Denny Hamlin Uses Strategy to Take Richmond

A chess move led to Denny Hamlin picking up the win at Richmond.

Strategy gave Hamlin a late race advantage as he was able to overtake William Byron and Martin Truex Jr. Hamlin was able to pass Byron with four laps to go and pick up his first win of 2022. Not only his first win of the year but the first top ten this year. Kevin Harvick placed second using a similar strategy. Byron, Truex and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

It was the fourth win for Hamlin at Richmond Raceway. It’s also the Virginia driver’s home track and able to pick up the win.

Parked it. 1️⃣1️⃣🏁 pic.twitter.com/lxfR2JgEjd

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 3, 2022

Toyota Owners 400

Ryan Blaney led the way early but was never able to rebound back up front. He would finish seventh.

Stage 1 went the way of Blaney as he led the whole thing. Only one caution in the first 60 laps as Kurt Busch had a fuel pump failure in his 23XI Racing Toyota. Busch brought out the caution on lap 10 of the race. On the restart, Blaney took off and never looked back as the rest went green.

In the ensuing pit stops it was Blaney leading them off pit road. Chastain and Elliott came off pit road closely behind.

Truex started green flag pit stops as the majority of the teams looked to split stage 2. That called paid off as things cycled out, he would assume the lead and Blaney wound up second for the time being. Christopher Bell along with a handful of others tried to single pit the stage. Bell didn’t come down pit road until there were 76 laps left in the stage.

The single stop during the stage didn’t work out for Bell as he surrendered the lead with 20 to go in the stage to Truex. Truex would run away on the fresher tires for his fifth career stage win at Richmond. Crew chief James Small made the call to bring Truex in early and it pays off for the stage win.

Strategy Takes Over

No cautions in stage 2 as it goes green to green with three rounds of green flag stops. With the lack of cautions brought more strategy into the race and forces the hand of the crew chiefs. During this stage there was not near as much chatter about brakes being an issue as they were in stage one. Meaning some positives to take away from the new car at the short track.

After having no cautions in the second stage and one natural caution in stage one, two cautions fell in a short amount of time to start the third stage. First it was Cody Ware spinning and making hard contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ware wasn’t able to continue. Then less than 10 laps later, Austin Cindric went for a spin after Ty Dillon and Cole Custer make contact. This sent Custer up into Cindric and around went the Team Penske #2.

These yellows were crucial because, Hamlin and Bell both had tire advantages because of the one stop strategy in stage two. However, the cautions evened the field back up and everyone was basically on the same strategy.

Reverse strategies took place late in the going. Truex and Blaney went with two stops in the second stage. During the final stage they decided to wait and go for the one stop strategy.

Late Race Charge

At the end of the day it came down to who could manage tires and would the two stop drivers catch the one stoppers. Hamlin was able to track down Byron after being 12 seconds back with 13 laps to go.

Wasting no time, Hamlin was able to get around Larson in third and then lap traffic helped Hamlin catch Truex. After passing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Hamlin tracked down Byron with 4 to go. Pulling Harvick behind him, Hamlin went around the Hendrick Motorsports driver and it was all out front.

Harvick tried to make a move on Hamlin in the final lap. However, he wouldn’t be able to get there. Hamlin took it across the stripe first and grabbed a win for the old guys as well. He becomes the seventh winner of the year in seven races.

A Toyota driver wins the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. The Nascar Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway next weekend for the first Saturday night race of the season.

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