With no practice or qualifying on the cars the Toyota Owners went green with an immediate challenge from Kyle Busch for the lead over pole sitter Alex Bowman. Busch would take the lead on the first laps but handling in the car would allow a handful of cars to get around the No. 8 machine.
This would allow Byron first to get around Busch then setting his sights on race leader Bowman while using the higher line Byron would make his way around for the lead on lap 10 leading until the NASCAR competition caution on lap 30.
With major complaints from just about every driver with handling issues the race off pit road would be won, just barely, by Ross Chastain over Byron and Bowman.
Caution would once again fly for the second time of the day when Hamlin would get into the rear of Yeley car heading into turn one sending Yeley around before backing the car into the wall, mostly saving it before driving off.
On the restart Byron would charge from the third spot bouncing off Chastain momentarily allowing Larson to get around then gathering it back up to take the lead once again.
Stage one would stay green all the way to the end with William Byron taking home the first stage win of the day and fifth of the season over Larson, Chastain Harvick and Logano to round out the top-five.
While closing in on 100 laps completed Blaney and Berry would get together when Blaney would run up on Berry getting into the bumper to send him spinning off turn four.
Byron’s lead following the green flag would slowly begin to diminish after a strong run in the first laps of the stage with Larson inching closer, Larson would eventually take the lead away from Byron with 124 completed.
With green flag stops underway race leader Larson would make his way onto pit road only to tangle with Daniel Suarez on the exit.
As halfway would draw near, Larson lead would begin to slip away until William Byron would once again set his sights on the leader, finally taking it away on lap 197. However, 10 laps later with Bell making moves to get around Larson would run down Byron for the lead.
Stage two would go the remaining 130 laps under green with Hamlin making moves to use lap traffic to get around Truex and Byron trying to run down his team mate for the lead. Ultimately, Hamlin would run down his team mate to take over the lead and take the stage two win over Bell, Byron, Truex and Chastain.
The final stage would continue green as teams would begin to make their way to pit road with just over 100 laps remaining. Hamlin who had been leading would come to pit road leaving after a very slow stop due to a loose lug on one of the wheels. Hamlin would go from leading the race to 12th once pit stops cycled through.
With just under 100 laps remaining Noah Gragson would get into the wall off turn four to bring out the sixth caution of the day. Gragson would end up bringing his car to pit road before being waved off and sent to the garage due to damage ending his day.
The final stage would continue under green as everyone would make final stops of the day when Bell would attempt to go off sequence as the leader losing almost eight seconds over Byron who would come out and cycle back to the lead with 33 to go
Caution would come out once again with under 30 to go as Tyler Reddick would go for a single car spin just as the race for the lead was heating up between Byron and Truex.
Teams would head to pit road for their final sets of tires but it would be Larson leading the field off pit road with Byron losing three spots due to a slow stop. Hamlin meanwhile would get tagged for the second pit road speeding penalty of the day.
As the green flag would come back out it would be short lived as Bell would get into the rear of Byron sending him spinning up into the wall in turn one for the eighth caution of the day.
The final green flag of the day would come out with 14 to go as Larson would clear away from teammate Josh Berry clearing the path to the checkered flag to take home the win in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway over Berry, Chastain, Bell and Harvick to round out the top-five finishers.
“We’ve been close to winning a couple. William has been extremely good this year. It was going to be between probably him, the 19, us, and the 20 was really good.” Said Larson
“What an awesome Hendrickcars.com Chevy. Can’t say enough about it. I got into the 99 on pit road there sometime in the second stage, and we were awful after that. I was hoping the damage was the reason why, but they had to calm me down a little bit and get refocused and was able to get it done.” Continued Larson
The NASCAR Cup Series moves onto Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bristol Dirt Race Sunday, April 9th at 7 p.m. ET on FOX.
