NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond: Live updates, highlights, leaderboard

The NASCAR Cup Series takes on the Richmond Raceway for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400.

Kyle Larson is the defending race winner and Sunday’s pole sitter, with Chase Elliott starting on the outside of row 1.

The 400-lap race often comes down to tire wear and tire management. The tire falloff during practice was nearly two seconds after 40 or more laps, which will allow for differing strategies throughout the evening.

Follow along with our live race updates, with green flag set for after 6 pm CT on Sunday.

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NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond: Live updates, highlights, live leaderboard

Denny Hamlin (who may have jumped the restart!) wins the Toyota Owners 400 after clearing Martin Truex Jr. down the backstretch with two laps to go.

Joey Logano is second. Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. lean on each other on the final lap, with Larson getting P3 and Truex P4. Chase Elliott is 5th.

Truex was not happy with Hamlin and gave him a good bump into turn 3 on the cool-down lap.

Denny Hamlin leads Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson off pit road. A stunning development for the 19 car. All lead lap cars came in for new tires.

Kyle Larson spins down the frontstretch off the bumper of Bubba Wallace! OT!

Larson and Wallace have a history.

Joey Logano is charging hard, now within eight-tenths of a second of Martin Truex Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. cannot lap Ross Chastain, the 16th place driver, and Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are within two seconds.

Joey Logano passes Kyle Larson for 2nd, some four seconds behind Martin Truex Jr.

Denny Hamlin, on newer tires, is 4th.

Martin Truex Jr. returns to the top of the leaderboard, now with a lead of more than a second over Kyle Larson after Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell pitted.

Kyle Larson leads Martin Truex Jr. off pit road, but Truex passes Larson back a couple laps later.

Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell are the last two drivers on old tires.

Martin Truex Jr. and others are coming down pit road. These should be the final green flag stops. No mistakes needed.

The top 10 with 90 to go:

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Kyle Larson
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Joey Logano
5. Bubba Wallace
6. William Byron
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Chris Buescher
9. Chase Elliott
10. Josh Berry

18 cars on the lead lap. Christopher Bell is 16th and on the lead lap with newer tires. You can see how his strategy could have worked, but he was also one of the fastest cars at the end of the last run.

Christopher Bell surged up the leaderboard but has done everything wrong on this round of stops. He pits several laps after the other leaders, comes back out in 9th and is caught speeding. Wow. He’ll go a lap down by serving the pass-through penalty.

Martin Truex Jr. is in, as does Kyle Larson and most of the other leaders pit for four new tires.

The only lead lap car that stays out? Christopher Bell.

Martin Truex Jr. has a 1.2 second lead over Kyle Larson with 125 laps to go. Joey Logano, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin make up the top 5.

Some updates on drivers outside the top 5:

• Josh Berry has stayed in 7th after the previous bad stop.
• Brad Keselowski is up to 9th
• Chase Elliott is in 12th and stuck in that general area on the leaderboard.
• Ty Gibbs is up to 14th after an earlier pit road speeding penalty.
• Ryan Blaney is still a lap down but rides in 21st.

Martin Truex Jr. clears Kyle Larson for the lead at the restart. Josh Berry will restart outside the top five following a slow pit stop.

If this race stays green, how many stops will there be in the final 150 laps?

Martin Truex Jr. wins Stage 2, nearly two seconds ahead of Josh Berry.

Berry will take second, with Joey Logano close behind.

The full top 10:

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Josh Berry
3. Joey Logano
4. Kyle Larson
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Christopher Bell
7. Chris Buescher
8. Bubba Wallace
9. William Byron
10. Tyler Reddick

Alex Bowman fought Truex for the final five laps to stay on the lead lap and was not successful. He’ll get the free pass as the first car one lap down but will have to start further back in the pack. He will be the 19th and final car on the lead lap when the race restarts.

Martin Truex Jr. leads Josh Berry by 1.4 seconds at halfway. Some notable runs, both good and bad:

• Christopher Bell has moved up to 6th after starting 29th
• Chase Elliott has slipped to 13th during this green flag run
• Ryan Blaney is in 30th, one lap down.
• Corey Lajoie has struggled all night and is 35th.

The lead lap cars pit, which means Kyle Larson will start 6th. Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the restart and clears the leaders.

Josh Berry settles into second place. 24 cars are now on the lead lap.

Ty Gibbs had a speeding penalty during pit stops and has to restart in the back of the field,

Kyle Busch is in the wall, and the caution is out. This will shake up the pit strategy.

Kyle Larson pits 82 laps into the second stage, cutting it in half. Martin Truex Jr. climbed to within 10 seconds of Larson before he pitted.

Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace will also pit.

Less than 60 laps into the second stage, most of the field pits for new tires. But leader Kyle Larson and a few others stay out to split the stage in half.

Those who pit early will likely pit again before the end of the stage to cut the stage into thirds and will run laps about 2 seconds faster than those with older tires. The end of stage 2 is at Lap 230.

Josh Berry is closing in on the top two, passing Bubba Wallace for third and now a second behind second place Martin Truex Jr. Wallace is now back to 5th, with Joey Logano up to 4th.

Christopher Bell enters the top 10.

Kyle Larson clears the field to take the lead to begin Stage 2. Bubba Wallace remains second, with Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman in the top four.

Josh Berry is moving up, now in 6th after passing Joey Logano. Given his success in the No. 9 car here last year and the No. 4 car’s success at the track altogether, Berry’s run isn’t a huge surprise so far. Plenty of racing left.

Kyle Larson adds another playoff point to his early 2024 total by winning Stage 1.

The top 10:

1. Kyle Larson
2. Bubba Wallace
3. Alex Bowman
4. Martin Truex Jr.
5. Joey Logano
6. Todd Gilliland
7. Chase Elliott
8. Ross Chastain
9. Josh Berry
10. Ryan Preece

Stewart-Haas Racing has two drivers in the points in Stage 1, a good sign for that group.

NASCAR reverses course and will have live pit stops once pit road opens. Pit road looks significantly drier now.

Josh Berry and Daniel Suarez get together while battling for ninth into turn 1, and Suarez spins after trying to save it.

With five laps to go in Stage 1, NASCAR will keep the field under yellow to the end of the stage and will have post-stage non-competitive pit stops with pit road remaining wet, per FOX.

Kyle Larson eventually wins out on a side-by-side battle with Bubba Wallace for the lead after the restart.

This will be a short run to the end of stage 1, at Lap 70.

Teams will now put on slick tires with the competition caution out on the speedway. These will be non-competitive pit stops with a wet pit road, per MRN.

Kyle Larson leads Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott. Wallace looked pretty competitive on the wet-weather tires.

Shouldn’t take too much work to get pit road dry enough for competitive stops after this caution.

The track’s preferred line is starting to dry out, and the graying surface is really starting to show.

NASCAR will call a competition caution at lap 30.

Kyle Larson takes the lead from Chase Elliott, and he pulls away. Elliott falls back to third with Alex Bowman making a 1-2-3 Hendrick Motorsports top-3.

A lot of fallers and risers on the leaderboard. Kyle Busch has dropped from 15th to 27th. Daniel Suarez has moved from 20th to 12th since the green flag.

The green flag is thrown, and the Toyota Owners 400 is under way on a damp Richmond Raceway with cars utilizing wet-weather tires.

Chase Elliott beats Kyle Larson to the line to lead Lap 1. The cars look very competitive in these conditions, and cars can run side-by-side.

Green flag was delayed by about 16 minutes due to the weather.

This should be a fascinating start to the Toyota Owners 400 with all cars starting on the wet-weather tires. Is it damp enough to run those tires effectively? Will the bottom groove dry quick enough to require a change to regular slick tires soon after the green flag?

The covers are coming off of the cars, and apparently engines will be fired at about 7:14 pm ET.

Before the on-track hold was announced, NASCAR told teams to plan to start the race with wet-weather tires. Those tires are to be used under damp conditions, but the track will now need a little bit of work to get to that point.

NASCAR says that the on-track activity is on hold following pre-race ceremonies as the rain lingers at Richmond Raceway.

That means the race will not start on time. More to come.

The National Weather Service forecasts a 74% chance of rain in Richmond just before the scheduled green flag time, with chances falling throughout the evening.

Kyle Larson won the pole for Sunday’s race, his first of the season.

The top 10:

• 1.Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• 2. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• 3. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
• 4. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• 5. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
• 6. Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
• 7. Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
• 8. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
• 9. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
• 10. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford

Find the full starting lineup here.

The Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond will be aired on the radio by the Motor Racing Network. MRN has affiliates all across the country, and their feed can also be streamed on MRN.com and on NASCAR.com as well as the NASCAR app. The race can also be heard on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

• Green Flag Time: Approx. 6 pm CT on Sunday, March 31
• TV coverage: FOX (coverage begins at 5 pm CT Sunday)
• Radio: MRN (TBD in Nashville)
• Streaming: FUBO (free trial available); FOX Sports app (subscription required); MRN.com and SiriusXM for audio (subscription required).

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will be broadcast nationally on FOX. Streaming options for the game include the FOX Sports app and FUBO, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.

• 2023 summer race: Chris Buescher
• 2023 spring race: Kyle Larson
• 2022 summer race: Kevin Harvick
• 2022 spring race: Denny Hamlin
• 2021 summer race: Martin Truex Jr.
• 2021 spring race: Alex Bowman

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