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NASCAR Cup Series

Cook Out 400

Richmond Raceway

July 30th, 2023

Race #22 of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 400
Miles Raced : 300.0
Time of Race : 03 Hours 02 minutes 13 seconds
Average Speed: 98.783 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.549 seconds
Cautions: 3
Caution Laps: 21
Lead Changes: 18

Richmond, Virginia - July 30th, 2023: A general view of West Coast Customs' street-legal NASCAR Next Gen Toyota Camry TRD on the grid prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Photo by Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Chris Buescher	26	3	1	1	1	27	7.3	+25	100	79	+21	48	25	79.8%	88	400	121.6	49
Denny Hamlin	3	5	2	2	1	12	3.8	+1	69	68	+1	54	26	100.0%	20	400	120.5	49
Kyle Busch	2	7	6	3	2	23	7.3	-1	121	127	-6	70	6	98.0%	0	400	104.1	39
Joey Logano	23	13	7	4	2	25	10.8	+19	128	107	+21	68	27	80.5%	0	400	92.1	34
Ryan Preece	11	8	3	5	2	30	8.2	+6	132	112	+20	65	9	90.8%	0	400	108.1	41
Brad Keselowski	13	1	5	6	1	23	5.2	+7	100	96	+4	59	20	98.3%	102	400	115.1	43
Martin Truex Jr	10	6	4	7	1	30	13.6	+3	115	114	+1	40	18	57.0%	18	400	75.6	33
Aric Almirola	24	18	10	8	3	27	13.7	+16	143	126	+17	52	22	68.5%	0	400	87.2	32
Austin Dillon	17	10	11	9	4	25	14.4	+8	128	120	+8	43	1	64.0%	0	400	78.4	28
Kevin Harvick	8	11	9	10	2	18	9.2	-2	90	94	-4	53	9	98.5%	0	400	93.7	33
Chase Briscoe	20	19	12	11	3	26	15.9	+9	132	123	+9	40	2	33.5%	0	400	73.8	26
Bubba Wallace	5	4	8	12	1	19	5.0	-7	101	108	-7	67	30	98.8%	80	400	108.6	41
Chase Elliott	4	15	14	13	3	25	10.3	-9	99	108	-9	50	2	92.0%	0	400	87.6	31
Ryan Blaney	25	21	18	14	1	29	18.8	+11	165	152	+13	41	27	19.8%	2	400	70.0	23
Ty Gibbs	7	9	16	15	3	26	11.0	-8	115	125	-10	53	4	91.0%	0	400	84.7	25
Tyler Reddick	1	2	13	16	1	22	4.3	-15	74	90	-16	40	27	94.5%	81	400	112.3	39
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	9	16	17	17	2	26	15.0	-8	126	131	-5	51	10	52.3%	0	400	70.3	20
Alex Bowman	15	14	15	18	2	27	14.7	-3	124	127	-3	47	6	59.5%	0	400	64.4	19
Kyle Larson	14	20	19	19	5	28	18.8	-5	122	126	-4	15	11	15.8%	0	400	62.7	18
Christopher Bell	29	29	22	20	2	32	22.1	+9	146	143	+3	23	24	6.0%	0	399	56.9	17
William Byron	6	17	20	21	4	27	16.5	-15	100	112	-12	17	5	34.3%	0	399	72.6	20
Michael McDowell	18	12	21	22	1	30	17.3	-4	132	132	+0	43	6	45.3%	9	399	68.7	15
Erik Jones	27	24	24	23	13	30	23.9	+4	137	132	+5	5	2	0.5%	0	399	52.4	14
Ross Chastain	19	22	27	24	8	31	23.5	-5	111	119	-8	5	1	1.3%	0	399	52.0	13
Todd Gilliland	16	28	28	25	12	32	23.7	-9	121	130	-9	10	22	3.3%	0	399	56.8	12
Austin Cindric	30	27	26	26	17	34	26.6	+4	110	109	+1	0	0	0.0%	0	399	43.0	11
AJ Allmendinger	36	23	23	27	12	36	23.9	+9	124	113	+11	2	2	0.3%	0	399	48.1	10
Noah Gragson	12	26	25	28	11	35	24.9	-16	92	109	-17	5	14	11.5%	0	398	53.0	9
Ryan Newman	32	30	29	29	12	36	29.5	+3	96	95	+1	2	0	1.0%	0	398	35.7	8
Justin Haley	28	33	31	30	25	36	31.6	-2	81	86	-5	0	0	0.0%	0	398	38.8	7
Harrison Burton	22	34	33	31	20	36	32.4	-9	85	93	-8	0	0	0.0%	0	397	32.5	6
Corey Lajoie	31	31	32	32	27	36	32.2	-1	98	101	-3	0	9	0.0%	0	397	29.1	5
Daniel Suarez	33	25	30	33	5	34	27.5	+0	121	116	+5	10	6	4.5%	0	396	38.3	4
Ty Dillon	34	32	34	34	29	36	33.9	+0	69	69	+0	0	2	0.0%	0	396	26.9	3
JJ Yeley	35	35	35	35	27	36	33.8	+0	76	75	+1	0	0	0.0%	0	396	31.0	0
BJ McLeod	21	36	36	36	21	36	35.7	-15	26	42	-16	0	0	0.0%	0	395	23.8	1

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Race Fast Facts

Richmond Raceway
Cook Out 400
Race Winner: Chris Buescher
Age: 30
Team : No. 17 - Fastenal Ford
Owner: John Henry
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Chris Buescher won the Cook Out 400, his third victory in 279 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 2023.
This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in 15 races at Richmond Raceway.
Denny Hamlin (second) posted his 22nd top-10 finish in 34 races at Richmond Raceway. It is his 10th top-10 finish in 2023.
Kyle Busch (third) posted his 28th top-10 finish in 36 races at Richmond Raceway.
Ty Gibbs (15th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Martin Truex Jr. leads the point standings by 39 points over Denny Hamlin.

Race Recap

Chris Buescher captures Playoff berth with win at Richmond

July 30th, 2023

By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service

Chris Buescher capped Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s dominant day at Richmond (Va.) Raceway with a trophy, holding off the field on a restart with three laps remaining to win the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 Sunday afternoon – his and the RFK team’s first victory of the season.

Buescher and his teammate Brad Keselowski (also a co-owner of RFK) combined to lead a race-best 190-of-400 laps – Buescher’s 88 laps out front was the most laps he’s ever led in a race in his eight-year NASCAR Cup Series career. And it all results in an important automatic bid into the 16-driver Playoff field with only four races remaining in the regular season.

Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Ford ultimately held off last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin by a slight .549-seconds although Buescher had held more than a five-second advantage on Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota up until that caution flag flew for an accident involving Noah Gragson and Daniel Suarez in the closing laps.

“It was smooth sailing trying to take care of this Fastenal Mustang, it was so good and trying to take care of it there and about the time (crew chief) Scott (Graves) said over the radio ‘It’s working perfect, keep it up,’ and then there’s a caution," said Buescher with a smile.

“But we were so strong during the race, I had a good feeling there about it," added Buescher who now has three career NASCAR Cup Series wins. “So awesome to pull it off. I’m proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back."

That late-race yellow flag was the only caution flag on the day other than the two stage breaks. And the afternoon racing at the Richmond three-quarter mile track was physically demanding under intense heat – over 130-degrees inside the race car. As seventh-place finisher Martin Truex Jr. said smiling after the race, “my cheek feels like it’s sunburned, it was like a hair dryer blowing on you."

The 30-year old Texas native Buescher, however, handled the heat and the field, starting 26th but steadily working his way forward. He first cracked into the Top-5 by lap 160 of the 400-lap race, chasing down then-leaders Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Keselowski and Hamlin.

For a race with so many green flag laps, it was actually issues on pit road that thwarted several winning efforts, not problems racing on the track.

Wallace’s 80 laps out front mid-race in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota marked the most laps led in a single race in his career. But he ultimately had to play catch-up when his team had a slow tire change on green flag pit stop on Lap 175. He finished 12th.

With 56 laps remaining, race polesitter and Wallace’s 23XI teammate Tyler Reddick got flagged for violating the commitment line coming to pit road for green flag stop, relegating him from running among the Top-3 to desperately trying to remain on the lead lap with the laps counting down. He finished 16th after leading 81 laps early – every lap of Stage 1 en route to claiming his fourth stage win.

Similarly, Keselowski suffered a misstep in the pits after his No. 6 RFK Ford led a race-best 102 laps. He made an awkward turn into his pit during a green flag stop with 115 laps remaining and it cost just enough time to allow his teammate Buescher to take the lead with under 100 laps remaining.

“We wanted to finish one-two, that’s the ultimate goal, but we still had a heckuva day," said Keselowski, who finished sixth and won Stage Two - his third stage win of the season.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch – the all-time active winner at Richmond – finished third; his best showing on a short track this season. Team Penske’s Joey Logano rallied in the late laps to finish fourth and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece turned in his best showing of the season with a fifth place run.

Keselowski and Truex finished sixth and seventh followed by SHR’s Aric Almirola, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and SHR’s Kevin Harvick. Chase Briscoe finished 11th giving SHR one of its best full team efforts of the season – all four cars inside the Top-11.

Every car in the 36-car field finished the race, the first time the full field was running at the end since 2018.

Buescher is now the 12th driver to win a race in 2023, leaving four positions still available for a new winner or the top drivers in points. Harvick and Keselowski hold more than a 100-point advantage on the 16th place cutoff. Wallace is up 54 points and Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell holds an 18-point buffer on Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Ty Gibbs for that 16th place position. Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger is 22 points behind McDowell.