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Race report

NASCAR Richmond: Clever tyre strategy earns Denny Hamlin win

Denny Hamlin used a clever pit strategy to run down leader William Byron on new tyres to clinch Toyota's first NASCAR Cup Series victory with the Next Gen car.

Watch: Denny Hamlin rallies at Richmond for first win of 2022

Teams split on running a one or two-stop pit strategy in the final stage of Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway, with William Byron and Martin Truex Jr opting for one stop in the 170-lap stage, while Hamlin and Harvick were among those using two stops.

Byron, on older tyres, managed to hang on to the lead for 71 laps but Hamlin – on fresher rubber – finally ran him down and passed him with four of 400 laps remaining. Hamlin then had to hold off Harvick to earn his first win of the 2022 season by 0.552s.

The win was also the first for Toyota with the Next Gen car and first for a Toyota driver since last October at Talladega Superspeedway.

The victory was much-needed for Hamlin, who had yet to score a top-10 finish this season and was 22nd in the series standings entering the race.

Hamlin and Harvick had pit under green for new tyres with less than 50 laps remaining while Byron’s final stop came with about 90 laps remaining.

“Just great strategy there and I just drove as hard as I could. Just so proud of this whole FedEx Camry team, man, just never giving up,” Hamlin said. “There was no doubt in my mind, maybe just a little, but they got this car right there towards the end. Wow, unbelievable.”

Asked about how the win could jump-start his season, Hamlin said, “We needed a data point, something, a good run to kind of balance ourselves on other tracks. Obviously, I think we got it here.”

Byron managed to hang on to finish third, Truex fourth and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top 10 were Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.

NASCAR Cup Richmond race resuts

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap
1 United States Denny Hamlin 400 3:04'43.169  
2 United States Kevin Harvick 400 3:04'43.721 0.552
3 United States William Byron 400 3:04'45.904 2.735
4 United States Martin Truex Jr. 400 3:04'46.430 3.261
5 United States Kyle Larson 400 3:04'48.724 5.555
6 United States Christopher Bell 400 3:04'48.914 5.745
7 United States Ryan Blaney 400 3:04'54.353 11.184
8 United States Alex Bowman 400 3:04'54.959 11.790
9 United States Kyle Busch 400 3:04'55.837 12.668
10 United States Austin Dillon 400 3:04'57.282 14.113
11 United States Chase Briscoe 400 3:04'58.796 15.627
12 United States Tyler Reddick 400 3:04'59.232 16.063
13 United States Brad Keselowski 400 3:05'03.694 20.525
14 United States Chase Elliott 400 3:05'04.203 21.034
15 United States Chris Buescher 400 3:05'04.896 21.727
16 Mexico Daniel Suarez 400 3:05'07.942 24.773
17 United States Joey Logano 399 3:04'44.024 1 Lap
18 United States Harrison Burton 399 3:04'46.620 1 Lap
19 United States Ross Chastain 399 3:04'54.021 1 Lap
20 United States Austin Cindric 399 3:04'55.388 1 Lap
21 United States Aric Almirola 398 3:04'43.961 2 Laps
22 United States Cole Custer 398 3:04'46.645 2 Laps
23 United States Erik Jones 398 3:04'54.252 2 Laps
24 United States Ty Dillon 398 3:05'02.965 2 Laps
25 United States Todd Gilliland 397 3:04'53.544 3 Laps
26 United States Bubba Wallace 397 3:05'04.004 3 Laps
27 United States A.J. Allmendinger 396 3:04'48.082 4 Laps
28 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 396 3:04'51.933 4 Laps
29 United States Justin Haley 396 3:04'56.461 4 Laps
30 United States Michael McDowell 395 3:04'47.681 5 Laps
31 United States Corey Lajoie 392 3:04'50.143 8 Laps
32 United States Landon Cassill 390 3:04'52.444 10 Laps
33 United States J.J. Yeley 390 3:05'05.081 10 Laps
34 United States B.J. McLeod 386 3:04'47.455 14 Laps
35 United States Kurt Busch 291 3:05'07.374 109 Laps
36 United States Cody Ware 241 1:55'37.275 159 Laps
37 United States Greg Biffle 96 48'55.476 304 Laps

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