NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400
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Kyle Larson had already missed two golden opportunities to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season. Turns out the third time's a charm.

Larson cruised to victory in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday with an assist from his pit crew to keep Hendrick Motorsports' strong start to 2023 rolling. Vaulting the No. 5 Chevrolet into the lead during the final pit stop of the race, they put interim crew chief Kevin Meendering in position for his first career Cup win atop the pit box.

"It's a big accomplishment," Meendering gushed after the win, "A testament to all the hard work from those guys on that team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports."

Meendering was there because regular head wrench Cliff Daniels was sidelined for improper hood louvers discovered during pre-race inspection last month at Phoenix Raceway. It's a penalty that cost HMS $100,000 fines and four-week suspensions for their crew chiefs across the board.

But this week, an appeals board rescinded the most important part of the consequences: 100-point regular season penalties and 10 playoff points for any team and driver who qualifies. That erased any long-term damage, leaving Larson and William Byron with the most playoff points (21) of any teammate combination in the sport.

We're only seven races into the year and Byron and Larson have already led 748 laps combined, a whopping 43.1% of all laps run during 2023. The only thing missing from Larson's resume was a victory, coming up short to his teammate after swapping the lead numerous times at Las Vegas and Phoenix. Circuit of the Americas last weekend was likely Larson's most frustrating race of the year, as he was involved in multiple incidents before clawing back to finish 14th.

This week, he fought through contact again, smacking the No. 99 of Daniel Suarez on pit road in a crash that crumpled his car a bit. It also briefly challenged Larson mentally before he took a breath behind the wheel and let Meendering work some magic.

"My race was going good in the beginning, and then one small mishap turned into me trying too hard," Larson explained. "I made a lot more mistakes and kind of hurt our day going forward. So, when I was going backwards in the second stage and mad, I just needed a caution to take a break and then tell myself just to not overreact and just, we still have 170-something laps left. It's plenty of time to get back to the front."

Larson did just that, winning with Ricky Hendrick's old paint scheme on what would have been the late driver's 43rd birthday. It left HMS magic back on full display with drivers sitting first, fourth and sixth in the standings while Josh Berry brought home a career-best runner-up finish subbing for Chase Elliott in the No. 9 car.

"Certainly quite a few smiles around campus this day," said HMS Vice President Jeff Gordon. "They've been down with what happened [with the penalty]. [The appeal] definitely re-energized our folks this week and coming into this weekend's race.

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Green: Michael McDowell -- Have to shout out McDowell, whose team caught a lucky break with a late caution after trying to stretch it to the finish on old tires. The driver took it from there, earning a sixth-place result to finally earn his first top-10 finish of 2023 after racking up a career-best 12 last year.

Yellow: Martin Truex Jr. -- Leading 56 laps at Richmond was an important momentum boost for Truex, who's been up-and-down after a win in the series-opening exhibition out in the L.A. Coliseum. But a late-race lead was wiped away during routine green-flag stops, Byron blowing past before a set of six-lap scuffed tires during the final caution-flag stop did him in. An 11th place finish is not what the doctor ordered for a Joe Gibbs Racing organization that has more wins at Richmond (18) than any other track in their history.

Red: Ryan Blaney -- Blaney was a mess on Sunday, spinning out Josh Berry early after fighting through a pit road speeding penalty. Then, his crew left a wedge wrench stuck atop the hood of his car, leaving team members tumbling on pit road toward another penalty that left the car trapped a lap down the rest of the way.

Blaney's points-paying winless streak now sits at 53 races, unthinkable for a driver who's started the past few years a trendy favorite to make the Championship 4 for Team Penske.

Speeding Ticket: Denny Hamlin -- Hamlin and his crew shot themselves in the foot all race long. An early speeding penalty left the No. 11 Toyota trapped at the rear of the field, leading to an early wreck with JJ Yeley borne out of impatience and leaving an angry rival in its wake.

"For a guy preaching respect for the last couple of weeks," Yeley said after the race, "it seems really silly on lap 32 [to wreck me]."

Hamlin still recovered from that, driving all the way up to win the second stage and lead part of the last before his pit crew stumbled putting on his right front tire with 107 laps remaining. Trapped in traffic, Hamlin then endured a second speeding penalty to leave potentially the best car in the field sitting 20th at the finish. Ouch.

Oops!

The other driver besides Hamlin who could claim a shot at the win under different circumstances? William Byron. Leading a race-high 117 laps, he had leapfrogged Truex during the final green-flag stop and remained in strong position on a restart following a caution for Tyler Reddick's spin on lap 373.

That's where it all went sideways for him. Contact from Christopher Bell sent Byron looping around in turn 2 and out of contention for victory.

"It looked like the No. 20 got in, overcooked the corner and had the fronts locked up," Byron said. "I was a victim."

Bell wasn't taking the blame, though. Instead, he passed it on to an easy scapegoat, Ross Chastain, the sport's most aggressive driver who poked his nose under the No. 20.

"It was a pretty standard restart with [Chastain] behind you," Bell explained. "I tried to protect from him going to the inside and he still made it three-wide there at the last minute and there wasn't enough room."