2019 Toyota Owners 400

The 2019 Toyota Owners 400 is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on April 13, 2019, at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Contested over 400 laps on the 0.75 mile (1.2 km) asphalt short track, it was the ninth race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Background
Richmond Raceway is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

First practice
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 22.185 seconds and a speed of 121.704 mph.

Final practice
Final practice session scheduled for Friday was cancelled due to rain.

Qualifying
Kevin Harvick scored the pole for the race with a time of 21.722 and a speed of 124.298 mph.

Start
Kevin Harvick drove off into the lead as racing from mid-pack on back fanned out two and three wide. Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch, the top two cars from last week at Bristol, drove to the front and began eating into Harvick’s lead.

NASCAR scheduled a competition caution for Lap 40 due to rains overnight and into the morning. Almost everyone pitted for new tires and fuel. On the restart, Kyle Busch held the lead with Harvick 2nd. Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher all moved past Harvick as the race settled into the 100 laps of Stage 1.

Kyle Busch held on for the Stage win, easily outrunning Joey Logano Logano in 2nd.

Stage 2
The 2nd stage started almost the way Stage 1 ended with Kyle Busch in the lead and Logano in 2nd. Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer followed to the green flag restart. Kyle Larson cut down a tire 30 laps into the Stage and wrecked out of the race when he hit the wall. With tire wear such an issue at Richmond, all the leaders pitted.

The top five remained the same. But, Kyle Busch was clocked too fast on pit road and sent to the rear of the lead lap, restarting in 24th place. Truex quickly passed Logano and took his turn at the front of the field.

Late in the stage, Joey Logano moved back into the lead passing [[Martin Truex Jr. to take the Stage win.

Kyle Busch worked his way up to 15th.

Final Stage
Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. lead the field back to green for the 200 laps of the final stage. As the cars settled in after the restart, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer filled out the top 5. Kyle Busch managed to work his way back into 10th.

On lap 242, Michael McDowell had a right rear tire give out and he spun crashing into the turn 1 wall. Again all the leaders pitted for tires. Martin Truex Jr. took the lead away from Logano exiting the pits first. The remainder of the top 5 stayed the same. Kyle Busch restarted in 7th.

Brad Keselowski passed his teammate Joey Logano on the restart and a few laps later passed Truex for the lead. Keselowski stayed out front for 28 laps, then Treux passed to take back the lead.

Green flag pit stops began with 80 laps to go. Barring another caution, it should be the final stop of the evening. When the field cycled through their stops, it was Martin Truex Jr. back out front increasing his lead to two seconds. Clint Bowyer moved into 2nd, followed by Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin. Kyle Busch, with an uncharacteristic slow stop, dropped back to 10th.

Truex has led over 1,300 laps on short tracks but has never posted a win on a track less than a mile in length during his Cup career. With 50 laps to go Bowyer closed the gap behind Truex to less than a second, trying to make the winless streak continue.

Finish
With 25 laps to go, Clint Bowyer had made it to Truex’s bumper. With 22 to go, they were side-by-side but Truex maintained the lead. As the front two battled lap after lap it allowed Logano to close up and join the fight for the lead.

With 10 laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. had stretched the lead. Bowyer may have used up his tires trying to get by earlier. At 4 to go, Joey Logano passed Bowyer for 2nd. With the white flag in the air, Logano was at Truex’s bumper. Would another bump and run between the two play out the way it did at Martinsville last fall?

Truex held on to the win, finally breaking the short-track drought. His first win of 2019 and his first win for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 100

Stage Two Laps: 100

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 200

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 8 among 5 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 5 for 41
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 3 hours, 0 minutes and 16 seconds
 * Average speed: 99.852 mph

Television
Fox Sports covered their 19th race at the Richmond Raceway. Mike Joy, two-time Richmond winner Jeff Gordon and six-time Richmond winner Darrell Waltrip had the call in the booth for the race. Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties for the television side.

Radio
MRN had the radio call for the race which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and six-time Richmond winner Rusty Wallace called the race in the booth when the field raced down the frontstretch. Mike Bagley called the race from a platform inside the backstretch when the field raced down the backstretch. Winston Kelley, Steve Post and Glenn Jarrett worked pit road for the radio side.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
 * . – Driver has clinched a position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.