Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond: Live highlights, stage results and more

Keep up to date with the latest from Richmond Raceway as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series goes night racing for the first time in 2018.

Bristol Motor Speedway gave the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams their first chance to see how they’d handle short track racing this season, but Richmond Raceway is an entirely different animal. The top drivers in the sport were fired up and ready for a whole different challenge under the lights for the Toyota Owners 400 on Saturday night.

A star not known for his short track mastery, Martin Truex Jr., won the Busch Pole and was in great position to lead some laps and challenge for a win. In contrast, Kyle Busch, who’s been fantastic at Richmond over the course of his career, missed the setup in qualifying and had to chase his third straight Cup Series win starting from the 32nd position.

One thing everyone expected as the race began before the lights had to come on is no problems with the weather. A clear night was in the forecast, another stark difference from Bristol, so the stage was set for 400 laps.

As we’ve seen on almost every start and restart in 2018, Truex got out in front from the first position and led the opening laps. in hot pursuit, though, was Joey Logano, another driver with plenty of success at Richmond Raceway.

Fords dominated the rest of Stage 1, with Logano spending tons of time up front, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch right behind him, and Ricky Stenhouse short-pitting for tires and able to get two laps back.

Almirola’s heroic charge toward the front got him within a second of the lead, but Logano held on to win the stage.

Stage 1 results

1. Joey Logano, 10 points plus 1 bonus playoff point
2. Aric Almirola, 9 points
3. Kurt Busch, 8 points
4. William Byron, 7 points
5. Clint Bowyer, 6 points
6. Kyle Busch, 5 points
7. Chase Elliott, 4 points
8. Austin Dillon, 3 points
9. Martin Truex Jr., 2 points
10. Kevin Harvick, 1 point

Logano left the pits in first place as well, but even though he got a decent jump on the ensuing restart, it was a different Ford that soon led the way: the 41 of Kurt Busch.

Almost incredibly, we got through two entire stages at Richmond without a single caution for an incident, and though Clint Bowyer took the lead from Logano, the 22 was able to take it back. The intrigue was mostly due to more cars pitting short for tires, going laps down and then getting at least some of them back.

Stage 2 results

1. Joey Logano, 10 points or one playoff point
2. Clint Bowyer, 9 points
3. Aric Almirola, 8 points
4. Kurt Busch, 7 points
5. William Byron, 6 points
6. Kyle Busch, 5 points
7. Ryan Newman, 4 points
8. Brad Keselowski, 3 points
9. Martin Turex Jr., 2 points
10. Kevin Harvick, 1 point

The final stage looked like it would answer one of our original questions for the Toyota Owners 400: Would Truex be able to break through with a short track win? After his pit crew saved him some time during green flag pit stops, he found himself back up front.

The answer to that question with less than 80 laps to go appeared to be “no.” Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick — who overcame a penalty for his crew throwing equipment on pit road — and Bowyer both caught and passed him. But there was one more round of green flag pit stops looming …

Surely we weren’t going to get all the way to the end of a 400-lap race without at least one caution for an incident, right?

Narrator: We were not.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went around after some contact with Ryan Blaney, Cole Whitt was also involved, and we had our first yellow flag for something other than the end of a stage.

That wouldn’t be the end of the trouble either, as Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman encountered some difficulties. Afterward, McMurray pulled up alongside teammate Kyle Larson and appeared to exchange words with him, which was curious since it was Kurt Busch who ran the 1 up to the wall.

The restart came with roughly 25 laps to go, and Kyle Busch got out in front. However, Truex was closing in, with Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick not that far off.

With just 11 laps to go, David Ragan, having a good run in 15th place and on the lead lap, spun and ended up in the outside wall. Would the leaders come back to the pits? They did, but it proved costly for Truex, who had a stop that was four seconds slower than the other contending cars and came out of the pits ninth.

Kyle Busch was the beneficiary, leading on the restart, but Stenhouse went into the wall with four laps to go, putting the race back under caution.

That sent the race to overtime, with Kyle Busch leading again and Chase Elliott, desperately seeking his first Cup Series victor, clearing some three-wide racing to emerge as the closest challenger. He never seriously got close enough to make a pass, though, and the 18 ended up taking the checkered flag for the third consecutive race.