Denny Hamlin’s second win of the season and Kyle Larson’s spin for the overtime caution made all the headlines for last weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Larson’s soon-to-overcome misfortunes came at the courtesy of Hamlin’s co-owned 23XI Racing driver, Bubba Wallace, on lap 398. Nevertheless, the driver of the #11 car notched his second win of the season in dramatic overtime fashion at Richmond Raceway.

Additionally, Denny Hamlin solidified his strong record on short tracks by winning two of the season’s first races, both under a mile in length. However, voices within his 23XI garage suggest that the JGR star driver was only average in a widely stellar field last Sunday.

Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Debates Denny Hamlin’s dominance on DBC

Joe Gibbs Racing’s widely debated third victory of the season is under heavy scrutiny currently. From FOX’s broadcast issues to Hamlin’s ‘early jump’ over teammate Martin Truex Jr, all the discussions made their way on the latest episode of Door Bumper Clear. The controversial cast listened as Casey Boat and Bubba Wallace’s spotter for the #23 car, Freddie Kraft, held conversations over Denny’s recent ‘short-track king’ status.

Casey Boat had an interesting opinion as well as a difficult question to pose to Kraft, she said, “Denny getting his fifth win at Richmond I mean Toyota obviously I feel like had the strongest cars. Is it safe to say that you know especially on a short track like this they’re the ones to beat moving forward?” The #23 spotter showered many praises for 23XI’s technical allies. Kraft said, “You know obviously they were all pretty strong last night I think Truex, the 20, Denny, were all pretty good, you know. They were all pretty strong.”

Albeit not answering Boat’s question, Kraft appeared unaligned with the original sentiment as he continued praising others: “Joey was really strong last night, though; Larson was strong; he kind of got burned by that caution and never really regained the lead again.”

Putting things into perspective Kyle Larson led most laps of the Richmond race under the lights from an impressive pole spot. That was before MTJ took over to lead a race-high 228 laps. Joey Logano’s P2 finish only came at the expense of MTJ and the race’s highly controversial finish. Nevertheless, Kraft outlined the #23 team’s plans while referencing a familiar venue: “Yeah, moving forward, hopefully we just continue to get faster everywhere; it’s like we talked about at the beginning of the year, like when you come out of the gate, running as strong as you did at Vegas.” 

Ironically, Denny Hamlin’s victory, already mired in controversy, was only secured thanks to a late-race caution caused by a battle between Larson and Kraft’s #23 team driver, Bubba Wallace. This incident brought back memories of their infamous 2022 brawl at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with Bubba’s post-race apology and Kraft’s comments on DBC only adding fuel to the #23 team’s fire.

Dejà Vu of the 2022 Las Vegas Brawl

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Bubba Wallace’s last Cup Series win came in the same year at Kansas Speedway. Ever since, Wallace has been consistently average for the next forty or more races, but the 2024 season kicked off for the #23 team with back-to-back P5 spots at draft track specials. The next five races saw him struggle to break into the top 5 again, with his best outing since being the Toyota Owners 400 race in Richmond last weekend. Bubba Wallace qualified in P5 and even gave Kyle Larson a tough battle for the lead from the beginning at the 0.75-mile oval in the heart of Virginia.

Nevertheless, Bubba Wallace spun Larson’s #5 Hendrick Chevy onto the infield alongside the straightaway. Consequently, the restart saw him finish outside of top-10 contention, while Kyle Larson secured his second podium finish of the season; his first came at the all-familiar Vegas race that Bubba’s spotter referenced earlier between discussions.

Freddie Kradt continued on his original statement regarding Vegas when he said, “You can hope to build off of that and then that’s kind of what we’re hoping we’re doing right now.”  However, as Hendrick Motorsports draws leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the car owners in the 2024 NASCAR season, 23XI has a steep mountain to climb in order to disparage Denny Hamlins’ short track reign’ this season.

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