his teammate Chase Elliott. They will battle and Kyle Larson will take the second spot. The fastest cars though are mid-pack and have presented some great racing. NASCAR does throw a non-competitive caution. Drivers will not lose spots as long as they get on and off pit road in the time that NASCAR gave them for the non-competitive stop. Wet weather tires that come off cars did not look horrible coming off the car. The cars are running faster caution laps while they are slicks. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace will bring us to green. Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson go to battle hard. Both Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace are not backing down on who is going to take this lead. Alex Bowman is sitting in third watching this battle hoping to take advantage of a mishap between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace. Daniel Suarez will bring out the first caution for cause of the night as he and Josh Berry appear to make some contact. Daniel Suarez did a great job keeping it from hitting any walls but he will need some new tires. Josh Berry was on a run and had just truly broken into the top ten after starting thirty. With this caution, we will end under caution with Kyle Larson winning stage one.

We head into stage two and Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace go back to the battle they had from stage one. Daniel Suarez has already said from the caution he would remember the move that Berry made in stage two. Josh Berry has used his fender again to get around Alex Bowman. This is along with Martin Truex Jr who has made his way up to second after starting seventh this evening. We see early entries down the pit road with Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, and several others. This is going to probably be putting Kyle Larson in a position in a spot to come down with everyone else or make only one stop during stage two. We get the last seven drivers to go through green flag pit stops. Kyle Larson’s team was able to get him on and off and keep him on the lead lap. We then have Todd Gilliland get a little wiggly and he swipes the wall. Kyle Busch will bring out the next caution for cause when he bounces off the wall. Cliff Daniels and multiple other crew chiefs had just brought their drivers down the pit road. This caution threw that off and he ended up coming back down pit road with everyone else. Multiple drivers were penalized on pit road this caution. We go back to racing after the caution and three wide races. There is beat and banging along with multiple drivers bouncing off of one another. Things settle down as much as they can as we reach the halfway point in case of any additional rain. Martin Truex Jr wins stage stage two.

We drop the green flag for the final stage. We have some reports of raindrops. We are all hoping that those raindrops stay away. Martin Truex Jr leads the way. While most of the battles go on behind him. We see battles for third and fourth and even additional places between them. With just over a hundred laps to go, we start seeing green flag pitstops for drivers. Everyone must be careful because a mistake will be costly. We see a second round of drivers hit with just over sixty to go. This does bring Martin Truex Jr back to the lead. All is well until we are near the end of the race. Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson both appear to get loose. They make contact and send Kyle Larson spinning. This will bring out a caution and send us into overtime. Multiple drivers hit the pit road. Denny Hamlin’s crew gets him out first with Martin Truex Jr second. Denny Hamlin brings us back to the green which may have been a little early. The two-lap shootout is nothing shy of drama. Denny Hamlin keeps the lead from Martin Truex Jr and takes the win.