Richmond Results: How Denny Hamlin Became NASCAR's Seventh Different Winner This Season

• There wasn’t another career first-time winner, although Denny Hamlin had not won through this year’s first six races.

• Sixteen drivers finished on the lead lap, but only seven drivers led laps, most of them by pole-winner Ryan Blaney (128 of 400) and William Byron (122).

• Hamlin wasn’t a serious player until the final 30 laps.

NASCAR more or less returned to some degree of normalcy on a perfectly sparkling Sunday afternoon at Richmond Raceway.

The big dogs qualified at the front and proceeded to race at the front during most of the Toyota Owners 400. There wasn’t another career first-time winner, although Denny Hamlin had not won through this year’s first six races. There were occasional periods of spirited competition, but not many edge-of-the-seat moments like at COTA last week or Atlanta two weeks ago or even Phoenix three weeks ago.

Sixteen drivers finished on the lead lap, but only seven drivers led laps, most of them by pole-winner Ryan Blaney (128 of 400) and William Byron (122). Of the seven leaders, three (including Hamlin) led five or fewer laps. In short, the 400-lap, 300-mile race wasn’t what this year’s fans have grown accustomed to. This one was almost exclusively a chess match of pit strategy, sticking to a strict race pace to have better tires—in Hamlin’s case, 30 laps fresher—than the drivers ahead of him toward the end.

“I just relied on the crew chief (Chris Gabehart) and his information to me,” Hamlin said after his 47th career victory, his fourth at Richmond. “Chris said we’re going to be racing this guy and this guy. As long as you run this pace and do everything you can in traffic, you’ve got a great shot to win. I didn’t pay attention to where we were or anything. He told me where the leaders were. I just drove the car as smoothly as I could.”

Hamlin wasn’t a serious player until the final 30 laps, when he came from 15 seconds behind to relentlessly run down fifth-running Kyle Larson, then Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex before getting to leader Byron and blowing past with five laps remaining. Hamlin then held tough as Harvick made a late run that fell slightly more than a half-second shy. Byron faded near the flag to finish third, 2.183 seconds behind.

Byron had taken fresh tires about 40 laps ahead of Hamlin and Harvick. It quickly became evident he might not hold off either of them unless there was a late-race caution. There wasn’t, thus the final top-5 of Hamlin, Harvick, Byron, Truex Jr., and Larson, none of them a match down the stretch for Hamlin and his fresh tires.

The victory was the first for Toyota-based Joe Gibbs Racing this year. Nobody was panicking—at least, that’s what they kept saying—but JGR had never gotten this deep into a season without some signs of life. Until Sunday afternoon, Hamlin, Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Christopher Bell had combined for just eight top-10 finishes in 24 team starts.

“It was just a matter of time,” Hamlin said after Richmond. “We weren’t just going to hang back where we were, but everyone worked so hard on my team. You just have a tough season and things aren’t going well. It seems like everything is not going your way and the law of averages say things are going to work out and we’ll get our performance better. Today’s the day when it all matched up.”

NASCAR has now had seven different winners in as many races this year: Austin Cindric at Daytona Beach, Larson at Fontana, Alex Bowman at Las Vegas, Chase Briscoe at Phoenix, Byron at Atlanta, Ross Chastain at COTA, and now Hamlin at his “hometown” track.

The next three tracks offer even more opportunity for new winners. Teams face 400 laps next weekend at the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, then 250 laps on the dirt at the half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway followed in three weeks by 500 miles at the always-treacherous Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Notables from Richmond:

• Justin Haley and Greg Biffle weren’t allowed to qualify because of three failed attempts during pre-race inspection. Both started from the rear of the grid and did a drive-through penalty on the first lap. Additionally, owner/driver Brad Keselowski started from the rear after unapproved pre-race adjustments. Haley finished 26th, Biffle was 37th and Keselowski finished 13th;

• The NASCAR radio network—on information provided by Joe Gibbs Racing—announced shortly after lap 234 that Kyle Busch’s green-flag, four-tire pit stop took only 9.10 seconds. It was presented as the quickest four-stop in Cup Series history, although no official NASCAR source was cited.

NASCAR Cup Series

67th Annual Toyota Owners 400

at Richmond

1. (13) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.

2. (7) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.

3. (2) William Byron, Chevrolet, 400.

4. (6) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 400.

5. (21) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400.

6. (9) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 400.

7. (1) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 400.

8. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 400.

9. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400.

10. (25) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 400.

11. (4) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 400.

12. (16) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 400.

13. (19) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400.

14. (15) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 400.

15. (18) Chris Buescher, Ford, 400.

16. (14) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 400.

17. (11) Joey Logano, Ford, 399.

18. (17) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 399.

19. (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 399.

20. (20) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 399.

21. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 398.

22. (12) Cole Custer, Ford, 398.

23. (5) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 398.

24. (30) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 398.

25. (22) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 397.

26. (29) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 397.

27. (26) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 396.

28. (32) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 396.

29. (36) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 396.

30. (24) Michael McDowell, Ford, 395.

31. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 392.

32. (23) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 390.

33. (35) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 390.

34. (34) BJ McLeod, Ford, 386.

35. (27) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 291.

36. (33) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 241.

37. (37) Greg Biffle, Chevrolet, Suspension, 96.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 97.447 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 4 Mins, 43 Secs. Margin of Victory: .552 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 35 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: R. Blaney 1-128;C. Bell 129-154;M. Truex Jr. 155-175;J. Logano 176;C. Bell 177-211;M. Truex Jr. 212-233;C. Bell 234;M. Truex Jr. 235-258;C. Bell 259;W. Byron 260-310;M. Truex Jr. 311-323;K. Busch 324;W. Byron 325-395;D. Hamlin 396-400.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ryan Blaney 1 time for 128 laps; William Byron 2 times for 122 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 4 times for 80 laps; Christopher Bell 4 times for 63 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 5 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 1 lap; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 12,24,1,19,18,9,20,22,6,4

Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,20,1,22,12,9,4,18,5,6