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Race report
NASCAR Cup Richmond

Hamlin wins Richmond NASCAR Cup race in wild overtime finish

What looked like a certain win by Martin Truex Jr. turned into an unexpected NASCAR Cup victory for Denny Hamlin in overtime Sunday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

Truex Jr. had dominated what ended up being a very uneventful race – leading 228 of the 407 laps – and appeared to have his first win of the 2024 season well in hand when Kyle Larson got spun out with one lap remaining and sent the race into overtime.

All of the lead lap cars elected to pit for new tires under the caution and Hamlin beat Truex off pit road to lead the way on the restart.

Hamlin got a good jump on Truex to clear for the lead as Truex raced hard with Larson and Logano through Turns 1 and 2 before Hamlin edged Logano by 0.269 seconds at the checkered flag to secure his second win of the season.

Watch: Denny Hamlin: ‘A team win for sure’ after Richmond victory

After taking the checkered flag, an apparently upset Truex rammed into Larson entering Turn 1 and then bumped Hamlin’s car from behind three times on the cool down lap.

The win is the 53rd of Hamlin’s career and the fifth at his home track of Richmond.

“I’ve had the best pit crew all year long. I loved our chances," Hamlin said about going into overtime. "We still had Martin (Truex Jr.) – he was the deserving race winner there, but you give these pit crews an opportunity – this is what it is all about. You have to have your whole team put together – and they just killed it today.

“We were close all day long. We kept the leader right there close to us, but just couldn’t quite get there. It was so excruciatingly hard to pass. It made it really difficult – even with newer tires. I needed that kind of situation in the end to be able to win it.

"We have high aspirations this year and how many wins we can get, and this is putting us right on track."

Larson ended up third, Truex fourth and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Christopher Bell, William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick.

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Stage 1

Larson took the Stage 1 win over Wallace when a late caution came out for a spin by Daniel Suarez. Alex Bowman was third, Truex fourth and Logano rounded out the top five.

With light rain still in the area, NASCAR had teams start the race on wet weather tires, marking the first time in history that sport raced competitively on an oval in damp conditions.

 

During a competition caution on lap 30, NASCAR allowed teams to switch to slick tires without losing their position on the track.

Stage 2

Truex easily held off Josh Berry to take the win in an uneventful Stage 2. Logano was third, Larson fourth and Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead lap cars all pit with Truex first off pit road. When the race returned to green on lap 241, Truex led Larson and Hamlin.

On lap 287, several cars, including leader Truex, kicked off a round of green flag pit stops to take on new tires and fuel and utilizing a two-stop strategy in the final stage.

The round of stops was completed on lap 295 when Bell was the last lead lap car to pit and Truex cycled back to the lead.

Bell was penalized for speeding during his stop and had to serve a pass-through penalty which left him back in 19th and one lap down.

Reddick and Chase Briscoe were among the first drivers to hit pit road with 67 laps to go and kick off a final round of green flag stops to take on new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Both Larson and Truex pit on lap 337 and Larson – who had the first pit stall thanks to winning the pole – passed Truex as the two returned to the track.

Truex, however, quickly got back around Larson and cycled back to the lead with 53 laps to go.

 

With 30 laps remaining, Logano got around Larson to move into the runner up position, but he was still almost 3.5 seconds behind Truex, the leader.

Lapped traffic helped Logano close the gap to Truex down to under a second with 10 laps to go as Hamlin closed in from third.

With one lap to go, Wallace got into the back of Larson, who spun down the track and into the frontstretch wall to bring out the caution and send the race into overtime.

All the lead lap cars pit with Hamlin the first off pit road and he led the way over Truex and Logano when the race resumed.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING 11 Toyota 407

3:14'42.116

  10 46
2 J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE 22 Ford 407

+0.269

3:14'42.385

0.269 11 49
3 K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 5 Chevrolet 407

+0.628

3:14'42.744

0.359 11 51
4 M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 407

+0.640

3:14'42.756

0.012 11 50
5 C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 407

+0.873

3:14'42.989

0.233 11 36
6 C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 407

+1.154

3:14'43.270

0.281 12 36
7 W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 24 Chevrolet 407

+1.520

3:14'43.636

0.366 11 32
8 B. KeselowskiRFK RACING 6 Ford 407

+1.797

3:14'43.913

0.277 11 29
9 C. BuescherRFK RACING 17 Ford 407

+2.110

3:14'44.226

0.313 11 32
10 T. Reddick23XI RACING 45 Toyota 407

+2.114

3:14'44.230

0.004 11 28
11 J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING 4 Ford 407

+2.269

3:14'44.385

0.155 11 37
12 N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING 10 Ford 407

+2.501

3:14'44.617

0.232 11 25
13 B. Wallace23XI RACING 23 Toyota 407

+2.714

3:14'44.830

0.213 11 36
14 E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 43 Toyota 407

+2.772

3:14'44.888

0.058 11 23
15 R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING 1 Chevrolet 407

+2.888

3:14'45.004

0.116 11 25
16 54 Toyota 407

+2.918

3:14'45.034

0.030 11 21
17 A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 48 Chevrolet 407

+5.844

3:14'47.960

2.926 9 28
18 C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING 14 Ford 407

+6.236

3:14'48.352

0.392 11 19
19 R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE 12 Ford 407

+6.438

3:14'48.554

0.202 10 18
20 K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 8 Chevrolet 407

+7.410

3:14'49.526

0.972 10 17
21 T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 38 Ford 407

+7.699

3:14'49.815

0.289 9 21
22 D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING 99 Chevrolet 407

+7.894

3:14'50.010

0.195 8 15
23 A. CindricTEAM PENSKE 2 Ford 406

+1 Lap

3:14'46.264

1 Lap 10 14
24 A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 3 Chevrolet 406

+1 Lap

3:14'48.205

1.941 9 13
25 J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 42 Toyota 406

+1 Lap

3:14'48.690

0.485 10 12
26 M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 34 Ford 406

+1 Lap

3:14'48.913

0.223 9 11
27
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
77 Chevrolet 406

+1 Lap

3:14'49.546

0.633 10 10
28 R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING 41 Ford 406

+1 Lap

3:14'49.622

0.076 10 10
29 T. DillonKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 406

+1 Lap

3:14'51.982

2.360 8  
30 D. HemricKAULIG RACING 31 Chevrolet 405

+2 Laps

3:14'46.638

1 Lap 11 7
31 K. GralaRICK WARE RACING 15 Ford 405

+2 Laps

3:14'47.599

0.961 10 6
32 J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING 51 Ford 405

+2 Laps

3:14'48.832

1.233 9 5
33 R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING 47 Chevrolet 405

+2 Laps

3:14'49.531

0.699 8 4
34 H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING 21 Ford 405

+2 Laps

3:14'49.740

0.209 9 3
35
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
71 Chevrolet 404

+3 Laps

3:14'45.279

1 Lap 11 2
36 C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 404

+3 Laps

3:14'50.426

5.147 10 1

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