Dash 4 Cash: Format explained, recapping each Xfinity Series race

Posted on April 12, 2019May 4, 2019 by Staff Report

The four-race NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash returned with a roar for the 2019 season. The program, which awards $100,000 for each of four races to the top competing driver, is eligible to drivers competing for Xfinity Series driver points.

The top four Xfinity Series finishing regulars at Texas Motor Speedway on March 30 are eligible for the Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The highest finishing driver of those four at Bristol wins the prize and will move on to have a shot at the prize at Richmond Raceway in addition to the top three finishing series regulars. This format continues for the races at Richmond, Talladega Superspeedway and Dover International Speedway (more details below on that).

This page will be updated with a summary of each race as it happens and a breakdown of who is Dash 4 Cash eligible for each race. The four races in the 2018 Dash 4 Cash program were:

Bristol Motor Speedway (April 6, 1 p.m. ET FS1/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Richmond Raceway (April 12, 7 p.m. ET, FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Talladega Superspeedway (April 27, 1 p.m. ET, FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Dover International Speedway (May 4, 1:30 p.m. ET, FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Dash 4 Cash Format Explained
At Texas: The top four finishing Xfinity Series regulars at Texas are eligible for the $100,000 prize at Bristol. No prize is given out at Texas, but it does set the Dash 4 Cash participants for Bristol. Qualifiers for Bristol: Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe and Michael Annett.

RELATED: Texas race recap | Full Texas results

At Bristol: The top Dash 4 Cash-eligible finishing driver wins the $100,000 prize at Bristol and will advance to a have a shot at the prize at Richmond along with the three-highest finishing series regulars. Prize winner: Christopher Bell | Qualifiers for Richmond: Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe.

At Richmond: The top Dash 4 Cash-eligible finishing driver wins the $100,000 prize at Richmond and will advance to a have a shot at the prize at Talladega along with the three-highest finishing series regulars. Prize winner: Cole Custer | Qualifiers for Talladega: Cole Custer, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier and Tyler Reddick.

At Talladega: The top Dash 4 Cash-eligible finishing driver wins the $100,000 prize at Talladega and will advance to a have a shot at the prize at Dover along with the three-highest finishing series regulars. Prize winner: Tyler Reddick | Qualifiers for Dover: Tyler Reddick, Gray Gaulding, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.

At Dover: The top Dash 4 Cash-eligible finishing driver wins the $100,000 prize at Dover, the final race of the Dash 4 Cash series. Prize winner: Christopher Bell

RELATED: Dover race recap | Full Dover results

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Reid Spencer

RICHMOND, Va. – Cole Custer said on Friday afternoon that his No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Xfinity Series team might be ready to peak in time for the Playoffs.

Clearly, Custer is ahead of schedule, after a convincing victory in Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway.

After losing the lead to Austin Cindric on a restart with 26 laps left, Custer regained the top spot on Lap 231 of 250 and pulled away for his second victory of the season. In a race that dodged a persistent threat of rain, Custer crossed the finish line 2.639 seconds ahead of Cindric.

Not only did Custer win for the fourth time in his career—and for the first time on a short track—but he also claimed the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus that goes to the highest finisher of four eligible contenders.

“We had a great car,” Custer said. “(Crew chief Mike Shiplett) made great adjustments as it went… This one means a lot. We hadn’t had a short-track win yet. We’ve struggled a lot at short tracks, but this helps

“A lot of my friends give me crap for being bad at this place, but I finally won, so I’ve got a little bit of bragging rights there, so that’s night. I’m just so happy. Two wins—that’s pretty awesome.”

Custer also served notice that he expects the team to get even better as the season progresses.

“I think we’re in a great place,” Custer said. “We’re going to get better and better. I think we’ve started to figure out our cars later in the race, and I think the second time we go back (to the same tracks), we’re going to be even better—just me and Mike working together at these tracks for the first time.

“We’re just going to be a team that gets better and better as the year goes on.”

Custer led three times for a race-high 122 laps. Third-place finisher Justin Allgaier led 86 and won the first stage but had to charge to the front after contrarian pit strategy left him 16^th for a Lap 161 restart.

Allgaier was second by the time caution slowed the race for the sixth time on Lap 212, but he spun his tires on the subsequent restart on Lap 219 and fell back to fifth before recovering to third at the finish.

“The pit call we made at the end of the (second) stage there, it worked out, obviously, in our favor,” said Allgaier, who had crashed out of last week’s Bristol race after leading 138 laps. “But I pushed really hard to get back up to the front, and I just didn’t quite have enough there at the end to really do anything.

“I made a mistake on that restart. It really burns me up that I made the mistake, but all in all, a great day. I hope we got the monkey off our back.”

Cindric was hoping rain would halt the race when he was in the lead, but that didn’t happen. He did, however, qualify for the Dash 4 Cash two weeks hence at Talladega, where his sponsor, MoneyLion, also holds the entitlement for the race.

“Congrats to Cole and those guys,” Cindirc said. “I tried my best on that restart to hold him off, but they were obviously the class of the field. Him and the 7 (Allgaier). We had some fun and got some points and now we will move on to Talladega for the MoneyLion 300.

“That will be a big one for me. I would love to win that race and the Dash for Cash at Talladega.”

Tyler Reddick came home fourth, followed by Ryan Sieg, who has finished no worse than 12th in the first eight races of the season. Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst and Justin Haley completed the top 10.

Making the first of two planned starts this season, Elliott Sadler ran 12th in an emotional return to his home track.

Note: The No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Reddick had one lug nut found to unsecure. Any potential fine will be announced next week by the sanctioning body.

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Jordan Bianchi

When Denny Hamlin rolls into Richmond Raceway it brings an air of familiarity, giving him a depth of knowledge about the Virginia track unlike any other on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

That knowledge stems not just from Hamlin having visited the track twice a season for the past 13 seasons, but because the veteran driver and native of nearby Chesterfield, Virginia., — approximately 30 minutes south of the track — attended many races here growing up. Sitting in the grandstands he envisioned one competing on the track himself, something he’s now done 40 combined times across NASCAR’s three national series.

Hamlin will make his 41st start on what he considers his home track Saturday night in the Toyota Owners 400 (at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). As he is every time he turns a lap at Richmond before a partisan crowd filled with a multitude of family and friends, Hamlin isn’t lacking motivation to do well.

“It’s great,” Hamlin said Friday. “I’ll always love coming to this race track. It is home. It’s one that I’ve been to many, many times even when I wasn’t racing. It’s certainly the home track for me.”

Perhaps in part because of his intricate knowledge that comes with Richmond being his home track, Hamlin’s boasts a stellar record on the three-quarter-mile oval. Rarely is it that the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is not either leading or up near the front. Hamlin’s 1,659 laps led in 25 Cup starts are the most among active drivers, while only Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch has more wins (six to three).

But that past success also brings the expectation that Hamlin should be among those vying for the win Saturday night, if not outright being the driver to beat. Yet, it is an expectation that he embraces.

“It’s just exciting because I know that I very well could have a great weekend ahead of us and really focus a lot of my efforts on how can we go out there and dominate the race, not just win but dominate,” Hamlin said. “That’s been the primary focus for the last five days and hopefully we put it all together for tomorrow night.

“When I come home, it’s a special feeling for sure.”

Hamlin’s last victory at Richmond occurred in 2016, and in the subsequent four races he’s posted two third-place finishes and a fifth. Busch has won the won the past two races here and can become the first driver since Bobby Allison in the early 1980s to win three straight races at Richmond.

“I certainly feel like I know what I need out of the car to be successful here,” Hamlin said. “Just searching for that feel is really what you do every time you come here. Especially the races that we’ve dominated here, there’s that’s a special type of feel that you have to have in the race car.”

And as if he needs another reason to feel good at his home track, Hamlin comes into the weekend enjoying the best start to his career, having scored two wins — one of which was the Daytona 500 — and seven top-10 finishes in eight races this season, and is only 27 points behind Busch in the standings.

“Our cars have been running really good,” Hamlin said. “We’ve been finishing really well and running really well every single week.”

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Jordan Bianchi

Kyle Busch has a lot of fond memories of Richmond Raceway, though not among them is the first time he competed at the three-quarter-mile Virginia track. That race was in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2001, and by Busch’s recollection it was a night to quickly forget.

“Hit about everything but the pace car,” Busch said Friday at Richmond, site of the Toyota Owners 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “It was an ugly, ugly venture for me. It was pretty bad.”

While Busch may have had an auspicious debut at Richmond (he finished 22nd, three laps behind race-winner Jack Sprague), it wasn’t long before he would make better memories. Busch’s next start at Richmond came three years later in an Xfinity Series race, and did not feature any run-ins with the pace vehicle. Instead, on that night Busch put forth a dominating performance where he led 236 of 250 laps to score his first-ever victory in a NASCAR national series event.

“I remember that day and being able to score that first victory and remembering going to victory lane and jumping off the car and all the guys catching me behind me and just having a good celebration,” Busch said. “That was certainly a lot of fun. Fifteen years, that’s scary.”

Ever since, regardless of the series he’s competing in, Richmond has been a place where Busch has excelled. In many instances, it has looked as if he knows sometime about the track that few could even comprehend.

Busch’s six Cup wins at Richmond are most among active drivers, as is his 6.9 average finish. That superiority also extends to the Xfinity Series where Busch leads all active drivers in wins (6), top-five finishes (16), top-10 finishes (19) and laps led (1,497).

On Saturday, Busch can further assert that Richmond is his own personal playground. He has won the past two races here, and a third consecutive victory would make him the first driver since Bobby Allison in the early 1980s to accomplish the feat. The only others besides Allison in the three wins in-a-row club are David Pearson and Richard Petty, rarefied company as Allison, Pearson and Petty are each members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“If we can win three in a row here at Richmond and match names like that — the Godfathers of our sport that built our sport to what it is today — would be pretty cool,” Busch said.

A win Saturday would be more than just Busch cementing his status as one of the best-ever at Richmond, it would also be a continuation of the best start to a season of his career and one of the best overall in the Cup Series modern era (1972-present).

Busch already has three wins in eight races this season, and not once has he finished outside the top 10. The last time a driver began a season with that many consecutive top-10 finishes was Terry Labonte in 1992.

There is considerable distinction between the respective streaks compiled by Busch and Labonte, however. Labonte had neither a victory during nor led the series standings, whereas Busch has multiple wins and currently atop the standings by 27 points over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.

“We’ve been doing really well and the results have been coming, too,” Busch said. “We’ve had a little luck on our side as well. I always tell you when we don’t have any luck on our side, so I might as well tell you when we do have a little luck on our side. It’s been nice to have. We just have to continue with the way we’re running and the way that we’re doing it. Keep being successful.”

Posted on April 12, 2019April 13, 2019 by Reid Spencer

RICHMOND, Va. – Where the short tracks are concerned, Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team appeared to have turned a corner.

And on Friday afternoon at Richmond Raceway, Harvick got through the corners better than everyone else in winning the pole position — later locked in by his car passing inspection — for Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 at the .75-mile track (7:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The Busch Pole Award was Harvick’s third at Richmond, his second of the season and the 27th of his career, setting up a showdown with the Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske cars that have monopolized Victory Lane in the first eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events of the season.

Harvick posted a lap at 124.298 mph (21.722 seconds) to edge Erik Jones (124.081 mph) for the top starting spot by .038 seconds. Jones time was later disallowed after his failed inspection.

Kurt Busch qualified second at 123.870 mph, a dramatic improvement over his 2019 average starting position of 20.1. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top five.

“The cars definitely had a little fall-off,” Harvick said. “I was just really just managing the fall-off and just trying to be consistent with the laps, but stickers (new tires) were definitely faster in the first round than they were in the second and third round.”

Harvick was sixth in the first round, second to Kyle Busch in the second round and first with the pole at stake.

For the first time, NASCAR limited each round to five minutes, with seven minutes between, condensing the entire qualifying session to 29 minutes. For Erik Jones, who had a pit stall near the exit from pit road, the time limits weren’t an issue.

“Short tracks, I think it’s fine,” Jones said. “It’s a little hectic in the first round and even in the second round, but it’s easy for me to say. We had a great pit stall being first out. I could just roll out, and here it doesn’t benefit you to wait so you just roll out and get your lap in.”

Harvick was fast last week at Bristol, only to have his prospects crushed by a pre-race penalty for multiple inspection failures and an early loose wheel that forced an unplanned pit stop. But at Richmond on Saturday, he’ll be leading the field to green.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of unknowns, including a new Goodyear tire combination.

“As you look at this place, this is really one of those places where you kind of have to go off of what happened last time,” Harvick said. “New tire, so you don’t really know exactly what the cars are going to do deep into runs as far as how bad they will push, will the get looser.

“What conditions will you be fighting? We wind up guessing a number of times when they change the tires like this, because you don’t know what to anticipate.”

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Staff Report

Rain showers hit the Richmond area on Friday afternoon, hitting the pause button on NASCAR’s on-track activity at Richmond Raceway and forcing the sanctioning body to cancel final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice. NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying also fell victim to the wet weather and the lineup for Friday’s race will be set in accordance to the NASCAR Rule Book.

The schedule got back on track with Cup qualifying at 5:45 p.m. ET. The Xfinity Series ToyotaCare 250 also got underway at 7 p.m. ET; the second race of the four-race Dash 4 Cash in the Xfinity ranks.

Cup Series teams were scheduled to practice on the 0.75-mile short track from 1:05-1:55 p.m. ET. Rain started falling around 12:15 and NASCAR officials put everything on hold and announced it would be scrapping practice shortly before 1 p.m.

MORE: Weather updates from Richmond | Full Richmond schedule

Scattered thunderstorms and rain are in the forecast for the rest of the evening.

Race officials have a full fleet of track-drying equipment on hand. Stationed at Richmond are eight Air Titan dryers, four conventional jet dryers, one track blower, one Elgin sweeper and one track vacuum.

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Staff Report

Kyle Larson was top of the board in the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice on Friday at Richmond Raceway, pushing his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet at 121.704 mph. Larson has two top-10 finishes and five top 15s for the 2019 season.

Denny Hamlin, in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was second-fastest (121.682 mph) to Larson. Chris Buescher, in the No. 37 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, was third (121.638 mph), followed by series points leader Kyle Busch (121.611 mph) and David Ragan (121.518 mph), in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, to round out the top five.

RELATED: First practice results

The 50-minute practice had four drivers serving 15-minute penalties for arriving late to inspection at Bristol, including the No. 6 of Ryan Newman, Ragan’s No. 38, Larson’s No. 42 and the No. 51 of Jeb Burton. There was also a 30-minute deduction from practice for Kevin Harvick for multiple inspection failures. Harvick ran ninth at Richmond.

Friday’s final practice for the Monster Energy Series was canceled because of rain.

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — Chip Ganassi Racing made changes to the pit-crew lineup for its two-car operation ahead of this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.

“In the whole offseason, we built around trying to build what we thought was our best group,” said Matt McCall, crew chief of the Ganassi No. 1 Chevrolet for Kurt Busch. “Everybody’s still new that everybody had a chance to be different players, so that’s where we’re at right now. Just moving a couple different people around and see how it works out.”

Bryan Jacobsen moves to front tire-changing duties for the Ganassi No. 42 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson. He served last week in that role for the No. 00 Chevrolet of StarCom Racing, which has a developmental pit-crew partnership with Ganassi. Jacobsen replaces Steve Price, who takes Jacobsen’s place on the StarCom No. 00 driven by Landon Cassill.

RELATED: CGR team page | Kurt Busch driver page

On the No. 1 Ganassi Chevy driven by Kurt Busch, Daniel Kincaid replaces Ken Pozega as front tire changer. Cory Baldwin, who was with the Front Row Motorsports No. 34 pit crew last week at Bristol, will change rear tires for the No. 1 this weekend. Pozega is on this weekend’s roster for Front Row’s No. 34, listed as the rear-tire changer. He is also listed as a member for the backup pit crew for both Ganassi entries.

“I don’t know for how long, if it’ll be permanent or whatever,” Larson said after qualifying 14th Friday. “I think it’s good to spice things up and try something different. I feel like our pit stops have lacked the last couple years, so just searching to try to get our stops better and hopefully it’ll help our races out a little bit.”

McCall indicated that Chip Ganassi Racing was fortunate to have the luxury of a deep bench for its pit crew personnel, but that the changes put in place this weekend were by no means permanent. He also told NASCAR.com that no single issue stood out as the impetus for the pit crew shake-up.

“No, and the guys we’ve changed, I would say the odds of them getting back on the team are still there,” McCall said. “I think it’s going to be a moving target for a while if we can find the right combination. Some of it is purely related to overall averages. It’s not been one thing or the other, like, ‘oh, we’ve left this lug loose five times.’ It’s none of that. It’s just more or less trying to find some consistency.”

RELATED: Dive into the 2019 stats

Consistency is also the quest for the No. 1 team in Busch Pole Qualifying. Busch has found solid results in his first year with the Ganassi organization, with six top-10 finishes in the first eight races this season. But he’s had to achieve those results coming from far back in the starting grid. Busch’s average finish of 8.6 is third-best in the series, but his average start of 20.1 equals the largest disparity between the two numbers among Cup Series regulars.

McCall says there’s no single factor there, either.

“For the most part, we’ve come off the truck close, we’ve practiced OK, but when qualifying rolls around, we’ve not been anywhere close to where anyone can drive it,” McCall said. “So it’s not been good. … It’s building a notebook, for sure. That’s the biggest thing. Then there’s things that he’s looking for that are different for qualifying than what we’re accustomed to giving him, so once we get that built up, I think it’ll be a little more straightforward hopefully.”

In addition to building a wealth of notes and information, McCall has also been finding chemistry in his first season paired with Busch, whose fiery personality often comes through on the team communications.

“It’s been fun, man,” McCall said. “The intensity level is high, which is good. I think that’s what it takes to have a chance to win races. His mentality is the same as mine. I like the edge side, that he gets really pissed off at me because I think there’s a little bit of drive there that makes you try to make sure you’re not missing some details.”

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Team Release

RICHMOND, Va. — Toco Warranty Corp., a new generation of vehicle service contracts (VSC) with pay-as- you-go monthly plans, has partnered with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series by serving as a four-race primary sponsor of driver Clint Bowyer and the No. 14 team.

Augmenting this sponsorship is Toco Warranty’s association with Tony Stewart Racing (TSR), where it will be the co-primary sponsor of 10-time and reigning World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz and an associate sponsor of Stewart, who is slated to compete in more than 90 winged sprint car races this year.

RELATED: SHR team page | Clint Bowyer driver page

“Toco Warranty is all about helping people take care of their cars quickly and efficiently, and nowhere is speed and efficiency more prominent than in racing,” said Nota Berger, CEO, Toco Warranty. “We’ve found great partners in Stewart-Haas Racing and Tony Stewart Racing and strong, relatable personalities in Clint Bowyer, Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart to increase recognition for our simple and affordable vehicle service contracts. They’ll help showcase our practical and straightforward plans which clearly outline what is and isn’t covered while requiring no major up-front investment or long-term contract.”

Toco Warranty will debut with SHR during the April 26-28 race weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Bowyer and the No. 14 will then carry Toco branding for the NASCAR All-Star Race May 17-18 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and again June 29-30 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois and Sept. 13-15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Toco Warranty will be an associate sponsor at all other NASCAR races.

“If there’s anyone who knows the importance of a good car, it’s me,” said Bowyer, who joined SHR in 2017 and owns 10 NASCAR Cup Series victories. “Our cars are our jobs, so we understand the investment fans make in their cars to go to work and come to our races. We can’t afford downtime and neither can they. A vehicle service contract from Toco Warranty provides peace of mind and gets folks back on the road fast. We’re in a business built on speed and trust, and those are the same principles that have made Toco Warranty a great choice for anyone who owns a car.”

Consumers demand affordable monthly payments and Toco Warranty offers an easy online experience via its website, www.TocoWarranty.com. It is where customers can review their vehicle service contract, manage online payments and access dedicated customer concierge services.

Communicating this message to anyone who owns a used car or is in the market for a used car is a key component of Toco Warranty’s partnership with SHR and TSR. SHR has won two NASCAR Cup Series championships and one NASCAR Xfinity Series title while TSR has earned nine World of Outlaws championships. Becoming involved with two title-winning teams at the pinnacle of North American motorsports is why SHR and TSR align so well with Toco Warranty.

“Motorsports is about cars – those on the racetrack and those in the acres of parking lots available to fans that typically drive two hours to a race,” Berger said. “Cars are a necessity for one’s recreation and for their work, but an unexpected repair can negatively impact both. Toco Warranty protects customers from unexpected expenses, allowing them to work hard and play hard without sacrifice.”

“We’re obviously very pleased to welcome Toco Warranty to SHR and TSR,” said Stewart, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who formed TSR back in 2001 and co-owns SHR with industrialist Gene Haas. “Clint Bowyer and Donny Schatz are great racecar drivers with strong and compelling personalities who can deliver for Toco Warranty on and off the track.”

Posted on April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 by Jordan Bianchi

When Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend it signified more than just him winning for the second time this season or accumulating valuable playoff points. Because Bell was the highest finisher among four eligible drivers as part of the Dash 4 Cash program, he also earned an additional perk in the form of a $100,000 bonus.

“Cardboard checks are my favorite trophies,” Bell said. “I’ve got a couple of them from the dirt races, but none of them say a hundred grand so that’s pretty cool.”

Bell can double up that bonus Friday night at Richmond, with the ToyotaCare 250 — the second of four Dash 4 Cash races this season. He will be competing against Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe to win the $100,000 prize, with the best finish among them collecting the six-figure payday.

Reddick and Briscoe were also eligible at Bristol, but neither had anything for Bell over the final stretch that featured a 32-lap green-flag run to the finish. It was Bell’s second win of the season, with Reddick finishing second in the race, Custer third and Briscoe fourth.

Bell would seem to again have the advantage Friday night. Not only is the Joe Gibbs Racing driver the defending race winner, he also won the Playoff race at Richmond last fall. If Bell’s No. 20 Toyota is anywhere close to how strong it was in either race, it could be a long evening for the competition.

“I love going to Richmond,” Bell said. “For whatever reason, it fits our cars and our cars are really, really fast there. … Obviously, winning both the races there gives me a lot of confidence.

“I’m liking the way this Dash 4 Cash deal works. If you run well, you’re able to continue on.”

The winner of the ToyotaCare 250, plus the next three highest-finishing Xfinity Series championship-contending drivers, earn eligibility for the next Dash 4 Cash race at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27.