Denny Hamlin vaults to first Cup victory of the year at Richmond

Denny Hamlin stormed past William Byron with four laps to go to snag the Cup Series win Sunday at Richmond Raceway.

Hamlin had yet to score a top-10 finish through the season’s first six races, but a strategy call by crew chief Chris Gabehart brought the No. 11 Toyota to pit road for fresh tires at Lap 354, later than anyone else in the field.

Hamlin erased an enormous deficit to race leader Byron, who last pitted at Lap 311 and had burnt up his tires. The final 136 laps ran caution-free. The victory puts Toyota back in the winner’s circle for the first time since Bubba Wallace won at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2021.

“Great strategy there,” Hamlin told FOX Sports. “Drove as hard as I could. Just so proud of this whole FedEx Camry team, man, just never giving up.”

On a similar strategy, Kevin Harvick charged to second and finished 0.552 seconds behind Hamlin for his first top five of the season. Completing the top five were Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson. Rounding out the top 10 were Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.

Stage 1 winner: Ryan Blaney

Stage 2 winner: Martin Truex Jr.

Next race: The series shifts to Martinsville Speedway on April 8 for the first Saturday night race of the season (7 p.m. ET, FS1).