MARTINSVILLE, Va. — An unfortunate sequence of events kept Kyle Larson out of victory lane a week ago but he made sure to flip the script on Sunday by scoring a win at Martinsville despite only leading late in the race.
Larson's team made a late-race call to take two tires on a pit stop that propelled him near the front of the field. When the race restarted with around 50 laps to go, Larson carefully raced around the paper clip to eventually take the lead away from Joey Logano, who also gained a number of positions due to pit strategy.
Larson held on for the race's final 30 laps and scored his second win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. It's his first career win at Martinsville and the second victory he's scored in three weeks.
“I never ever would have thought I would have won here,” said Larson to the media after the race. “This place has been so tough on me and just does not suit my driving style at all. ... I just can't believe it.”
It was somewhat of an opposite scenario from a week ago when Larson dominated the Bristol dirt race only to spin out after leading over half of the race's laps and eventually being wrecked out of the race.
Logano followed in second, Martin Truex finished third, Denny Hamlin finished fourth, and Chase Briscoe finished fifth. Chase Elliott finished 10th in his first race back after missing six weeks due to a leg injury. Elliott ran outside the top 20 most of the day but was able to make his way up the running order for a solid finish.
"We struggled really bad, honestly. Every run but the last one" said Elliott to the media after the race. "We finally got it going at the end and made some passes.”
Ryan Preece started on the pole and looked to have a car strong enough to pick up his first NASCAR Cup Series win. But after leading over 130 laps and winning the first stage of his career, Preece sped on pit road during a yellow flag pit stop, ending his chance at victory.
Cars bumped and banged all over the track in typical Martinsville fashion but very few altercations turned into incidents that brought out cautions.
Harrison Burton was turned around by Erik Jones on lap 134 and J.J. Yeley smacked the wall on lap 344 but other than that the race was relatively clean.
The fifth and final caution was caused by Anthony Alfredo losing a tire as leaders were sequencing through green flag pit stops, which shuffled the running order and allowed Larson to pull off the necessary strategy that shot him to victory.
Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Briscoe were in contention for the win before the caution. They were unable to challenge for the win as they were stuck back in traffic.
It's the 28th win at the track for Hendrick Motorsports, which is the most wins by a team at an individual track.
After racing at three straight short tracks, NASCAR's next stop is something a little different. The Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the Geico 500 on Sunday, April 23.