Late cautions lead Kyle Larson to his first 2023 victory at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 on Sunday.
The NASCAR Cup Series raced at Richmond Raceway this past weekend for its first short-track race of the season. Over the next few weeks, the NASCAR Cup Series is hitting all the short tracks. By the end of this short track swing, tempers will flare as the series heads down to Talladega Superspeedway at the end of April. A fun stretch for fans to watch.
Kyle Larson grabs his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season at Richmond Raceway in the Toyota Owners 400 on Sunday afternoon.
With the benefit of a fast final pit stop, Kyle Larson was able to put his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet out front at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and then hold off the field in the last 25 laps of Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season.
The NASCAR Cup Series Power Ranking after Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Ambetter 400 on Sunday afternoon.
The West Coast swing has officially concluded, with the Cup Series visiting Atlanta Motor Speedway this past Sunday. Atlanta is no longer the track it was once and now resembles more of a superspeedway in the way the cars drive, making the result much more unpredictable. But you wouldn’t have known that by watching Sunday’s race.
AVONDALE, ARIZONA – MARCH 12: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Shingrix Toyota, lead the field on a pace lap before the NASCAR Cup Series United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 12, 2023, in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Week four is now in the books and sets the stage for the NASCAR Cup Series Power Ranking after their race at Phoenix Raceway.
In November, Phoenix will host the NASCAR Cup Series championship race, where the series’ top drivers are contending for the 2023 championship. This past weekend, the series visited the same track for the United Rentals Work United 500, the fourth race of the regular season. It was another race dominated by Hendrick Motorsports, as Kyle Larson and William Byron were the class of the field for most of the day. Later on, Kevin Harvick nearly swooped in for the win, but a late caution gave Byron the edge to bring in his second straight victory. The headlines are on Hendrick now for a different reason, as Larson, Byron, and Alex Bowman were each docked 100 points for a parts violation, a penalty with massive implications. Even with the penalties, the Hendrick Byron and Larson duo cannot be denied their spots in these rankings.
William Byron goes back-to-back with another NASCAR Cup Series win at Phoenix Raceway in the United Rentals Work United 500.
The final race of the west coast swing took the NASCAR Cup Series to Phoenix Raceway for the United Rentals Work United 500. A tight one-mile course that features a dog leg to the left as the field enters the first turn. The Cup Series is debuting a short-track specific race package that severely limits the amount of downforce that these cars once had. The race at Phoenix was the first time deploying this package, and it threw drivers a curveball for sure.
