The pressure is getting turned up this weekend as NASCAR Cup Series teams arrived at Richmond Raceway for some intense short-track action. This will be the shortest track the Next Gen car has seen in a points race so far, and the pressure will be on for drivers and pit crews as shorter tracks turn up the intensity not only from a braking perspective for the drivers but from a speed perspective for pit crews in order to gain or retain track position.
Richmond is one of the most intense tracks when it comes to braking, and drivers appeared to make good use of the larger brake package that is in use on the Next Gen car as they practiced and qualified early Saturday. Just like at Phoenix Raceway, we’ll see brake cooling opened up to keep up with the braking demands required here and keep the brakes cool, but we’re likely to see more tire fall-off than we saw at Phoenix, which should make things exciting. Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing had strong representation in the final qualifying session, but Ryan Blaney was able to outdo all of them in order to capture the pole in his Team Penske Ford Mustang. His pole run in qualifying came after strong results in practice, where he topped the charts in both short-run and long-run speed as he was fastest on all runs less than 30 laps.
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That tire fall-off combined with fast speed on a short track is going to put the pressure on pit crews to perform, and Richmond is likely to bring out record times during pit stops as we get to our first track where track position is significant since alternate pit-stop choreographies have been made legal. We’ve seen speed in the mid nine-second range from multiple teams with crews from the Nos. 18 and 9 cars topping the charts most weeks. That No. 18 crew along with other Joe Gibbs Racing teammates are likely to deploy their alternate pit-stop choreography Sunday where we’ll see both of their tire changers coming around the front of the car, which should shorten pit-stop times. Those JGR crews have spent significant time practicing this alternate choreography, and considering they’ve been able to go as low as 9.4 seconds using a traditional choreography, it would not be surprising to see them dip into the eight-second range for a four-tire pit stop.
Richmond is likely to bring out the excitement both on the track and on pit road and will give us a great preview of what we can expect from the Next Gen car on short tracks this season.