Cole Custer set a dominating pace by leading the most laps and earning his second win of the 2019 season in Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Custer briefly lost the lead to Austin Cindric on a restart with 26 laps remaining, but would not be denied. He reclaimed the lead just seven laps later to win his first career short track race in the Xfinity Series, and also claim the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize.
“We had a great car,” Custer said. “Mike Shiplett made great adjustments as it went. This one means a lot. We hadn’t had a short-track win yet. We’ve struggled a lot at short tracks, but this helps.
“A lot of my friends give me crap for being bad at this place, but I finally won, so I’ve got a little bit of bragging rights there. I’m just so happy. Two wins—that’s pretty awesome.”
Cindric was playing the weather game as rain threatened the finish of the race, but wasn’t able to have mother nature on his side. With his runner-up finish, he qualifies himself for the next Dash 4 Cash race at Talladega Superspeedway. His primary sponsor, MoneyLion, will also be sponsoring that race.
“Congrats to Cole and those guys,” Cindric said. “I tried my best on that restart to hold him off, but they were obviously the class of the field, him and the 7 (Allgaier). We had some fun and got some points and now we will move on to Talladega for the MoneyLion 300.
“That will be a big one for me. I would love to win that race and the Dash for Cash at Talladega.”
Justin Allgaier finished third in his JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet. He led 86 laps throughout the night and won the first stage. Similar to Cindric, Allgaier was trying to have pit strategy fall in his favor, but by the time he charged to the front, he ran out of both car and time.
“The pit call we made at the end of the (second) stage there, it worked out, obviously, in our favor,” said Allgaier. “But I pushed really hard to get back up to the front, and I just didn’t quite have enough there at the end to really do anything.
“I made a mistake on that restart. It really burns me up that I made the mistake, but all in all, a great day. I hope we got the monkey off our back.”
Allgaier’s former teammate Tyler Reddick came home fourth with Ryan Sieg rounding out the top five. Zane Smith running in the No. 8 JR Motorsports car is running a limited schedule in the Xfinity Series, but continues to impress many with another strong sixth place finish at Richmond. John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, pole sitter Riley Herbst and Justin Haley completed the top 10.
Elliott Sadler finished in the 12th position at his home track after making the first of his two planned starts for the 2019 season.
All cars passed post-race tech, so Custer was declared the official winner. Reddick’s car was caught with one lug nut unsecure, so potential fines will be announced next week by the sanctioning body.
The season is now almost a third over and so much has happened. Attendance is up at some tracks and way down at others. The new stages concept has given us better racing, but many are just staying away. Some of the gimmicks NASCAR has tried in order to generate interest have worked and some have not. It’s almost like a change a week. Tracks should hand out a new rule sheet for the fans. The casual fan, whose money is as good as the fanatical fan’s money, is the one who suffers, but I digress.
The sanctioning body announced recently that the Coca-Cola 600 would have an extra stage. It makes sense because there are an extra 100 miles on tap, but now there is talk of this happening at other tracks. You need that rule sheet. Add to that the yearly changes in the All-Star race and long-time fans as well as newcomers and casual fans shake their collective heads and look the other way. It’s almost as if NASCAR is trying to do something to bring back the glory days by using gimmicks. It’s either a sign of desperation or those at the top throwing mud at the wall in hopes that something sticks.
One example of this is the schedule changes for 2018. The first race of what is now known as the playoffs has always been at Chicagoland Speedway. Las Vegas Motor Speedway will now be the first playoff race. The track is another 1.5-mile oval many think we have too many of anyway. The Brickyard now is the final qualification race. Barnburner? Hardly. They made a good move by putting another short track in the final 10-race playoffs, but Richmond International Raceway rarely shows the competitive racing we see at the other two short tracks, Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
The final big change to hop up fan interest was to run Charlotte Motor Speedway’s fall race on the road course in the infield of the track. The combination of a road course using a bit of the oval track, something they like to call a ROVAL, is like the course at Daytona International Speedway which opens Speed weeks early in the year. It’s a novel idea, and fans now love road racing for some reason, but will it work? It could be a rousing success or a colossal failure. That’s where we are these days. Grasping at straws or throwing mud at the wall. We will know more in about 16 months.
The fans who followed the sport in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, are rapidly looking the other way in large numbers these days. Movement away from traditional tracks like Darlington, Atlanta, Rockingham, and North Wilkesboro turned a lot of those fans off. The Chase, now known as the playoffs, sent more away, and aero push finished them off. No number of radical ideas will bring them back. It’s a grand old sport still loved by many, but I hear a death rattle in the distance. Going back to the way it used to be probably won’t help that much, but the sins of the past, so to speak, have put the sport where it is.
After starting the race in the rear of the field because of a transmission change to the Team Penske No. 22 car on Saturday, Joey Logano found his way to the front and won Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway. This was Logano’s second career win at Richmond in his 300th career start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“Coming from the back, being the 300th start and pulling into victory lane, man that feels good,” said Logano. “I drove my guts out there. We ended up with the winning car, something I’m really proud of.”
Really Surprising
Jimmie Johnson made contact with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 56 laps remaining. Johnson’s team had to make extensive repairs to his race car and finished in 11th-place while Earnhardt Jr. finished 30th.
“I just have to try to figure out if I just didn’t hear it being told to me or if it wasn’t told to me. I just feel terrible, obviously. Man, I’m surprised our cars even kept rolling after that because I just body slammed him into the wall and I could have easily not heard the clear or something else happened. I don’t know, but that’s the last thing you want to have happen with a teammate,” Johnson said.
“He said he didn’t see us. He had pitted and got tires and we were out there running around the top and weren’t ready to pit yet. He said he didn’t get any notice that he had a car outside. He was coming to pass me. I was running the top right against the fence and really wasn’t watching the mirror, so I didn’t know he was there or anybody was coming,” Earnhardt commented about the contact.
Surprising
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with the outside wall early in the race but battled back to earn his second top-five finish of the season.
“Man, we had to fight hard for this top five. I made a mistake early. I thought we were capable of running in the top five a lot. I just got loose into 3 and got into the fence and had to play catch-up for there.”
Not Surprising
Virginia’s own Denny Hamlin led the field for 59 laps en route to his fourth top-10 finish of the season.
“We couldn’t beat the 2 (Keselowski) and 22 (Logano) straight up, so it’s different and you just keep coming in and pitting for tires to try to steal one even though we were a third-place car. The strategy got all mixed up there and we were luckily able to get back up there and finish where we should have.”
Surprising
Matt Kenseth captured his first pole of the season and the 19th of his Cup career, leading 164 laps and scoring his first stage win this season. A cut tire on lap 364 forced him to pit road for repairs and he went a lap down. Kenseth was the benefactor of the lucky dog and got his lap back, but finished in 23rd place.
Not Surprising
Jamie McMurray led the way for Team Chevy with a sixth-place finish.
“I didn’t have any problems. It was really a normal race. The cautions at the end helped us on one and hurt us on one. But overall it was a really good day.”
Surprising
Newman finished in seventh-place and captured his third top-10 this season.
“It was a good day for this No. 31 team. We got to lead laps and contend for the race win so that’s all I can really ask for. I’m just proud of how we were able to improve on our Okuma Chevrolet all weekend long.”
Not Surprising
Kyle Larson finished 14th but continues to lead the standings by 40 points over Martin Truex Jr. after the first nine races.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway at 2 p.m. ET on FOX.
RICHMOND, Va. — Yesterday at Richmond International Raceway marked the end of the first quarter to the new era of NASCAR, so I thought I’d give my take on how it’s turned out.
Brian France and the other dignitaries from today’s press conference join in a toast to welcome Monster Energy into the NASCAR fold. Photo: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
For all intents and purposes, the 2017 season really began on December 1, 2016 with the, at the time, worst kept secret in NASCAR. At the Wynn Las Vegas luxury hotel, in the midst of NASCAR’s Championship Week Banquet sendoff to exiting Cup Series sponsor Sprint, it was officially announced that Monster Energy would take over as the new entitlement sponsor of the Cup Series.
Monster Energy, a company that targets younger consumers and fans of extreme sports, was to say the least an odd choice. It made sense for NASCAR to want to bring aboard Monster Energy with the sport’s aging demographic. But it didn’t make sense, to me anyway, why Monster Energy had any interest in doing business with NASCAR, especially when the sport is in a decade-long television ratings decline. Yes I’m aware they’ve sponsored Kyle Busch in the XFINITY Series and Kurt Busch in the Cup Series, but sponsoring individual drivers with their own fanbases isn’t the same as sponsoring the sport in which they compete. The Busch brothers, being of a Generation-X age, draw a much different age group of fans than the sport itself.
However, I kind of had that question about Monster Energy’s motive answered by Mark Hall, chief marketing officer for the company, if they would go after the exiting, and markedly older NASCAR audience, compared to the consumers Monster Energy targets.
“There’s really — there’s two answers to that question,” Hall said. “Young people set trends in fashion, and then older people adapt, and I don’t want to say old. Fashion is set by a small group of influencers. The challenge is to make your product relevant to that group and then have them influence the others. If we’ve been successful in the past, we’ve followed that model. I think we have a lot of drinkers in the current NASCAR fan base. I think we can make the sport more interesting to some younger consumers, as well.”
NASCAR executive Steve O’Donnell and a selection of NASCAR personalities and NASCAR/ISC/SMI executives address the media during a press conference announcing new format “enhancements” to NASCAR’s three national touring series during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
The next major plot point of the 2017 season was at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 23, 2017 with the drinking word of the offseason, “enhancements.” NASCAR was crystal clear to use the word “enhancement(s)” in place of change(s) this time around.
At this point, we all know the “enhancements” included stage racing and giving winners of the race and stages points specifically that would be added to your total at the start of the Chase, oh I’m sorry, “playoffs.” Yeah that was also another “enhancement” for 2017, dropping the name “Chase” and using the generic “playoff” term instead. Playoffs were so radically different from the “Chase,” despite the fact virtually nothing was changed about the system formerly known as the “Chase,” that the name “Chase” no longer seemed warranted.
All this wording was totally naturally, and not a cynically manipulative ploy by the sanctioning body to make this lead balloon go over much easier.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – FEBRUARY 26: Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the 59th Annual DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
The third plot point of this story was on Sunday, February 26, 2017, the day of the 59th running of the Daytona 500.
The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s biggest race, held on it’s grandest stage, Daytona International Speedway. It’s the culmination of an offseason of work by all departments of the race shops located back in Charlotte (or Denver in the case of Furniture Row Racing), and the culmination of Speedweeks (from January (Rolex 24) to the Daytona 500).
The success, television-wise, sets the tone for the rest of the season more often than not with the ratings of the rest of the races to come.
The 2017 Daytona 500 was perhaps the most critically important race in the history of NASCAR. As I mentioned earlier, the sport is in the midst of a long slide in ratings, and I, as well as many other NASCAR writers, consider this season a make or break year for the future sustainability of the sport.
To make a long story short, this year’s Daytona 500 absolutely HAD to deliver at all costs.
So what were the results? It too soon to tell.
Let’s discuss the most important aspect of a race, the race itself. How did this year’s running of the Daytona 500 fare out with stage racing?
From start to finish, and I mean this with all sincerity, that was the most entertaining restrictor plate race I’ve watched in a long, long time.
The intensity was there, even for the lead, almost every single lap. It had the pack racing, drafting and carnage you’d expect from a race at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
Kurt Busch celebrates with his Stewart-Haas Racing crew after doing donuts through the infield grass of Daytona International Speedway in celebration of winning the 59th running of the Daytona 500. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Chase Elliott is on his way to his first career victory on the sport’s biggest stage when he runs out of gas. Martin Truex Jr. takes over the lead, and then he runs out of gas. Kyle Larson takes the lead coming to the white flag, and he runs out of gas.
Taking the lead exiting Turn 2 is Kurt Busch.
The story writes itself.
Busch, a driver who started his Cup Series career receiving the middle finger salute, courtesy of Dale Earnhardt, in the 2001 Daytona 500, two years ago, two days prior to the Daytona 500, was banned from NASCAR for alleged domestic abuse (of which no charges were pressed), one of the most talented drivers of the 2000’s takes the lead on the final lap of one of the most important races in NASCAR history and wins the Daytona 500.
This race alone was so great that any driver winning it would’ve made a great story, but the fact that it was won by a man who’s very life, both professional and personal, is worthy of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary feature, is the best part. As someone who’s watched Kurt his entire NASCAR career, as a race fan during the years he was king at Bristol Motor Speedway and as a member of the media, I take great joy in knowing I saw his entire story arc play out (on the NASCAR side).
But as happens every year, when Daytona ends, the grind of the season truly starts.
As a seasoned NASCAR observer, both as a fan and scribe, I know that Daytona, and plate racing, is its own animal.
But there was no denying that stage racing and playoff points made the racing more intense than usual, to the point where the usual problem of passing the lead car was not a major problem (also thanks to Brian France warning against drivers blocking in response to a fustercluck of an XFINITY Series race at Daytona the day prior).
So I thought if cars could pass with ease at Daytona where it’s hard as hell to pass for the lead, then we’re in for one hell of a race at Atlanta, where passing is much, much easier.
Well a few hours, I’d say two, after the Cup race, Jeff Gluck and I were “shooting the bull” about the race at the exit of pit road. We both thought stage racing was going to turn the intensity “up to 11,” like we saw at Daytona. We both agreed, however, that around halfway, the intensity wasn’t always going to be “up to 11.” It’s just going to be the same old product we’ve been getting, especially on the mile and a half’s.
Thus started the “some notable moments in an otherwise forgettable race” trend we’ve experienced outside the short tracks.
The first was the finish to Atlanta.
Gluck asked me what I thought of the race overall. I said,”It was average for Atlanta, and that was with the way it ended with (Kevin) Harvick’s speeding penalty. Take that out of the equation and Harvick wins this, I don’t think this race registers.”
“Oh agreed,” Gluck replied. “It’s basically Truex at Charlotte if Harvick wins this.”
Then came Las Vegas. Keselowski has a part failure and Truex wins, which is overshadowed by a, let’s call it, fight on pit road between Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, of which Gluck captured the best video.
Phoenix sees Ryan Newman snap a four-year winless drought with a decision to stay out in the final laps.
Fontana delivers Kyle Larson his second career victory and demonstrates he’s truly a threat to win the championship this season.
Martinsville hands down was not only the best race of the season, but also my favorite race to ever cover. You have cars making the outside groove at MARTINSVILLE of all places work, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bumping Kyle Busch out of the way to stay on the lead lap, allowing Chase Elliott to win the stage and a 10-lap duel for the win between Kyle and Brad Keselowski with less than 50 laps remaining that saw Keselowski win the race.
Texas showed us Jimmie Johnson is still arguably the greatest driver in NASCAR history and is going nowhere. It was also the breakout race for Ryan Blaney, who led 148 of 334 laps and won two stages, but finished 12th thanks to a bad pit stop.
Bristol, when I wasn’t getting soaked trying to get from my car in Lot E by the drag strip to the deadline room and press box, was a good race as Bristol always is, but not as great as everyone said. Either way, it was fun to watch the events that led to Johnson win yet again on a Monday afternoon in Tennessee.
Finally there was Richmond.
It was…good. Like Bristol, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was still a short track race that delivered excitement. In the end, it was Joey Logano who scored the checkered flag.
I said during the media tour that I would give some time to see how stage racing plays out. After one quarter of the season is complete, I love stage racing. But I’m not convinced it’s the direction that’ll resuscitate the ailing television ratings, especially when the ratings continue sliding down after eight races (Richmond’s rating wasn’t available when this was posted).
So how will it play out during the second quarter, we’ll just have to see.
RICHMOND, Va. — If Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck. Sunday at Richmond International Raceway was a microcosm of his abysmal final season to date.
Going into Richmond, Earnhardt’s season has included being taken out of the Daytona 500, while leading, in a multi-car wreck, finishing 30th at Atlanta, 16th at Las Vegas, 14th at Phoenix, 16th at Fontana, taken out in a late-race multi-car wreck at Martinsville, a fifth-place finish at Texas and wrecking out at Bristol.
Starting 12th, Earnhardt was running eighth at lap 72 when, under the second caution of the Toyota Owners 400, he was busted for speeding on pit road and restarted 26th.
He made it to second in the running order, thanks to a cycle of green flag pit stops as he had yet to pit, with 57 laps to go when teammate Jimmie Johnson, who was exiting pit road, slammed into him exiting Turn 2.
“He (Johnson) said he didn’t see us,” Earnhardt said. “He had pitted and got tires and we were out there running around the top and weren’t ready to pit yet. He said he didn’t get any notice that he had a car outside. He was coming to pass me. I was running the top right against the fence and really wasn’t watching the mirror, so I didn’t know he was there or anybody was coming. TJ (Majors, spotter) was giving me pretty good warning about guys getting on my inside, but otherwise when you are running the top you don’t have to worry about it everybody kind of takes care of you, but Jimmie (Johnson) didn’t know we were there. Came off the corner and didn’t know the car was there. It was an explosion, but the car held up pretty well.”
Eight laps after the ensuing restart, the left-rear tire on Earnhardt’s car gave out and he spun out in Turn 3. He brought his car home to a 30th-place finish. It’s his fifth finish of 30th or worse in nine races, amounting to a 24.4 finishing average on the season. He avoided his fourth DNF of the season running two laps down at the finish.
He leaves Richmond 24th in points, 257 behind points leader Kyle Larson.
RICHMOND, Va. — Joe Gibbs Racing experienced a mixed bag of results in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Matt Kenseth kicked off the race weekend by taking pole position. He lead from the start to the 164th circuit, winning the first stage, before losing the lead to Brad Keselowski and finishing runner-up in the second stage.
With 38 laps to go, however, he and Chase Elliott made contact in Turn 1, leading to his right-rear tire going flat.
He came home 23rd.
Kyle Busch ran a more “under the radar” race until the final stage. He made his way towards the lead for a lap and hung around the top-five, but was busted for a commitment line violation under the final caution of the race.
He finished 16th.
Daniel Suarez, who started 11th and rallied from a three-lap deficit to finish 12th, described his race as “okay.”
“The first half of the race it was very tough,” Suarez said. “In the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, it’s just so difficult. You get behind one or two adjustments and then you get a lap down or two laps down and it’s very difficult to recover that. Luckily we got a lot of cautions right there at the end and I was able to overcome those laps down that I was down. Very proud of the team. They never give up. They were working hard on the race to try to make it better. I just feel like we have to work hard in the first third – first half – of the race to try to stay with the rest of the guys.”
Denny Hamlin was the highlight of the mixed bag.
He put himself in position with finishes of fifth in the first stage and fourth in the second. He first took the lead briefly under the second stage caution break, but lost it to Keselowski on lap 228. He regained it under the fifth caution with 150 to go, thanks to exiting pit road first, and held it until he was edged out at the line by Keselowski with 113 to go.
Hamlin took the lead for the final time under the seventh caution and was passed by Keselowski on the restart with 39 to go.
He brought his car home to a third-place finish.
“We were competitive and our car drove really good,” Hamlin said. “We were just missing some of the speed from the 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the 22 (Joey Logano) – they run a little more sideways than what we run and just they have more grip. I think we optimized our day for the most part and that’s about as good as we could do.”
RICHMOND, Va. — The Furniture Row Racing duo went into Sunday’s race topping two of the three practice sessions, but finished at different ends of the spectrum when the checkered flag flew at Richmond International Raceway.
Erik Jones was squeezed into the outside wall by Kasey Kahne, a byproduct of three-wide racing on the opening lap of the Toyota Owners 400. It led to a left-front tire cut and slamming the wall in Turn 3 on the fifth lap, bringing out the first caution of the race.
“We got three-wide right on the start and then the 5 ran us up into the fence,” Jones said. “I was trying not to wreck everybody and then a couple laps later the GameStop Prey Toyota Camry cut a left-front tire. It’s just really a heartbreaking day. It’s not what we wanted, but we’ll just have to come back next week with another fast race car and try to run up front again.”
He earned his first last-place finish in his 12th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.
He leaves Richmond 16th in points, down four spots and 205 points back of Kyle Larson.
It was an across the board day for teammate Martin Truex Jr. with a third-place finish in the first stage and disappearing from the top-10 at the end of the second.
His drive back to the top-10 almost took a fatal blow under the eighth caution with 39 laps to go when he was busted for a commitment line violation, one of six drivers busted for so during the race, and restarted 25th.
But he opted not to pit during the final caution and restarted fourth. On old tires, he salvaged a 10th-place finish.
“We just didn’t have it today, too many issues with rear grip,” explained Truex. “We were good in the beginning but couldn’t get the rear grip issue resolved with our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota. Just one of those days where you battle all day and hope to get a top-10 and we barely did that. We have some work to do for next time we come here.”
Truex’s third-place in the first stage and 10th overall finish moves him up to second in points, just 40 behind Larson.
RICHMOND, Va. — When the day started, Ryan Blaney was second in the running order. When it ended, he was behind the wall.
Blaney qualified second for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway, but dropped like a rock after the first restart of the race on lap 12.
The day went from lousy to awful for Blaney with 22 laps to go. Going down the backstretch, Chase Elliott made contact with Kurt Busch above him, sending him into Blaney. Busch’s contact with him cut down his left-rear tire. He tried to hold onto it, but lost control and spun out in Turn 3, bringing out the final caution of the race.
He came home 36th, his fourth straight finish outside the top-10 and third finish of 25th or worse in the last four races.
He leaves Richmond 12th in points 169 back of Kyle Larson.
RICHMOND, Va. — The records will show that Joey Logano started fifth, but he came from the rear for an unapproved adjustments, took the lead from Kyle Larson with less than 20 laps to go to win in the capital of Virginia.
Opting not to pit under the final caution of the race, Larson assumed the race lead. He was unable to hold off Logano on four fresh tires. Logano made the winning pass driving to Larson’s outside and scored his 18th career victory in his 300th career start.
“I didn’t really discuss it much with Todd (Gordon),” Logano said when asked how pit strategy played out. “My thought process was, ‘Oh no!’ right after we stayed out. But we were able to maintain the lead. I don’t think we would have been able to win the race and hold off Kyle (Busch) if it had stayed green. The caution came out. The boys had a great stop which gave us good track position to pass the cars that stayed out. We were able to have a good start, work our way past those cars and tried to take off the best I could. I knew the 2 was so much faster than everybody and I had to get out there as quick and as far as I could. He was on his way to catch me. I think he was catching me a couple tenths a lap. That was all I had inside the car and I burned them up early trying to go. I am proud of the effort of the team. We executed under pressure today and brought a car home that was a 5th-10th place car home to victory lane.”
Teammate Brad Keselowski finished runner-up and Denny Hamlin rounded out the podium.
“I was just hoping for another restart or the race to get extended for another 10 laps,” Keselowski said of the closing laps and pit strategy. “I think we had a ton of long run speed today. That short run at the end…half the field came, half the field didn’t. I just got stuck in a lane of cars that didn’t go. By the time I did, he had a whole straightaway on me. I got it down to a couple of car lengths at the end. All and all I’m happy for Team Penske withe 1-2 finish. We’ll take it and move on.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five.
Matt Kenseth led the field to the green flag at 2:16 p.m. He led the first stage from start to finish and won it.
He maintained the lead of the race until lap 164 when Keselowski passed him on the backstretch, allowing Keselowski to win the second stage.
Kevin Harvick passed Keselowski on the outside to take the lead with 170 to go (lap 230). Keselowski responded eight laps later passing him on his outside exiting Turn 2 to retake the lead.
Hamlin took the lead exiting pit road under the fifth caution of the race. He held the lead from 147 to 113 to go when Keselowski edged him out at the line.
Keselowski lost the lead under a cycle of green flag stops to Ryan Newman, who was staying out to catch a caution. It didn’t work out however as he pitted and gave the lead back to Keselowski, which he’d lose on pit road two cautions later.
Hamlin held the lead on the restart with 39 to go, only to lose it to Keselowski the following lap.
Logano took the lead for the first time passing his teammate exiting Turn 2 with 29 to go.
A single-car wreck in Turn 3 set up the final 19-lap run to the finish.
Erik Jones brought out the first caution on the fifth lap when he suffered a left-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 3.
“Well, we got three-wide right on the start and then the 5 (Kasey Kahne) ran us up into the fence,” Jones said. “I was trying not to wreck everybody and we got run into the wall by the 5 and then a couple laps later we cut a left front, so it’s really unfortunate. We only made five laps, 10 laps of the race and we’re already out, so it’s just really a heartbreaking day. It’s not what we wanted, but we’ll just have to come back next week, bring another fast race car and try to run up front again.”
Stenhouse brought out the second when he made contact with the wall in Turn 3 on lap 65. The first stage conclusion brought out the third.
The fourth flew for the end of the second stage.
Debris, a towel, in the restart zone brought out the fifth. Jimmie Johnson slammed into teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. exiting Turn 2 with 57 to go, lead to the sixth caution.
With 43 to go, Earnhardt suffered a left-rear tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 3 and there was a two-car wreck under the caution involving Clint Bowyer and Ty Dillon.
Debris brought out the eighth with 33 to go.
Kurt Busch made contact with Ryan Blaney, leading to a cut tire on the 21 car and he slammed the wall in Turn 3.
The race lasted three hours, 12 minutes and eight seconds at an average speed of 93.685 mph. There were 18 lead changes among eight different drivers and nine cautions for 53 laps.
Larson leaves with a 40-point lead over Martin Truex Jr.
Kyle Larson topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond International Raceway.
The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was the fastest with a time of 22.675 and a speed of 119.074 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 22.686 and a speed of 119.016 mph. Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 22.727 and a speed of 118.801 mph.
Erik Jones was fourth in his No. 77 Furniture Row Toyota with a time of 118.702 mph. Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five in his Hendrick Chevrolet with a time of 22.794 and a speed of 118.452 mph.
Truex posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 117.521 mph.
