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Read the notes NASCAR provides during the driver’s meeting

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NASCAR SPECIAL AWARDS

Award Driver
Coors Light Pole Award Joey Logano
3M Lap Leader Kevin Harvick
American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award Matt Kenseth
Duralast Brakes "Brake in the Race" Award Kevin Harvick
Freescale Wide Open Award Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ingersoll Rand Power Mover Award Kyle Larson
Mahle Engine Builder of the Race Award Matt Kenseth
Mobil 1 Command Performance Driver of the Race Award Matt Kenseth
Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race Award Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap Award Matt Kenseth
Sunoco Rookie of the Race Award Brett Moffitt

RACE TIME

Event Time (ET)
Driver Introductions 6:20 p.m.
Pre-race prep: Tires, interior & remove generators 6:30 p.m.
Line up crews — facing the flag 6:46 p.m.
Pledge of Allegiance 6:47 p.m.
God Bless America 6:48 p.m.
Moment of Silence 6:50 p.m.
Invocation 6:51 p.m.
National Anthem 6:51 p.m.
Command to start engines 6:58 p.m.

SPECIAL INFORMATION

Number of Laps 400 laps
Pit Road Speed 40 mph
Competition Yellow Lap 50
Caution Car Speed 45 mph
Pit Road Speed Begins 235 feet before the first pit box
Pit Road Speed Ends 150 feet past the last pit box
Minimum Speed 25.11 seconds
Exiting the Pits (Blend Line) Keep all four tires below the yellow line until the exit of Turn 2
Fuel Pit Stalls 1-43 Sunoco pumps in the NXS garage
Post-Race 2-5 stop in pit stalls 17-22
All Others Double file across from 17

NEXT WEEK

Event Track/Day/Time (ET)
Next week Talladega Superspeedway
Hauler parking 6 p.m. ET, Thursday, April 30
Garage opens 7 a.m. ET, Friday, May 1
First practice 1 p.m. ET, Friday, May 1

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Get caught up before Sunday’s race at the Virginia short track

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RELATED: Full race lineup | See all 43 cars

What: Toyota Owners 400.
Where: Richmond International Raceway, 0.75-mile oval in Richmond, Virginia
When: Sunday, April 26 (race was originally scheduled to take place Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, but was postponed due to inclement weather)
TV/Radio: FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Distance: 400 laps; 300 miles.
Time: 1 p.m. ET

Pit road speed: 40 mph
Caution car speed: 45 mph
Fuel window: 108 laps
Competition caution: Lap 50

On the front row: Defending race winner Joey Logano won his Richmond pole with a lap of 127.071 mph around the three-quarter mile track in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Denny Hamlin – a two-time pole winner and two-time race winner — was second fastest with a lap of 126.796 mph. The good news for Logano: More Richmond winners have started from the pole position than any other place on the grid.

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Fastest in practice: Kasey Kahne‘s lap of 126.357 mph around thethree-quarter mile RIR track in final practice was the fastest mark of the day. He edged Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray putting two Chevys, a Ford and a Toyota among the top of the speed chart. Last fall’s winner BradKeselowski led the opening 85-minute practice Friday morning leading Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. Interestingly, neither Kahne nor Earnhardt nor Johnson advanced beyond the first round of qualifying.

Last year’s winner: With two laps remaining, Logano patiently and smartly made his way around the hard-racing front-running trio of Matt Kenseth, Keselowski and Jeff Gordon to score his first career short track win and second victory of the early 2014 season.

Hometown hero: Hamlin, of nearby Chesterfield, Va., counts RIR as his home track in the Sprint Cup Series. And judging by his statistics, there is a definitive home track advantage. He boasts the top driver ratingwith nine top-10s in 17 starts highlighted by a pair of wins. His 10.4 average finish is best in the series.

History lesson: Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lead all active drivers at Richmond with three victories each. Two-time Richmond winner Jeff Gordon has the most top-10s with 28 in 44 starts — or 64 percent of the time. … Johnson is the only active driver to sweep both the spring and fall races (2007) and the last to win back-to-back here. … Biffle holds the longest streak of starts (25) without visiting Victory Lane. …The No. 43 car is one win away from the number’s 200th victory. The No. 11 is the Cup series all-time winningest car number with 205.

Short Track Redemption: Logano and his Team Penske teammate Keselowski swept last year’s Richmond races, but are coming off a tough weekend at Bristol, Tenn. last week. They collided into one another only 19 laps in and suffered through the long weather delays all to collect 35th (Keselowski) and 40th (Logano) place finishes. History bodes well for the duo here, however. Logano has the second highest Richmond driver rating with three top-fives in 12 starts and Keselowski won from the pole position in the fall. His No. 2 Miller Lite Ford was fastest in opening practice Friday in Richmond.

They said it:
"It helps with confidence, for sure. I looked at Richmond in the past as one of my toughestrace tracks yet we got a win here last spring and had a decent run in the fall." — Defending race winner Joey Logano (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford) on how his opinion at RIR changed after winning here.

"This is one of those tracks that for me is very, very hard to predict. Even after practice is over and qualifying is over, it’s still hard for me to predict. It seems like the track changes so much from practice here in the sun in the middle of the day to the race once you get going at night. It’s a tough one, really, until you get into the race."
— Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Dollar General Toyota)

"It’s not one of my favorite tracks, it is my favorite track. It’s the perfect-sized track for a Cup race.
—Tony Stewart (No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevy) talking about RIR, where he got his first Sprint Cup Series win in 1999.

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Posted on by Holly Cain

After a rough first Cup run at Martinsville, Elliott counts on qualifying

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RICHMOND, Va. — Chase Elliott didn’t even realize how fast he was in Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Qualifying at Richmond International Raceway.

After posting the fifth-best lap early into the opening qualifying session, Elliott’s crew radioed to the 19-year-old that his lap may not ultimately stay that high on the scoring pylon, but it should be good enough to advance him into the second round of qualifying.

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"That sure would be nice," Elliott responded.

Elliott’s No. 25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet ended up with an impressive 16th-place starting position for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX) — a promising situation for last year’s XFINITY Series champion in his second Sprint Cup Series race.

"That was surprising, I’m not going to lie," a cheerful Elliott told reporters.

"That was a great effort for our team, and to be where we were in practice, I didn’t think we had the best qualifying speed. I thought our car was OK in race trim, but I couldn’t figure it out how to go as fast as we needed to.

"I still wasn’t where we needed to be, but very, very happy to qualify 16th and it was an improvement from last time, so we’ll try to go from there tomorrow night."

It certainly is progress from Elliott’s much-anticipated Cup debut March 29 at Martinsville, Virginia.

Tabbed to replace Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet next season, Elliott is making five starts this season to get a taste of what awaits in the big time.

His first race was a learning experience, to say the least. Elliott’s Chevrolet collided with fellow young prospect Brett Moffitt‘s Toyota only 75 laps into the Martinsville race. Elliott’s part-time crew led by veteran crew chief Kenny Francis, but working together for the first time, had to make extensive repairs and Elliott eventually returned to the track in last place, 69 laps down.

"Once they got the "new" off what they were doing, I think it went fine after that because I think the best thing that happened was getting the car fixed and getting back into the race," said Elliott’s father, 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott.

"That really, to me, calmed everything down. I think there were a lot of nerves going on.

"I think they learned a lot, definitely. The hardest part at any of these short tracks is once you get torn up, you’re trying to stay out of everybody else’s way the rest of the day. … it’s the worst thing to have to do.

"All in all, looking at the whole thing and how things ran, everyone was very pleased and he was very happy."

And this week, Elliott is very hopeful.

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Track history isn’t good, but Richmond boasts historic first-time winners

RICHMOND, Va. — At this point in his career, Kyle Larson naturally thinks each race weekend could be the one when he collects that first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.

Last year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year had three runner-up finishes in 2014 and has finished in the top 10 in 20 of 47 career Cup starts.

This week’s venue, the super smooth three-quarter mile Richmond International Raceway, has certainly produced some high-profile maiden winners including Tony Stewart (1999) and Kasey Kahne (2005).

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"I don’t know what it is about this place that produces first-time winners, especially first time Sprint Cup winners," the 22-year old Larson said Friday before opening practice for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX).

"I haven’t felt like this will be a track where I get my first win, I should probably talk to them (Stewart and Kahne) and figure out what I need to do to get better. I mean seeing that those two both got their first wins here does give me a little bit more optimism of maybe getting it done. We will see."

Larson started from the pole position in this race last year by virtue of posting the fastest practice speed after qualifying was rained out. He didn’t even complete the first lap, however, getting spun out by Clint Bowyer on the race start. He still finished 16th in the No. 42 Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and answered that effort with an eighth-place start and 11th-place finish in the fall.

That September effort here was the launching point to a headline-making run in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races, despite Larson falling short of qualifying for the 16-driver Grid. He had six top-10 finishes in the 10-race Chase portion of the schedule, including two of his runner-up showings — one of the top performances of any driver during that span.

"It was nice how we ran in the Chase last year and definitely gave our team a lot of confidence going into this season," Larson said. "So that is why I think we have been a little bit disappointed in the way we have started off the year, because of how well we ended."

Larson has struggled comparatively this season with only three top 10s in the first seven races he entered — the only times he’s finished in the top 20. He is coming off a seventh-place finish at Bristol last Sunday.

"It was nice to have a good run last week, we needed that," Larson said. "I felt like last week was about the first time all season where we had a race where we didn’t have any issues. It helps confidence for sure. Now coming to Richmond, it’s not a track where I typically run very well, at least in the race.

"We came here and tested a couple of weeks ago and got better."

So much so that Larson smiled and said he was actually encouraged by the weather forecast for cloudy skies and cool temperatures for Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400. That would be similar to the conditions during the April 8 tire test he spoke about.

"The more consistent it stays to how the test was the better off it will probably be for us," he said.

Larson was seventh-best in opening practice Friday, then 21st in final practice.

"The more we run up front the more opportunities we have to get a win, and those wins will start happening if we just continue to run up front," Larson said. "Got to get a little bit more speed in our car and do a better job throughout the race as a team.

"We should hopefully get that first win soon."

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Joe Gibbs Racing claims 100th NASCAR XFINITY Series victory for Toyota

RELATED: See every driver to win for Toyota in the XFINITY Series
MORE: Full race results | Updated series standings

RICHMOND, Va.—Domination must be contagious.

Six days after Joey Logano led all 300 laps in a NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Bristol, Denny Hamlin led 248 of 250 circuits in winning Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

The only two laps that spoiled a Hamlin no-hitter were Brian Scott’s dive bomb off Turn 4 to lead Lap 154 by inches and Elliott Sadler’s contrarian fuel strategy, which allowed him to lead Lap 226 during a cycle of green-flag pit stops before Hamlin, on fresh tires, roared back past him on Lap 227.

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Aside from those fleeting moments, however, it was no contest.

“He was so fast—we had nothing for him,” said Logano, who could keep Hamlin in sight for five or six laps after a restart, only to have the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota drive away. “We had a second-place car. That’s where it was, just second place.

“I know what it feels like to be on the other end of the butt-whipping now. It’s not as much fun from this side. But congrats to them. They deserved it, obviously. We didn’t have a shot.”

In winning the 12th NASCAR XFINITY Series race of his career, his first of the season and his third at Richmond, Hamlin held leads as large as 6.5 seconds and crossed the finish line 3.719 seconds ahead of Logano, with just eight cars on the lead lap.

Regan Smith was third, followed by Erik Jones, Chase Elliott and rookie Daniel Suarez, as Joe Gibbs Racing placed three drivers in the top six (Hamlin, Jones and Suarez).

The victory was the 100th for Toyota in the XFINITY Series.

“The 100th XFINITY win for Toyota—that’s a big one,” Hamlin said. “I was able to get the 100th [NASCAR Sprint] Cup win at Loudon a few years ago for those guys and JGR. This is a big win for everyone. I’m glad to be working with Wheels again (crew chief Mike Wheeler). He put a rocket under us tonight.”

Given the way he ran on Friday, Hamlin seemed fully recovered from the neck spasms that sidelined him during last Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol.

Quick action by emergency workers prevented a potential tragedy on pit road during pit stops under the second caution of the race.

A spark ignited spilled fuel behind the car of Brendan Gaughan, engulfing rear tire changer Anthony O’Brien in a fireball that was quickly extinguished, Nevertheless, O’Brien, Gaughan’s fueler, Josh Wittman, and Clifford Turner, a crew member form Eric McClure’s team were taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation as a result of the incident.

Note: Series leader Ty Dillon finished ninth and holds an eight-point lead over second-place Elliott, the defending series champion. Chris Buescher, who entered the event tied with Dillon, finished 20th and fell to third in the standings, 11 points back.

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XFINITY pole winner Denny Hamlin posted the second-fastest speed

RELATED: Starting lineup

RICHMOND, Va. — Sometimes it pays to go for broke — particularly when you have little to lose.
 
That was the case for Joey Logano in Friday’s time trials for Sunday Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway (1 p.m. ET on FOX). Logano’s crew made significant adjustments to his No. 22 Team Penske Ford between the second and final rounds of knockout qualifying, and the changes paid off with Logano’s third Coors Light Pole Award and fifth front-row start of the season.

Logano earned the top spot on the grid with a lap at 127.071 mph, touring the .75-mile race track in 21.248 seconds, .046 seconds faster than the effort of second-place qualifier Denny Hamlin (126.796 mph).
 
Kurt Busch (126.606 mph) will start third, followed by AJ Allmendinger (126.570 mph) and Kevin Harvick (126.428 mph).
 
Before the final round, Logano’s crew loosened the car up, enhancing its ability to turn through the corners.
 
"When you’re sitting 11th on the board (actually 10th after the second round), you’ve really got only one spot to lose, so we swung at it," said Logano, who notched his first pole at Richmond and the 11th of his career. "It’s not normal for us. Normally, we’re really fast in the first round, and it’s hard for us to stay that fast throughout it.
 
"But they did a great job of keeping it fast and getting it faster. It’s fun because you go out and run all these laps. That (pole-winning) lap didn’t actually feel good. You’ve got seven or eight laps on your tires, and you’re sliding around a lot. It’s funny, but the pole-sitting car’s sliding around all over the place on old tires out there."
 
Hamlin was fastest in the second session, but tire wear was a factor in his second-place run in the third round.
 
"We just lost a little bit too much grip that final run and came up a little bit short," said Hamlin, who said he is fully recovered from the neck spasms that forced him out of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after 22 laps at Bristol.
 
"Still, if you had asked me before today, I would have taken second and moved on. I think the longer runs (in race trim) typically suit us a little bit better, but having a good starting spot, though, will definitely be a benefit for us (on Saturday) night."
 
In the second NASCAR Sprint Cup race of his career, Chase Elliott will start 16th. Danica Patrick advanced to the second round of knockout qualifying and earned the 21st spot on the grid, five positions ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was eliminated in the first round.
 
Jeb Burton and Brendan Gaughan failed to make the 43-car field.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Mike Wallace recuperates from triple bypass heart surgery

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FOX Sports 1 analyst Kenny Wallace, who has the most starts in XFINITY Series history, will return to the cockpit for the Winn Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday (3 p.m. ET, FOX). 

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The youngest of the three racing Wallace brothers will sit in for brother Mike, who underwent triple bypass surgery last weekend in Charlotte. Kenny will pilot the No. 26 JGL Racing Toyota Camry alongside teammates J.J. Yeley and Eric McClure.

"Talladega is where I have some of my best finishes in my NASCAR career," Kenny said in a FOX news release. "I think to have success at Talladega you have to enjoy racing there and that style of racing — and I like it. I look forward to teaming up with JGL Racing and especially my longtime friend Gregg Mixon."

Of his record 544 races in the XFINITY Series, Kenny has run 15 events at Talladega with a top 5 and a five top-10 finishes. He finished third in 1995, and his last start at the track in 2012 ended with a ninth-place finish.

"I felt a little chest pain last week so I went to the doctor and the next thing I know I am going in for surgery," Mike said in the release. "My dad had heart surgery about 35 years ago so I thought I was being proactive and taking all of the necessary precautions. This just goes to show that you never know and there are a lot of people walking around out there in the same situation. No matter how healthy we think we are — no one can be careful enough when it comes to our health so everyone needs to go get checked out."

The middle brother hopes to make it to the Alabama track to cheer on Kenny, who will attempt to earn his 10th career XFINITY victory.

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Longtime NASCAR broadcaster remembered at Richmond

Drivers Clint Bowyer and Josh Wise honored NASCAR broadcaster Steve Byrnes by putting his likeness on the hood of their respective cars at Richmond International Raceway.

Byrnes, a NASCAR television reporter and host for more than 30 years, died Tuesday from complications related to his battle with cancer. He was 56.

Wise’s No. 98 Ford is pictured below in the first three photos, with Bowyer’s No. 15 Toyota below.

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit Sunday night (1 p.m. ET, FOX)

RELATED: Starting lineup | PLAY: NASCAR Fantasy Live

Coors Light Pole Award winner Joey Logano earned the first pick of pit stall and chose the No. 1 stall at the exit of pit road in Turn 1 for his Team Penske Ford Fusion for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway (1 p.m. ET, FOX).

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Former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin qualified second and chose pit stall No. 17, the first one with an opening in front of him, for his Toyota Camry.

The third-fastest qualifier, Kurt Busch, will pit his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SS in the 30th stall, the next and last stall on pit road with an opening in front. It just three stalls off of the start-finish line toward the Turn 4 side.

AJ Allmendinger chose the 16th stall, across the opening from Hamlin, to pit his No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing ride. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five in qualifying and will pit his No. 4 SHR car in the fifth stall.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson chose the 43rd stall, the first at the entrance to pit road in Turn 4, after qualifying 36th. His teammate, Kasey Kahne, qualified 40th and will pit five stalls in front of Johnson in the 38th box. Making his second career Sprint Cup start, Chase Elliott qualified 16th and will pit in the 27th stall, right at the start-finish line.

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