Tyre gamble pays off, Kyle Larson runs away with Martinsville win

It was a risky decision by Cliff Daniels, but it worked out in the best way possible. During what would be the final pit stop of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Daniels elected to change just right-side tyres on Kyle Larson‘s car as the others took four.

Despite having an older pair of tyres on the left, Larson restarted fifth and took the lead with thirty laps remaining. The rest of the field led by Joey Logano had no answer for Larson as he took off to score his second win of the year by over four seconds. Larson even described Logano as not being much of “a factor all day. I was never around him at all throughout the race, but he’s a very good short track racer.”

The victory is the first at Martinsville for the #5 since 1984 with Geoff Bodine in what was Hendrick Motorsports‘ maiden triumph.

“Earlier in the race when a couple of guys stayed out on older tyres and survived for twenty to thirty laps, which was twenty to thirty laps longer than I thought they would have, that was a tell sign,” Daniels commented. “A couple of data points last year of guys on higher lap tires still maintaining track position. So still a little bit of a gamble, but we knew there were some data points where it had worked. So that’s the way we went.”

Stewart-Haas Racing was the top team throughout the day, but it ultimately ended in disappointment. Ryan Preece won the pole and led a race-high 135 laps with the Stage #1 win, the latter coming with team-mate Aric Almirola running second, while Kevin Harvick and Chase Briscoe placed 1–2 in Stage #2. However, Preece was busted for speeding on pit road between the second and third stages, forcing him to make up lost ground in the latter and finishing fifteenth. Harvick struggled to a twentieth-place finish.

Briscoe and Almirola scored top tens, but Briscoe certainly would have wanted more as he was leading the race before J.J. Yeley wrecked on lap 344 to bring out the final caution.

“Having a two-second lead and just kind of riding trying to maintain that two-second lead, I thought our car was really, really good at that point,” Briscoe stated. “Even with the caution, I thought we were going to be okay, and then I thought we were going to stay out, and then at the end, it looked like more guys were going to 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.”

Larson’s team-mate Chase Elliott finished tenth in his first race since Fontana in February after missing six weeks with a fractured tibia.

“Just having him a part of the debrief after practice and qualifying again was nice,” said Larson. “He always brings something a little different to the comments between all four of us.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	19	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
2	15	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
3	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
4	11	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
5	4	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
6	3	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
7	31	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
8	16	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
9	9	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	400	Running
10	24	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
11	23	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
12	18	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
13	34	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	400	Running
14	10	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	400	Running
15	1	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
16	22	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
17	2	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	400	Running
18	12	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
19	20	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	400	Running
20	7	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
21	17	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
22	6	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	400	Running
23	8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
24	21	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	400	Running
25	13	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	399	Running
26	27	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	399	Running
27	14	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	399	Running
28	26	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	398	Running
29	32	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	398	Running
30	29	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	398	Running
31	28	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	398	Running
32	35	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	397	Running
33	25	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	397	Running
34	33	51	Zane Smith*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	395	Running
35	30	78	Anthony Alfredo*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	390	Running
36	36	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	337	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points