Alex Bowman took the lead from Denny Hamlin with 10 laps remaining in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday to claim his first win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. With the victory, Bowman became the eighth different winner in the nine races, so far, this year, a tally that includes two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, William Byron and Kyle Larson.
“We just had a great race car; it’s as simple as that,” Bowman said. “Greg Ives [crew chief] and all the guys, they have to deal with me at short tracks and I drive these places really wrong. We kind of instead of trying to make me figure it out, we went to work on getting the race car where I needed it to be. Greg has done such an amazing job at making that happen. First and foremost, got to thank Ally and Chevrolet, everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. This one is for Rowdy and his family. Miss him and Blakley [#48 team crew member and his wife, who died in a car accident during the offseason] every day. Just means the world to be able to win for Ally. It’s definitely emotional, obviously, with how hard the offseason was on us. Appreciative for the opportunity, and we have more races to win this year.”
Hamlin finished second after leading a race-high 207 laps of the 400 that made the race. His runner-up finish at his home track of Richmond was his eighth top-five finish this season. He has yet to win in 2021 after winning seven races last year, a total that was second only to Kevin Harvick, who also has yet to win in 2021.
“We just didn’t take off quite as good, there, at the end,” Hamlin said. “I tried to warm it up and do everything that I could – just the 48 [Bowman] had a little more on those last few laps, and I couldn’t hold the bottom. Once he got the position, we were just shut down there. Great job by this FedEx Ground team. First and foremost, we want to think of all of the families in Indy right now. Awful tragedy to happen there. Our thoughts and prayers are with these names [pointing to his cap that featured the names of victims of the recent shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis]. We will get them. We will keep digging. We are dominating; just have to finish it.”
Joey Logano finished third, and Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to give JGR three top-fives Sunday. All four Gibbs cars finished in the top-10, with Kyle Busch in eighth.
Logano also led late in the race, getting by Hamlin for the top spot with 66 laps remaining, but during the fifth and final caution of the race when Harvick hit the wall with 20 laps remaining, Hamlin beat Logano out of the pits to retake the lead. The Harvick caution was the second of only two yellow flags for on-track incidents. The other came when Ryan Newman spun after contact from Austin Cindric on lap 141.
Hamlin and Truex combined to lead most of the first two stages of the race. Truex led 105 to Hamlin’s 101 laps by the time the second stage ended at lap 235, but Hamlin took both stage wins.
Truex started on the pole and led the first 32 laps of the racer before Hamlin beat him off pit road during a lap-30 competition caution.
Truex retook the lead from Hamlin on lap 104. Hamlin, again, got out of the pits ahead of Truex during a green-flag cycle of pit stops around lap 185, but Hamlin didn’t retake the lead for several laps. Instead, Brad Keselowski stayed out to lead 25 laps before Hamlin, on newer tires, moved back into the lead on lap 207. Keselowski went a lap down in the closing laps of the stage.
Logano ran in the top-three with Hamlin and Truex through most of the first two stages and into the final stage. Truex, though, was assessed a pit-road speeding penalty just before lap 300. He managed to stay on the lead lap when he served his penalty. Meanwhile, one of his teammates, Busch, joined Hamlin and Logano in the top-three of the running order.
“Driver screwed up our chances, there, for sure. Auto Owner’s Toyota Camry was really fast,” Truex said. “Just like last week, we got off in the middle of the race, and then, stage three, we got it dialed in, and I got caught speeding on pit road. We had to drive all the way back through the field and under green; that was tough. We got all the way back to fifth. Heck of an effort by the guys and wish I hadn’t made that mistake, so I could have seen what I could have done with them.”
Busch, then, acquired his own pit-road penalty for a commitment-line violation during the final cycle of green-flag stops with just under 60-laps remaining. When Busch served his penalty, the fourth Gibbs driver, Bell, joined Hamlin and Logano in the top-three. Bell lost that position in the top-three to Bowman with 28 laps to go.
“I knew that we had a really, really good SiriusXM Camry right from the drop of the green flag,” Bell said. “We kept working on it and kept working on it, but then, I guess we got caught a lap down, there, by the yellow flag in stage two. From that point on, it was just battling back up through there. Really proud of this 20 group. We’ve kind of lacked a little bit of consistency throughout the year, but now it seems like we’re picking it up.”
Other top-10 finishers included Aric Almirola in sixth, Byron in seventh, Matt DiBenedetto in ninth and Austin Dillon in 10th.
