The NASCAR Cup Series‘ July schedule continued Sunday with the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, and we had you covered with all the action from Chris Buescher’s huge win — his veryfirst win of the year and the 3rd of his profession!
NASCAR’s top stars fought it out over 400 laps on the renowned 0.75-mile D-shaped oval asphalt speedway, understood as “America’s Premier Short Track”, in Richmond, Virginia.
Richmond, likewise nicknamed the “Action Track,” served as the background for the 22nd race of the 2023 Cup Series season.
You can discover a complete list of winners so far this year, as well as the season’s staying schedule here.
Here are the leading minutes!
Green
Tyler Reddick, who examined in at ninth in our newest NASCAR power rankings, began on the pole at Richmond — his veryfirst pole because signingupwith 23XI Racing. Four of Sunday’s leading-10 beginners were browsing for their veryfirst win of the season.
Battling early
Bubba Wallace overtook Kyle Busch for the 3rd area midway through the opening phase.
Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin started to close in on Reddick for the lead.
Power moves
Reddick protected the win in Stage 1 after leading all 70 of its laps, earning his 4th phase win of the year. Rounding out the top-five finishers in the opening phase were Wallace, Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick, respectively.
Heating up
The green flag was back out at Lap 79, as the 2nd phase got underway.
Lead modification!
Wallace took the lead early in Stage 2, ultimately opening it up to almost 1.5 seconds on Reddick, and set a brand-new personal-best for laps led in a race this season in the procedure.
Meanwhile, Reddick was getting heavy pressure from Brad Keselowski.
Zeroing in
There was some noteworthy contact inbetween Ty Gibbs and Elliott towards the end of the 2nd phase.
Miscue
Wallace had a bit of problem on pit roadway at the end of Stage 2, costing him valuable seconds in an necessary race.
After that pit cycle, Keselowski took the lead, followed by Martin Truex Jr. in 2nd and Michael McDowell in 3rd.
Eyes on the reward
Keselowski went on to win Stage 2, followed by Buescher, Reddick, Wallace and Hamlin.
Elsewhere, Alex Bowman got into a hard fight with colleague Kyle Larson for the totallyfree pass position. Bowman dominated and got back on the lead lap under care.
Not how he drew it up
Keselowski had a bothersome pit stop early in the 3rd phase that expense him his track position to Buescher.
Need for speed
With momentum on his side, Buescher took the lead from Truex with 94 laps to go at Richmond.
Coming through!
As Larson made his method through the field on fresh tires, he moved Hamlin out of his method efficiently and matter-of-factly.
Late-race reboot
Noah Gragson got into Daniel Suárez to bring out a care and a reboot with less than 10 laps staying.
Winner!
In the end, Buescher got a excellent launch on the reboot and held off the rest of the field for the white flag.
He was followed by Hamlin, Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece, which rounded on the top-five finishers.
PRE-RACE
Setting the phase
Ahead of the action, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass broke down what and who to watch out for in Sunday’s race.
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