NASCAR Cup Martinsville: Larson wins after late pass on Logano

Passing was at a premium in Sunday’s race and Larson struggled to run mid-pack most of the day, but he moved into the top-five by staying out when most others pit for a caution on Lap 305 of 400.

While under another caution on Lap 343, Larson pit but took on only two new tyres and lined up fifth on a restart behind four other drivers who had remained on the track.

With 29 laps remaining, after a duel with leader Joey Logano, Larson emerged with the lead and never looked back, driving away to pick up the win by 4.142 seconds.

The victory is the second this season for Larson, 21st of his career and first at Martinsville, which was an enormous shock to the 2021 series champion, who said the circuit does not suit his driving style.

Logano held off Martin Truex Jr. at the line to hold on to second place, Denny Hamlin was fourth and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott, who was making his first start after missing six races with a broken tibia in his left leg.

Polesitter Ryan Preece dominated Stage 1, leading all 80 laps on his way to win the first section of the race, ahead of Almirola.

Joey Logano, Team Penske, Verizon 5G Ford Mustang

Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images

Taking an early command of the race, he held a 1.5s lead over Daniel Suarez after 25 laps.

With 21 laps remaining, Preece put reigning series champion Joey Logano a lap down, with the No. 22 Ford driver having started from the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his car prior to the race.

Stage 2 saw Kevin Harvick’s four-tyre pit call finally kick in, and he ran down Ross Chastain for the lead to take his first stage victory since the 2020 season.

Preece led Suarez into the stage on the lap 92 restart, before a caution 40 laps later as Harrison Burton spun around off Turn 2 after contact from Erik Jones and came to a stop on the track.

All the lead-lap cars pit with Preece again first off pit road but he, Truex and Wallace were all penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

The race returned to green on Lap 143 with Chastain – who stayed out – in the lead followed by Suarez and Almirola as Preece lined up 30th.

With 20 laps remaining, Chastain remained out front on old tyres while Todd Gilliand ran second (he took only two new tyres) and Harvick – who took four tyres on his stop – ran third.

Race winner Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images

On lap 167, Harvick ran down both Gilliland and Chastain to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with Briscoe edging Harvick off pit road before the latter was passed by Hamlin on lap 247.

After several laps of a side-by-side battle, Hamlin finally got to the inside of Briscoe and was able to clear him for the lead 10 laps later.

Blaney and Alex Bowman were the first to hit pit road on lap 298 to kick off a final round of green flag pit stops to take on new tyres and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

On lap 303, a tyre came off Anthony Alfredo’s No. 78 Chevrolet and came to a stop on Turn 4 which brought out the fourth caution of the race.

Most of the lead-lap cars pit with Harvick first off pit road. Briscoe remained on the track and inherited the lead. He led the way on the restart on lap 313 followed by Larson, Tyler Reddick and Harvick.

J.J. Yeley hit the wall in Turn 3 on lap 343 to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

Most lead-lap cars pit but several stayed on the track including Logano, who inherited the lead.

On the restart on lap 355, Logano was followed by Almirola, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Larson, who took on only two tyres.

With 29 laps to go, Larson finally got to the inside of Logano and was able to clear him off Turn 2 to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Full NASCAR Cup Martinsville race results:

Cla	Driver		Manufacturer	Gap	Interval
1	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet
2	Joey Logano		Ford	4.142	4.142
3	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	4.273	0.131
4	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	5.585	1.312
5	Chase Briscoe		Ford	6.281	0.696
6	Aric Almirola		Ford	6.902	0.621
7	Ryan Blaney		Ford	8.433	1.531
8	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Chevrolet	8.436	0.003
9	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	9.034	0.598
10	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	9.462	0.428
11	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	10.088	0.626
12	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	10.379	0.291
13	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	10.680	0.301
14	Chris Buescher		Ford	10.961	0.281
15	Ryan Preece		Ford	11.427	0.466
16	Christopher Bell		Toyota	11.874	0.447
17	Daniel Suarez		Chevrolet	13.862	1.988
18	Ty Gibbs		Toyota	14.600	0.738
19	Michael McDowell		Ford	14.665	0.065
20	Kevin Harvick		Ford	14.810	0.145
21	Kyle Busch		Chevrolet	15.660	0.850
22	Tyler Reddick		Toyota	18.288	2.628
23	William Byron		Chevrolet	18.715	0.427
24	Brad Keselowski		Ford	20.886	2.171
25	Todd Gilliland		Ford	1 Lap	1 Lap
26	Corey Lajoie		Chevrolet	1 Lap	9.037
27	A.J. Allmendinger		Chevrolet	1 Lap	6.853
28	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	2 Laps	1 Lap
29	Harrison Burton		Ford	2 Laps	1.212
30	Noah Gragson		Chevrolet	2 Laps	0.698
31	Erik Jones		Chevrolet	2 Laps	17.188
32	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	3 Laps	1 Lap
33	Austin Cindric		Ford	3 Laps	1.590
34	Zane Smith		Ford	5 Laps	2 Laps
35	Anthony Alfredo		Chevrolet	10 Laps	5 Laps
36	J.J. Yeley		Ford	63 Laps	53 Laps
View full results