Pit Strategy Nets Kyle Larson Martinsville Cup Victory

Kyle Larson used pit strategy at the right time to score his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

When the final caution of the day flew with 58 laps to go, it brought out a flurry of strategies from the teams. While five cars stayed out, Larson’s crew changed only two tires on his No. 5 Chevy, getting him off pit road first.

Back under green, Larson make quick work of the competition, and settled into second behind leader Joey Logano with 46 laps to go. With 31 to go, he began battling back-and-forth with Logano for several laps, as the two ran side-by-side.

With 28 laps remaining, Larson shoved Logano up the track, and moved to the point. From there, he settled in and drove away to the victory and the coveted Grandfather Clock winner’s trophy.

“I honestly have never thought I would win here so I don’t have a spot picked out either for the clock, so I’ll have to make some space for sure,” said Larson.

It marks the second win of the season for Larson, the first of his career at Martinsville, and the 21st of the series career.

“I had never ever would have thought that I would win here at Martinsville,” said Larson. “This place has been so tough on me. Just does not suit my driving style at all. I like to charge the center. I like to roll momentum, and that’s just not what this place is like. But thanks to (crew chief) Cliff Daniels and everybody for making me feel like I know what I’m doing sometimes around here. So I just can’t believe it.”

It’s also the 28th win for Hendrick Motorsports at the tight, paperclip shaped raceway.

“Yeah, it means a lot to me, but I think more importantly, it means a lot to the whole Hendrick family and Hendrick Motorsports family,” Larson said. “You know, everybody knows what happened here so long ago, and I think everybody — you know, that’s on everybody’s minds every time they come to Martinsville, so wish Rick was here, Linda, but we’ve got Jeff Gordon here.”

For Logano, the late race gamble to stay out on old tires paid off. After having to start at the back of the field for unapproved changes, Logano struggled early on, and went down a lap twice during the course of the race, the move put Larson in position to contend for the win. Once Larson bypassed him, he held off Martin Truex, Jr. to finish second.

“I tried holding off Larson as long as I could, but overall there’s days when you are mad about second. Today is not one of those,” said Larson. “Today is when you are pretty stoked that you finished a little better than I thought we were going to.”

Truex was another driver who had a sub-optimal day, going a lap down at one point. His team made the call to stay out on old tires, putting him in position to finish in third.

“We had kind of a crazy day with the Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD, but really just got a little bit lucky there getting back on the lead lap midrace and kept working on our car,” said Truex. “We were just so loose all day long, and then finally at the end we got it a whole lot better. So it was fun at the end passing a lot of cars and getting up there, but still needed to be a little bit better, but overall, you know, proud of everybody for sticking with it and just grinding one out today.”

Denny Hamlin led the race for 36 laps, at one point looking to have a potential win in hand. In the end, he had to settle for a fourth place finish.

“The package was terrible – it’s either the package or the tires,” Hamlin said. “You can’t pass. Cars that I was lapping 10 laps before, we caught a caution, and I couldn’t pass them for second. It’s very difficult. Next Gen racing is all about strategy, execution on pit road – that’s who wins. Rarely does the car that dominates or the best car, win, simply because you can’t control the race when you need too – at least we couldn’t. We made a great strategy call at the end to get positions back.”

Chase Briscoe had the lead until the final caution came out, and said he would like to think he had the field covered up to that point, but finished in fifth instead.

“I mean, having a two-second lead and just kind of riding trying to maintain that two-second lead,” said Briscoe, who led 109 laps on the day. “I thought our car was really, really good at that point. Even with the caution I thought we were gonna be okay, and then I thought we were gonna stay out, and then at the end it looked like more guys were gonna come down pit road, so we decided to come down with them. Obviously, Monday morning quarterback. It’s a lot easier to say you should have stayed out, but we didn’t. We win and lose as a team.”

Briscoe finished the highest of the four Stewart-Haas Racing Fords, who were all in the hunt for the win for most of the day, with Aric Almirola in sixth. SHR teammate Ryan Preece led 135 laps of the race from the pole, winning the first segment in the process. But a pit road speeding penalty mired him back in traffic for most of the rest of the day. He finished in 15th place at the end of the day.

Kevin Harvick had his No. 4 SHR Ford in contention most of the day, and came off of pit road fourth on the final pit stop. But a flat right-front tire moments later brought him back to the pits. Harvick soldiered home to a 20th place finish.

Ryan Blaney finished in seventh, with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in eighth, and Bubba Wallace in ninth.

Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott – in his first race back after suffering a leg injury while snowboarding – spent most of the race outside of the top 20. But he put on a charge on the final restart, and ended his day in 10th position.

Elliott said his injured leg held up good on the hard braking Martinsville short track.

“Yeah, it was pretty good, honestly. It was about what I expected, so that’s a good thing,” said Elliott. “It was warm. I’ve been sitting on the couch for six weeks, so I think that probably hurt me more than anything. But our NAPA Chevy, we struggled every run but the last one. We finally got it going there at the end and I was able to make some passes and do things that I didn’t really think I’d be capable of doing, or at least of us fixing it to that degree here at the race track. So I was pleasantly surprised by that.

“Got us a top-10 out of our first day back, so that’s definitely something to not be too bummed about.”

NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
NOCO 400 – April 16, 2023

1. (19) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400.
2. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 400.
3. (5) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 400.
4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
5. (4) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 400.
6. (3) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400.
7. (31) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 400.
8. (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 400.
9. (9) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 400.
10. (24) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 400.
11. (23) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 400.
12. (18) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 400.
13. (34) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 400.
14. (10) Chris Buescher, Ford, 400.
15. (1) Ryan Preece, Ford, 400.
16. (22) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 400.
17. (2) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 400.
18. (12) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 400.
19. (20) Michael McDowell, Ford, 400.
20. (7) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
21. (17) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 400.
22. (6) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 400.
23. (8) William Byron, Chevrolet, 400.
24. (21) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400.
25. (13) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 399.
26. (27) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 399.
27. (14) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 399.
28. (26) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 398.
29. (32) Harrison Burton, Ford, 398.
30. (29) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 398.
31. (28) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 398.
32. (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 397.
33. (25) Austin Cindric, Ford, 397.
34. (33) Zane Smith(i), Ford, 395.
35. (30) Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 390.
36. (36) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, Accident, 337.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 74.005 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 50 Mins, 35 Secs. Margin of Victory: 4.142 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 50 laps.

Lead Changes: 10 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders: R. Preece 1-135;R. Chastain 136-166;K. Harvick 167-185;C. Briscoe 186-256;D. Hamlin 257-292;B. Keselowski 293-299;D. Suarez 300-306;C. Briscoe 307-344;K. Harvick 345;J. Logano 346-370;K. Larson 371-400.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ryan Preece 1 time for 135 laps; Chase Briscoe 2 times for 109 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 36 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 31 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 30 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 25 laps; Kevin Harvick 2 times for 20 laps; Brad Keselowski 1 time for 7 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 7 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 41,10,45,99,14,4,23,11,5,24

Stage #2 Top Ten: 4,14,11,45,6,1,38,99,10,5

Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 208 (2 Wins); 2. Kyle Larson – 285 (2 Wins); 3. Christopher Bell – 302 (1 Win); 4. Tyler Reddick – 265 (1 Win); 5. Joey Logano – 258 (1 Win); 6. Kyle Busch – 250 (1 Win); 7. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 223 (1 Win); 8. Ross Chastain – 297; 9. Kevin Harvick – 287; 10. Martin Truex, Jr. – 266; 11. Denny Hamlin – 247; 12. Ryan Blaney – 241; 13. Alex Bowman – 237; 14. Brad Keselowski – 235; 15. Chase Briscoe – 210; 16. Chris Buescher – 206.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series