Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson passed Joey Logano with 29 laps remaining to win Sunday afternoon’s NOCO 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.
Larson, who took two tires on the fifth caution period with 55 laps to go, restarted fifth with Logano — who stayed out on older tires — at the point with 46 circuits left in the final short-track race of the regular season’s first half.
Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet nudged Logano’s No. 22 up the track and made the pass down the backstretch to record his first victory in 17 starts at the historic track.
The Elk Grove, Calif., prevailed for his 21st career win by 4.142 seconds in the race that was led by nine drivers and had five cautions.
Following Logano were Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.
Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, who fractured his left tibia in an early March snowboarding accident leading up to the Las Vegas race, returned in the No. 9 Camaro to make his third start, gridding 24th in qualifying, and finishing 10th.
In his best starting position of 2023 and with the overcast weather questionable, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece won the pole and hustled his way to leading all 80 circuits in a caution-free Stage 1.
Racing in his fourth full season, the Ford driver earned his first-ever stage win and only the fifth for SHR since 2021 by beating Aric Almirola’s No. 10 Ford.
However, Preece was caught speeding on pit road during service after leading the race’s first 135 laps and penalized.
Ross Chastain paced the 36-car field in the second stage, but Kevin Harvick — Preece’s teammate at SHR — slipped by Chastain’s No. 1 Chevy with 14 laps to go and ran away to his first stage win since 2020.
Briscoe led 71 laps in the final segment but surrendered the lead to Hamlin on Lap 258.
–Field Level Media