Five to Watch: Richmond Raceway

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule concludes a stretch with a high concentration of short tracks with the first of two visits this year to Richmond Raceway. Ahead of the third short track in the last four races, here's five story lines to watch for Saturday's Toyota Owners 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM).

Triple threat? Kyle Busch's dominance this season arrives at a facility where he's been equally strong in recent years. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 driver has six career victories at Richmond, including a season sweep in 2018. A third straight triumph here Saturday night would become his fourth win in a six-race span, plus would extend his streak to nine consecutive top-10 finishes to start the season.

Pouring it on: Victories in this season's eight races have been divided among two organizations -- Joe Gibbs Racing with five and Team Penske with the other three. Based on recent history at the 0.75-mile track, it's a trend that has strong potential to continue. Six of the last seven Richmond races have gone to either a JGR or Penske driver. The only outlier: Kyle Larson's triumph for Chip Ganassi Racing in the 2017 regular-season finale.

From Richmond to Truex, no I.O.U.s: Martin Truex Jr. has come close to breaking a career winless skid on short tracks at Richmond Raceway. He's led 100-plus laps in four of the last five Richmond races, but without a trip to Victory Lane. Still, Truex doesn't feel like the track owes him one. "Man, I've been down that road. Nothing owes you anything," Truex said. "You have to earn it in this sport. It's tough. A perfect example, Jimmie Johnson has won how many races at Martinsville and he went there this year and he's two laps down. None of these places owe you anything, you have to go out and get it."

Ready to run: Jimmie Johnson plans to run 300 miles in Saturday night's 400-lapper, but he also plans on 26.2 extra miles in Monday's Boston Marathon. The training has been months in the making, but he's also bracing for the prospect of a Sunday race in Richmond should the weather turn inclement. "I started to get nervous watching the weather, and then I decided the hell with it," Johnson said. "I can't control it, and if I have a car race on Sunday and marathon on Monday, it's just going to be a better story. At this point, I've run nearly 800 miles since the start of the new year, and looking at 26.2, that doesn't seem like a big deal at this point. I'm ready. I love to be prepared and ready for anything and everything I do, and I'm ready for that."

No sticky stuff: After two consecutive weeks of racing with a traction compound applied to certain lanes at Texas and Bristol, there is no grippy additive in play at Richmond Raceway. The reason, Paul Menard says, is simple. "Because it is a great race track to begin with. It has a bottom groove, a middle groove and an outside groove. It is a three-quarter-mile, fairly flat track but we can get up to the fence during races and that is something that you don't have at Martinsville and Bristol; the preferred groove is up by the fence. They made the bottom groove come in. Here you have a lot more options."