Front-runners expected to rule the night at Richmond

Preview Show
NASCAR.COM's Beau Estes and Mike Bell ponder if Junior can carry momentum from Talladega into a track he has won at three times.
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Fantasy Preview
NASCAR.COM's Mike Bell gives his picks for the race at RIR and a driver who has yet to win there tops the list.
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Garage Expert
Larry McReynolds explains how NASCAR monitors and enforces speed limits on pit road.
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Track Facts
NASCAR.COM's Melanie Collins breaks down the history, former winners and all of the particulars you need to know about RIR.
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Travel Log
Starting with the American Revolution and the birth of a nation, and going to the repairing of a nation when it threatened to divide, Richmond has been ...
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Talladega shook up the top 12 -- and the top 20, too. We have a new leader, Kurt Busch, and Greg Biffle re-entered the top 12, replacing Kasey Kahne, who dropped to 14th. Ryan Newman, Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya are less than 50 points behind No. 12 Matt Kenseth. Bill Marx of the Sporting News Wire Service breaks down the top 12:

1. Kurt Busch, 1,299 points -- Busch might be winless at Talladega, but those 12 top-10s in 17 races sure have come in handy. No. 12 on Sunday vaulted him into the No. 1 spot in the standings for the first time in more than four years.

2. Jeff Gordon, 1,294 -- Contact with Kenseth touched off the "big one" on Lap 7, and Gordon paid dearly. He is only five points behind Busch because his team was able to get the No. 24 back in the race and Gordon finished 37th. Not that Gordon's Chase chances are in jeopardy, but along the way, those points he picked up might make a difference should qualifying be rained out and the field -- and pit selection -- be set by points.

3. Jimmie Johnson, 1,235 -- Johnson fell victim to the big pileup with 10 laps to go and suffered his first DNF since last year's Coca-Cola 600. It was his first DNF because of a crash in nearly two years (Indianapolis, July 2007).

4. Tony Stewart, 1,232 -- Smoke lost a cylinder and finished 23rd, the last car on the lead lap. Even though he suffered his second-worst finish of the season (he finished 26th at Las Vegas) Stewart emerged from the race in a better position than he started -- 67 points out of first, after starting the race 104 behind Gordon.

5. Denny Hamlin, 1,190 -- Hamlin led 28 laps, second only to Kyle Busch's 42, but late contact relegated the No. 11 to a 22nd-place finish. But like Stewart, Hamlin picked up ground, moving from 154 to 109 points out of first.

6. Kyle Busch, 1,124 -- Busch was involved in a couple of incidents and finished 25th. He has now finished outside the top 10 in four consecutive races after beginning the season with two wins and a third in the first five races. Is it time for Busch fans to panic? Absolutely not.

7. Carl Edwards, 1,119 -- This race will be remembered for Edwards' crash, but his two-car train with Brad Keselowski was a sight to behold. Had Edwards not blocked Keselowski and settled for second (assuming Keselowski would have beaten Edwards to the line), Edwards would have finished the race with 175 points rather than the 96 for finishing 24th and would be fourth in the standings. Does that matter much? Not really, unless Edwards finds himself teetering on the brink of not making the Chase going into the final race of the regular season. And the chances of that happening are remote.

8. Clint Bowyer, 1,098 -- Bowyer's day came to a quick halt in the Lap 7 "big one." But the race was not a total loss. His team was able to repair the No. 33 well enough for it to run the last two laps, avoid a DNF and enable Bowyer to establish the modern-day record of 82 consecutive races running at the finish.

9. Jeff Burton, 1,092 -- Burton had a busy afternoon. After a drive through the grass to avoid the Lap 7 melee, electrical issues set him back three laps before the race was 50 laps old. But he was able to regain the lead lap and lead six laps. As the race wound down, he got into Kyle Busch. Still, Burton was able to finish 10th. This week's race at Richmond will seem like a drive in the park by comparison.

10. Greg Biffle, 1,081 -- The drought is over. Biffle finished seventh for his first top-10 in 13 Cup races at Talladega. He had crashed out of four of the previous five Talladega races as well. "This feels like a victory," Biffle said.

11. David Reutimann, 1,077 -- Reutimann finished 26th, but it was good enough to remain in the top 12, although he dropped two spots. With two top-10s, he has the fewest among drivers in the top 12 and is tied for the fewest among drivers in the top 20. If Reutimann is going to be a top-12 mainstay, he must do better.

12. Matt Kenseth, 1,063 -- Kenseth survived contact with Gordon to finish 17th and for the second consecutive week is 12th in the standings by a slim margin. He still is way ahead of last year's pace. After nine races in 2008, Kenseth was 19th in points, 120 points out of 12th.

All statistical references are for Cup races at Richmond International Raceway unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past eight races at the track.

Top five ...

Busch

1. Kurt Busch, 93.1 driver rating. Busch is atop the standings for the first time in four years and has a five-point lead over Jeff Gordon. Busch, an excellent short-track racer, has one win in 16 starts. Seven of his 19 career Cup wins have come on short tracks.

2. Jeff Gordon, 89.4. Gordon won't have to worry about the "big one" this week and can settle in at a track where he has two wins and 20 top 10s in 32 starts.

3. Jimmie Johnson, 85.9. Here's a quirk in the driver rating: Johnson has the 14th-best rating even though he has won three of the past four races at the track. How can that happen? No consistency. In the other five races that make up the rating, Johnson has finishes of 40th, 25th, 12th, 23rd and 30th.

4. Tony Stewart, 104.9. Then there's Stewart. Smoke has three wins at Richmond, but they were in his first seven races, with the last one seven years ago. Stewart's rating trails only Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch thanks to his four top fives (three seconds) in the past eight races and another three top 10s. His worst finish in the stretch is a respectable 18th.

5. Denny Hamlin, 115.3. Hamlin, of nearby Chesterfield, Va., won the Nationwide race at his home track last spring and almost swept both races. He led 381 of the first 382 laps the next day before a cut tire popped his dream. He finished 24th, one of two times in six races Hamlin has missed the top 10. He has led laps in all six.

Five to watch ...

Bowyer

6. Kyle Busch, 109.9. Busch became Public Enemy No. 1 for his contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the two battled for the lead with two laps to go last spring. Busch went on to finish second for the third time in eight races at Richmond. He also has three other top-fives.

8. Clint Bowyer, 93.3. Bowyer was sitting in third when Earnhardt and Busch made contact. Bowyer took it from there to pick up his second Cup win. All three of Bowyer's top-10s have come in the spring race.

15. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 97.0. Junior is coming off his first top-five of the season last week, and he has had much success at Richmond: 10 top-10s and three wins in 19 starts. Earnhardt followed up the missed opportunity in the spring race with a fourth-place finish last fall.

19. Marcos Ambrose, no rating. Ambrose has a 19.8 average finish in four Nationwide races at Richmond but has yet to start a Cup race there. He finished fourth at Talladega last week for his best Cup finish on an oval and rocketed up seven spots in the standings. Although a short track, Richmond is like a mini-speedway. That should help Ambrose.

20. Kevin Harvick, 118.8. Harvick has earned the top driver rating with eight consecutive top-10s, including one win and 679 laps led. Harvick needs a top finish to turn his season around.