What to Watch: Chase hopefuls aim to wrangle Richmond results

Track: Richmond Raceway
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Track length: 0.75 miles
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 400 laps | 300 miles
Stages: 70 | 230 | 400
Saturday’s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments

Pressure points build at Richmond as regular season winds down

RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Raceway’s second date of the season has long been laden with pressure and implications, back to the days when “Rock and Roll” was part of the race name. Next year, the 0.75-mile track will set the tone for the 10-race postseason as the Chase opener. This year, Richmond sits squarely in the late going of the regular season, when intensity gets the ratchet treatment.

The jockeying for Chase spots continues in earnest in Saturday night’s Cook Out 400, kicking off a three-race stretch before the 16-driver Chase field is set. Series points leader Denny Hamlin aims to keep his momentum churning at his home track, where he’s scored five of his 64 Cup Series victories and will again be a pre-race favorite.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

Further down the list, the subplots are stirring. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric has a provisional hold on the final postseason slot, by just a 29-point margin over RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece — currently slotted as the first driver out. Last weekend’s event at Iowa Speedway left Cindric wanting more after a 29th-place finish trimmed his cushion above the elimination line by nine, and the two drivers in front of him — Shane van Gisbergen and Bubba Wallace — also lost crucial ground in the Hawkeye State.

Cindric — a former winner at Daytona International Speedway, site of the regular-season finale on Aug. 29 — says attention to detail will be crucial for his No. 2 Ford team in the trio of races ahead.

“It’s a position that I would say over the last couple months that we’ve earned one way or the other,” Cindric said. “So I think for us, it’s very important to continue to do each checkpoint of every race weekend, and be able to maximize every session, every call. You know, those are things that are going to be very important when you’re talking about single-digit points making a big difference over the course of three races.”

Behind Preece is a logjam of three drivers within a four-point span — Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain, minus-47 after a rejuvenating Iowa top five; Brad Keselowski, minus-48 and Preece’s teammate/boss at RFK; and Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, minus-50 and staring uphill after an Iowa wipeout.

Keselowski — twice a victor at Richmond in his veteran career — said the formula for flipping his fate isn’t complicated, even while battling his teammate for the last remnants of postseason real estate.

“Yeah, we need to win. That’s what I feel like,” Keselowski said. “We have three races left. We need to win at least one of them. We need to have two good runs outside of that, and you know, the onus is on us to do it.”

Said Preece, who starts sixth Saturday night: “I mean, my entire life’s been pressure when it comes to my career, so it’s no different. Ultimately, I mean, the goal — if we win — that’ll take care of a lot of things. So for me, having good track position to start is going to be important, and then not giving that up throughout the night. We can’t afford to do that. So we need to play offense and look forward and make the 2 (Cindric) and the 97 (van Gisbergen) worry about us and not worry about anybody behind us.”

Van Gisbergen’s case may well be bolstered at Richmond by his growing prowess at short tracks, a development in his growth from road-racing specialist to a more well-rounded NASCAR driver. He made the postseason last year during the “win and you’re in” format era, and he stands to return to the Chase field on overall points under this year’s new procedures.

MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Richmond

Life on the postseason bubble might be new for SVG, but Wallace has been there in multiple years of his Cup Series career. This time around, Wallace says his situation feels distinctly dissimilar from previous go-rounds as he strives to qualify for the field of 16 for the third time in four years.

“No one on our team is happy about being 14th, and we definitely had higher expectations than that coming into the year, but as far as like the stress of ‘here we are again,’ it looks the same, but mentality-wise for me at least, it’s different,” Wallace said. “No stresses. The biggest oddball for us is next weekend at Loudon, just because it’s hit or miss there for us for some reason. So Charles (Denike, crew chief) has had that one circled since January 1. So yeah, if we can get through there, we should be fine. But Richmond’s a really good opportunity for us to continue to go in the upward direction.”

A handful of year-over-year changes have greeted drivers and teams in their Richmond returns — a new tire setup, the 750-horsepower output increase and a new placement for the pit-road commitment line, which moves 75 feet closer to the first timing line at pit entry. Drivers took turns finding the optimal entrance point further down the track during Friday’s sessions, with varying degrees of success.

“Yeah, I took two reps at it in practice, did two completely different approaches, and I know which one I like better,” Chastain said. “I’ll go back and look and see which one was actually faster. Yeah, it’s different. I think it’s a good move. It was, I think, too far back, but they can do whatever they want.”

In the details …

2026 has been the tale of two seasons for Tyler Reddick. The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota rocketed to a historic start of the year with five wins in the first nine races, but has tapered off through the summer and is crawling his way to the start of The Chase after dropping to fourth in the standings after Iowa last weekend.

With the help of Racing Insights, take a look at how Reddick performed in the first 14 races of the year versus the last nine events:

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

– Richmond hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
– Saturday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind in the Commonwealth | Read more
– Pre-Chase trends: Inside Hendrick Motorsports’ on-track slump | Read more
– Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks ready to light up Virginia night sky | View gallery
– Hauler Talk: Why getting a top-six seed in The Chase is important | Listen now
– NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from Richmond | Watch now
– Power Rankings: Stuck in slump, will Reddick rebound at Richmond? | This week’s ranks