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RICHMOND, Va. -- The first brush with qualifying heats and a feature in a revamped Dash 4 Cash race format brought a new wrinkle to the NASCAR XFINITY Series last weekend. With the newfangled system ready for Round 2, many in the garage are bracing for the encore.
Dual heats make their return in Saturday's ToyotaCare 250 (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the second of four races this season for the Dash 4 Cash incentive program. One of four eligible drivers -- determined through the two heats -- will make their bid for a $100,000 bonus at Richmond International Raceway.
Last weekend's Dash 4 Cash opener at Bristol Motor Speedway was marked by a pair of wire-to-wire winners in the heats, but some frantic lead-swapping in the shorter 200-lap main. This weekend, the total distance of the feature event (106.6 miles at Bristol vs. a scheduled 105 at Richmond) is comparable, but the difference in lap count (Bristol's 200 vs. Richmond's 140) is far wider.
"That's a pretty narrow window to make yourself better if you're not where you want to be," said Erik Jones, last week's winner of both the Bristol race and the Dash 4 Cash prize. "I think it's cool. I think it's a neat thing to do. I think the shorter races is something we as drivers enjoy. I think fans enjoy it as well. And just that dash to the finish running as hard as you can is pretty neat.
"Bristol was a part of that -- tire wear at Bristol isn't that great so you can run pretty hard for the majority of the race and not have to worry about fall-off and really dash like that for the whole race. But, I think you'll see a lot of the same here at Richmond with an only 140-lap main as well."
Roush Fenway Racing's Ryan Reed said Friday that the shorter format placed a premium on executing a mistake-free race, for both driver and crew. But the 22-year-old also said that the sanctioning body could discover enhancements as the Dash 4 Cash system continues to evolve.
"With 140 laps at Richmond, you're going to have no time to mess around," Reed said. "I think it's good. Everyone's talked about shortening races up, and I think this is a great way to do it without taking away from total laps. You're still running the same amount of miles in the weekend, but you're breaking it up. I'm a pretty big fan of it. I think that they'll continue to improve on it and learn from this year and then be able to apply more things to it."
Last weekend's event at Bristol helped fuel discussion about potentially reducing the number of scheduled laps in the hopes of creating more intense racing -- not just on the XFINITY circuit but in all three NASCAR national series.
JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier, who was one of four eligible Dash 4 Cash drivers last weekend, said he saw some validity to that theory, but that he expected more to be learned as the four-race series unfolds.
"Obviously as racers, we're competitive, we want to win races and we'll run as many laps as the sanctioning body or the fans will allow us to run. If you told us it was 1,000 laps, we'd go run it. But at the same time to keep our fans engaged and to keep us moving forward as a sport, is this the right philosophy? Did we do a good job? I think that as we get through these four races, we're going to see a lot clearer picture of it. But I definitely give kudos to NASCAR, to Comcast XFINITY, everybody here. There was a lot of give and take to make sure these came off well, and I think so far we've done a good job of that."