STEWART-HAAS RACING
Richmond 400
Date: April 2, 2023
Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway (.75-mile oval)
Format: 400 laps, broken into three stages (70 laps/160 laps/170 laps)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
SHR Race Finish:
● Aric Almirola (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
SHR Points:
● Aric Almirola (27th with 94 points, 169 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● This was Almirola’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 21st in the season-opening Daytona 500.
● This was Almirola’s second straight top-15 at Richmond. He finished eighth last August.
Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the Richmond 400 to score his 20th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his second at Richmond. His margin over second-place Josh Berry was 1.535 seconds.
● Larson was the sixth different winner in the seven NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 54 laps.
● Twenty-four of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Alex Bowman leaves Richmond as the championship leader with a four-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain.
Sound Bites:
“We struggled a little bit. I feel like this is one of my better places and I just thought we were a little bit off of where we needed to be. We’ve got some work to do before we come back, but proud to finally get out of a race with a decent day where we didn’t have anything catastrophic happen. We didn’t have everything go perfectly, but we were able to get out of here with a racecar that’s still in one piece and go forward from here. Hopefully, this is the start to turning our season around.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, April 9 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.