Week 8 GFT NASCAR AI Driver Rankings: Larson Wins Richmond- Jumps to P4, More Penalties Coming?
7 April 2023
By Bob Francis, Managing Editor
Go Full Throttle Racing News
Kyle Larson and the Hendrick 5 team executed a perfectly timed late pit stop to win the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday. For Larson, Richmond is his first NASCAR Cup Series win of 2023 and the 20th of his career. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Josh Berry, driving the №9 Hendrick Chevy for injured Chase Elliott, finished runner-up, capturing his best NASCAR Cup Series finish — 1.535 seconds behind Larson at the checkered flag. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
RANKINGS IMPACT:
With the win, Kyle Larson moves up 7 spots to to P4. When our GFT Model algorithms ran with all the new data and points from Richmond there was no change in the top 3 spots with Byron P1, Bowman P2, and Chastain P3. However, a new wave of penalties were issued midweek potentially knocking Byron and Bowman (for the 2nd time this year) way down in Driver Points after their cars were impounded and sent to NASCAR’s R&D Center for closer inspection. Once again, we enter the murky world of NASCAR’s penalty adjudication and appeals process. For now, we have decided to not reflect these new penalties until after the appeals process has played out.
“It’s really cool, we’ve been close to winning a couple,” Larson said, adding, “Things just worked out and my pit crew had a great stop.”
It was certainly a Hendrick Motorsports day with Larson and Berry besting the field. And their teammate William Byron led the most laps (117) and won his series-best fifth stage. The season’s only two-time winner Byron looked poised to have a say in the trophy hoist, too, only to be knocked out of contention when Bell hit him from behind on a restart with 20 laps remaining.
“I was just restarting fourth there, just trying to stay tight to the 9 [Berry] and get a good restart and got tagged in the left rear,” said Byron, who finished 24th. “Just a dive-bomb move on his [Bell] part. It is what it is. I had a great race car.
“The Raptor Chevrolet was awesome all day. We’ll just keep bringing fast race cars like that. It was looking like another win before that caution there, but that’s the way it goes.”
Larson led four different times, totaling 93 laps, and survived contact on pit road with Daniel Suárez’s Chevrolet early in the race. It was Larson’s second Richmond win (also in 2017) and the fifth win for Chevy through the season’s opening seven races.
The Toyota contingent gave the Chevys a real run, looking especially strong mid-race. Four Toyota drivers combined to lead 154 laps — more than the manufacturer had been out front in the previous six races. Denny Hamlin’s №11 Joe Gibbs Racing vehicle paced the Toyotas with 71 laps led and he claimed the Stage 2 win. However, a pair of pit-road penalties — including a costly one on his final stop — took Hamlin out of contention and he finished 20th.
“What an awesome Hendrickcars.com Chevy,” Larson said. “Can’t say enough about it. I got into the 99 [Suárez] on pit road there sometime in the second stage, and we were awful after that. I was hoping the damage was the reason why, but they had to calm me down a little bit and get refocused and was able to get it done.
“Thanks to everyone on this team, Cliff Daniels, for everything he does to prepare the team to be as strong as we are without him on the box. So good to get a win, and hopefully many more.”
Michael McDowell finished sixth — his first top-10 finish of the year. Reigning series champion Joey Logano was seventh, followed by polesitter Alex Bowman, rookie Ty Gibbs and owner-driver Brad Keselowski. Gibbs’ ninth-place effort marked his third consecutive top-10 finish.
The series returns to action next Sunday with the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.
Note: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the race winner. The Nos. 24 and 48 cars will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center for further evaluation.
*NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report
