Green Flag Drops at Richmond Raceway
Richmond VA– Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 brought the field to the drop of the green flag to get the 2018 Toyota Owners 400 underway at Richmond Raceway. Points leader Kyle Busch in the No. 18 would start back in 32nd after failing to make it through the first round of qualifying. By lap 10, Busch had already climbed his way up to 18th.
Busch would continue the climb, breaking into the top 10 on lap 33 as he passed Jamie McMurray in the No. 1. On lap 38, Joey Logano in the No. 22 would over Truex Jr. for the lead and quickly pull out to a 3 car length lead. Pole sitter Truex Jr. started to fall back a bit, dropping to 8th place ahead of the end of the 1st stage.
Logano would hold strong through the end of the first stage as things stayed clean without a caution through the entire 100 lap stage. Kyle Busch worked his way up to a 6th place stage 1 finish after starting way back in 32nd. The stage win for Logano was his 1st stage win of the season and only his 2nd ever stage win.
