Hamlin Wins at Richmond Amid Differing Strategies

Denny Hamlin won the Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond Raceway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first win of the season.

With the race winding down, the leaders utilized different pit strategies. William Byron led and tried to stay ahead of Martin Truex Jr. as they navigated lapped traffic, while the duo of Hamlin and Kevin Harvick quickly made their way to the front.

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With Byron and Truex on older tires, Hamlin took the lead with four laps to go and was able to hold off Harvick over the final laps.

Hamlin said his team had the perfect strategy on the final pit stop.

“So proud of this FedEx team, just never giving up,” Hamlin said.  “Great strategy there; drove as hard as I could. They got the car right there towards the end.”

Hamlin has had a slow start to the season, and didn’t have a Top 10 in the first six races of the season.

Hamlin said he had hoped to have a solid run to find out where their cars stacked up.

“Before the race, we needed a data point,” Hamlin said.  “A good run to balance ourselves on other tracks, and obviously I think we got it here.”

Harvick followed Hamlin past Truex and Byron, but couldn’t get close enough to make a move for the win.

Harvick said he was happy to have a strong result after they’ve brought fast cars to the track every week.

“It’s really the first clean day we’ve had all year,” Harvick said.  “Cars have been fast…just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for staying in there.”

“I wanted to be close enough at the white to take a swipe at him, but the lapped cars there kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. Hopefully a little momentum in a positive direction.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Kevin Harvick

3. William Byron

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Kyle Larson

6. Christopher Bell

7. Ryan Blaney

8. Alex Bowman

9. Kyle Busch

10. Austin Dillon

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Tyler Reddick

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Chase Elliott

15. Chris Buescher

16. Daniel Suarez

17. Joey Logano

18. Harrison Burton

19. Ross Chastain

20. Austin Cindric

21. Aric Almirola

22. Cole Custer

23. Erik Jones

24. Ty Dillon

25. Todd Gilliland

26. Bubba Wallace

27. AJ Allmendinger

28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

29. Justin Haley

30. Michael McDowell

31. Corey LaJoie

32. Landon Cassill

33. JJ Yeley

34. BJ McLeod

35. Kurt Busch

36. Cody Ware

37. Greg Biffle

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