The NASCAR Cup Series drivers are ready to race 400 laps for Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).
As much as they are ready to go, bettors should be prepared to pause a bit when looking at Saturday’s practice times for today’s race.
Track conditions changed drastically between the first and second practice groups, relegating the second group to times nearly half a second slower per lap than the first group.
That means we need to analyze each group separately and add in track history, as well as performance on this track type and tire combination this year.
When combining all those factors, I’ve dug up one driver that stands out in a multitude of bets.
My favorite of the bunch is below.
NASCAR Pick for Richmond
*Odds as of Sunday morning
Let’s start simple.
Joey Logano has finished in the top five in 11 of his last 18 starts at Richmond. For those scoring at home, that’s a 77.8% rate.
Those last 18 starts are significant, because that marks the debut of the Gen-6 car.
Yes, Logano’s one start in the Next Gen car was earlier this year where he finished 17th. But remember, Logano was running strongly all day until a faulty jack on a late pit stop cost him dearly.
Now add in his on track performance this weekend, and he shines.
On first glance, you may tell yourself, “Logano was only 13th in practice.”
On second glance, you may say, “He only had the 10th best 10-lap average.”
Both of those are true.
It’s also true that he was the fastest driver in both of those times among his practice group.
That’s because he went out in the slower second group, where changing track conditions meant that no driver could put up a time within about 0.4 seconds of the fastest time in the first group.
It’s also true he was on pace for a much better qualifying lap until a wobble dropped him to his current 17th-place starting spot.
Oh, did I mention he has the best average running position on this tire this year?
Put simply, we’re getting a driver that:
Has a 61.1% success rate at finishing in the top five at this track over an 18-race sample size
Was fastest in his practice group
Has the best average running position on this tire this year
The +300 line at the Kambi books is an absolute steal. Even at DraftKings, where he’s +250, there’s value.
My model says he should be +220 for a break-even bet, and I think that’s underrating him. That’s because it’s impossible to appropriately quantify his practice and qualifying times.
The Bet: Joey Logano, top-five finish, +300 | Bet to: +200
Between Group A and Group B in Saturday’s qualifying session at Richmond Raceway, there was a drastic shift in track conditions, allowing most cars in the second group to run quicker lap times. Ross Chastain said he never saw a change in lap times compared to that of Saturday. Hendrick Motorsports capitalized on the cooler track temperature, slotting three of its four cars inside the top five. Meanwhile, its fourth driver, Chase Elliott, will start the race from 23rd position.
Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup: Starter 1: Martin Truex Jr.
Starter 2: Denny Hamlin
Starter 3: Ross Chastain
Starter 4: Kyle Larson
Starter 5: Kevin Harvick
Garage pick: Kyle Busch
NEXT IN LINE: William Byron, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski
RISING: When thinking of short tracks, specifically Richmond, Larson doesn’t come to the top of mind, despite winning at the track in 2017. The No. 5 team enters Sunday’s race with consecutive top-six finishes at the 0.75-mile track and will start from the pole for the third time in 2022 (Daytona and Sonoma).
As noted heavily over the past two months, Bowman has had very little to be blissful about. Last week at Michigan, the No. 48 scored its first top-10 result since the Coca-Cola 600 in May, but he has recent success at Richmond, which includes a win last April. His fifth-place starting position ties his best effort since starting on the front row in the Daytona 500.
FALLING: While starting 29th isn’t ideal, Kyle Busch isn’t worried. He said so while talking to NBC Sports following his qualifying effort. Still, the No. 18 team sits in my garage to start the race based on his six prior wins — and nine straight top 10s — at the track. There will, however, be heavy traffic directly in front of him at the start.
That Elliott was the lone Hendrick car to miss the final round of qualifying is a disappointment. More concerning for the No. 9 team is it’s the team’s third-worst starting position of the season. On paper, Elliott’s track record at Richmond doesn’t look bad, with an average finish of 11.5. Many of those the team overachieved. But historically, short, flat tracks are among his worst on the circuit, aside from Martinsville.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Kevin Harvick vs. Denny Hamlin
Combined, these two have seven wins at Richmond and finished 1-2 in the spring race. Snapping a 65-race winless streak, Harvick is bound to win another race sooner rather than later. But it won’t be this week, because Hamlin is an elite short track racer at the Cup level. Advantage goes to the No. 11 team.
Kyle Busch vs. Martin Truex Jr.
Entering Sunday, Truex is in a foreign position for this time of the season: below the playoff cutline. While I do expect Busch to extend his top-10 streak to 10 races at Richmond, Truex might be my pick to win the race. The No. 19 team dominated at New Hampshire last month, a similar track layout to Richmond.
Ryan Blaney vs. Joey Logano
No driver wants to be in the position Blaney is. Though second in the championship standings, there’s a real shot that he misses the postseason. So, does he chase points or go for the win? Given he has just two top-10 results in 12 Richmond races — the last two at that — one would think he will be points racing this weekend. And with Logano locked into the playoffs, Team Penske is likely putting all its eggs into the No. 12 team’s basket.
Chase Elliott vs. Christopher Bell
Arguably, these two drivers had the most disappointing Saturday at Richmond. Elliott was third in practice on best 10-lap average, so it would be understandable to choose him with long green-flag runs expected. But Bell has proven to be stellar at tracks like Richmond and New Hampshire, so the No. 20 team will likely find a way to be in contention for a good result from its 21st starting position.
RICHMOND, Va. – Ben Rhodes tried to take a measure of relief in the small consolations after a rocky Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. His title defense in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was still intact, and so was his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota – the one with a championship pedigree.
Nine of the first 11 finishers in Saturday’s Worldwide Express 250 were playoff-eligible drivers, led by race winner Chandler Smith. The lone outlier among the postseason field was Rhodes, who struggled to an 18th-place finish, two laps off the pace.
“We just got to go home and take solace in the fact that the truck’s in one piece,” said Rhodes, who started 14th and made little headway from the drop of the green flag. “This is our Phoenix truck from last year that won the championship, so the truck isn’t the problem. It’s a fast truck. We just had some issues with components and pieces that were on it tonight. Brake issues plagued us from the time we unloaded, and I knew from the first corner on the track that I didn’t like it, but there’s nothing you can really do at that point, you can’t really change all your brakes out, you don’t really want to go to the backup. We just had no clue it would be this bad. So we’re just gonna diagnose it and see what happened.”
Rhodes finished out of the top 10 at both stage breaks, then went one lap down on Lap 132. Smith lapped Rhodes again with 65 laps remaining as the No. 99 Toyota continued to fade.
Crew chief Rich Lushes, in his second season paired with Rhodes, confirmed that a new brake package for the 0.75-mile Richmond track was the culprit.
“We fought a brake issue all night, and I just feel like that was a source of all of our issues,” Lushes said. “Obviously, you can’t get into a corner, you can’t finish the corner, so we’ll go back and assess what we did. We have a pretty good idea what we did, tried something a little different tonight. I guess playoffs isn’t the time to try something, but we’ll see. We’ll go on to Kansas and still got a good cushion right now. So we’ll go to Kansas, have a good race and move on to the next round.”
That points buffer took a bit of a dent entering the playoff-opening Round of 10’s final race, scheduled Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway. Two drivers will be eliminated from the 10-driver field at Kansas, and Rhodes ranks seventh in the pecking order with a 21-point edge over the cutoff line.
“I’ve been there before, so I’m not scared,” Rhodes said, smiling through the disappointment. “I mean, we can run like a bag of (expletive) again next week and, you know, we should have enough points to make it through. This is about as terrible as I’ve ever ran before. I told them at one point, I can’t repeat what I said. It was a terrible truck at that one point in the race, and we could run just as bad. I can take solace knowing that we can run just as bad — we should never run this bad — but we have enough points to make it in as long as we don’t do anything stupid.
“The problem is, when you do run this bad, you run around people that make a lot of bad decisions, and you can easily get caught up in something that you shouldn’t even be a part of. So again, we’ve just got to go back and find out what happened. There’s no excuse for running this terrible.”
Smith took charge of the second event in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs when he won the race off pit road under caution on lap 75 — during the break between the first and second stages.
That was the ballgame. Smith led the final 175 laps through two cautions, one for the second stage break and one for an accident in Turn 1 involving Nick Leitz and playoff driver Carson Hocevar.
With his third victory of the year and fifth of his career, Smith earned automatic advancement to the second round of the playoffs, joining Grant Enfinger, who won the playoff opener at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
“Hell of a job!” Smith exulted after crossing the finish line 2.790 seconds ahead of runner-up and Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate John Hunter Nemechek. “This truck was really good — I’m not going to lie.”
It also helped that the track came to Smith after a first stage dominated by pole winner Ty Majeski, who led 73 straight laps after Smith led the first one.
Majeski won the first stage by more than four seconds, but his jackman, Paul Steele, fell in front of the No. 66 Toyota as he sprinted toward the right side of the truck. Majeski was hard on the brakes to avoid injury to Steele, but the miscue cost him two positions he never regained.
“I saw him trip, and I slammed on the brakes so I didn’t hit him,” said Majeski, who finished third. “He did a great job — he’s actually first-time tonight — he recovered well, really salvaged that pit stop. He rebounded and had a couple great stops. That’s what teamwork is all about.”
Smith’s crew was exceptional. On all three pit stops, the No. 18 team got him off pit road first, negating Nemechek’s advantage of the number one pit stall.
“I feel like the track just came to us there at the very end, especially Stage 2,” Smith said. “My pit crew did a bad-ass job — excuse my language — but they deserve that recognition. They did an amazing job, got me the lead, and we never gave it up.”
Nemechek thought the final caution for the incident in Turn 1 cost him a chance to contend for the victory. During the long green-flag run before the yellow, he had cut into Smith’s lead, and at one point pulled alongside his teammate before the frontrunners cleared traffic.
“I felt I had saved my stuff a little better on that run,” Nemechek said. “I was running him down pretty quick.”
The lead-lap trucks pitted for tires under the caution, however, and Smith pulled away once again after the final restart on Lap 223 of 250.
Enfinger finished fourth in a No. 23 Chevrolet that didn’t have the speed to contend for the win. Non-playoff drivers Corey Heim and Taylor Gray followed in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Three-time series champion Matt Crafton came home seventh and moved above the playoff cut line, three points ahead of Hocevar, who dropped to ninth in the standings, despite salvaging a 10th-place finish.
The bottom two drivers in the standings will be eliminated from the playoffs after the next race on Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without major issue, confirming Smith as the winner. His No. 18 Toyota had one unsecured lug nut.
See where your favorite Cup Series driver will pit for Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM Radio).
RICHMOND, Va. — Daniel Suárez says he’s close to taking his name off the NASCAR Cup Series’ Silly Season uncertainty list, nearing the final stages of sealing his return to Trackhouse Racing.
Suárez’s remarks came Saturday before on-track activity at Richmond Raceway, where the 24th of 26 regular-season races takes place with Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).
“Yeah, we’re very close,” Suárez said. “I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t even paid a lot of attention to it. I’m so focused right now on the playoffs and making my team stronger. But I know that my manager and people from Trackhouse are very, very close. We have never had doubts about where we’re at on those kinds of things. I’m just working on a couple of details. But yeah, we’re getting it finished. It’s not done yet, but it’s close.”
Suárez is in his second season with the No. 99 Trackhouse Chevrolet team. His Year 2 has been highlighted by his first Cup Series win, a breakthrough at Sonoma Raceway in June that landed him a postseason berth.
Suárez was Trackhouse’s first driver when the organization co-owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull entered Cup Series competition in 2021. Since then, Trackhouse has grown to a two-car operation with teammate Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Chevy. Together, the organization has seen a spike in its performance, savoring three victories between the two drivers this season.
The growth has been rapid, and Chastain said he’s looking forward to the continuity with Suárez as his teammate.
“We’re building, so that just goes without saying anything else,” Chastain said. “Like we want to keep building into the future of what we’ve got, what we’ve already done. So yeah, all on board with when they get it all worked out.”
RICHMOND, Va. – Christopher Bell said that he made a mistake in sparking a late-race crash last weekend with Ross Chastain, but that he stood his ground in an effort to race him as he has been raced in the past.
Six days after the crash that ruined the results for both Bell and Chastain at Michigan, both drivers explained their sides of the conflict before Saturday’s qualifying session at Richmond Raceway, site of Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM). Both drivers led multiple laps at Michigan, but Chastain wound up 24th and Bell took 26th.
Bell had made a blocking maneuver to stem the advances of Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in Michigan’s sweeping fourth turn. The two collided and Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota caught the worst of the damage with the outside retaining wall. Bell owned up to the initial contact, but noted Chastain’s reputation for hard-nosed racing that figured into his on-track tactics.
“I mean, made a mistake and misjudged on being clear and not being clear,” Bell said. “But with that being said, I’ve been put in that exact same position on the flip side, probably 30, 40, maybe 50 times this year and, you know, I’ve lifted. So I made a mistake, but he had an option to lift and cut us both a break, and he didn’t and we wrecked.”
Chastain had made a more recent pit stop, and Bell said he was aware that his rival was racing with fresher tires. Even with that understanding, Bell admitted he “was trying to make his life harder” and that Chastain’s past factored in.
“Absolutely,” Bell said. “This sport is a game of respect, and I try and race people how they race me.”
Chastain took that in self-deprecating stride.
“It looked like I was driving his car. Blocking all over the place,” Chastain said with a grin. “Yeah, I think he just made one too many blocks, and I was to his right-rear.”
The damage was one thing, but the ensuing caution period also turned the tide for Chastain and teammate Daniel Suárez.
“I mean, honestly, if I just would have lifted, right, we would have been better for me and Daniel, and Christopher, right?” Chastain said. “There’s really no circumstance where we need a caution right there, so when he gave me the option of lift or crash, I should have lifted. I just thought I had a lane to his right. I should have just pushed him instead of trying to get to his right-rear.”
Should the scenario present itself anew, Bell said he would weigh the circumstances.
“I think it depends on the situation,” Bell said. “And at that moment, we were racing for the win, and I felt like it was going to help my case to win to slow him up. And you know, if we’re racing in the playoffs, and I have to be more mindful of my points position, obviously, my thoughts are different. But in that situation, it was essentially win or bust, and I thought that was going to help me win the race.”
The pole is his third of 2022 and first since Sonoma Raceway in June. Larson was the final qualifier in the second round of qualifying, besting Ross Chastain’s lap at 116.883 mph to lead the field to the green flag for the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Even though I got into (Turn) 1 way too hard and sideways, I’m imagining that’s probably where I made up my time,” Larson said. “Just getting it in really deep, and I think getting it under control before I got to the exit probably is where I made up the lap time.
“I don’t know, though. It could be (Turns) 3 and 4. Who knows? But I felt like I got in a little deep — too deep for sure — but I think it worked out in the end.”
Completing the top five on the starting grid will be Denny Hamlin (116.485 mph), William Byron (116.470 mph) and Alex Bowman (116.384 mph).
Martin Truex Jr., a three-time winner at Richmond, will roll off sixth (116.204 mph) ahead of Cole Custer (116.139 mph), Brad Keselowski (116.104), Erik Jones 116.064 mph) and Ryan Blaney (115.785 mph).
Ahead of qualifying, five teams were penalized for failing pre-qualifying technical inspection, including Keselowski. All five teams each saw one crew member ejected and lost the ability to select their pit stall for Sunday’s race.
Aric Almirola was fourth-fastest in practice behind Austin Cindric, but both Fords struggled in qualifying as early hot-lappers. They qualified 32nd and 33rd, respectively.
PRACTICE
Ross Chastain was fastest in practice, posting the quickest lap at an average of 117.514 mph. Behind him were Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola and Martin Truex Jr.
Perhaps more telling for Chastain, however, was where else he was fastest — on the consecutive 10-lap average sheet. Chastain was quickest of the 29 cars who ran 10 straight laps with an average speed of 115.419 mph. Almirola was second over the course of 10 laps, followed by Chase Elliott, Truex and Hamlin.
Truex enters Richmond trailing Ryan Blaney for the final playoff position by 19 points. While Truex was fourth-fastest on the 10-lap averages, Blaney was only ninth.
The Nos. 6, 16, 17, 31 and 38 cars all failed pre-qualifying technical inspection twice on Saturday afternoon, resulting in the ejection of one crew member per team at Richmond Raceway.
NASCAR confirmed the ejections of the following crew members:
No. 6 — Car chief, Nick Case
No. 16 — Car chief, Andy Suess
No. 17 — Engineer, Travis Peterson
No. 31 — Car chief, Jaron Antley
No. 38 — Car chief, Lucas Tucker
Both RFK Racing entries as well as the two Kaulig Racing teams were penalized. Kaulig’s Nos. 16 and 31 cars, piloted this weekend by Noah Gragson and Justin Haley, respectively, were also penalized at Indianapolis Motor Speedway two weeks ago.
In addition to losing the aforementioned crew members, each team will also lose pit-stall selection ahead of Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway
(⏰ 3 p.m. ET | 📺 USA Network, NBC Sports App | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond, the 24th regular-season event of the 2022 campaign.
Race-day info 📝
Where: Richmond, Virginia Green flag: 3:17 p.m. ET | Full weekend schedule TV/Radio: USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio | Full TV schedule The purse: $7,144,995 Forecast: A slight chance of showers after 2 p.m. ET. Mostly sunny, with a high near 83 degrees, according to NOAA.gov | Weather tracker Race distance: 400 laps | 300 miles Stages: 70 | 230 | 400 Pit-road speed: 40 mph Caution car speed: 45 mph Richmond 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: Larson on the pole
Pit stalls: Where drivers will pit Cars to the rear: Nos. 21, 78 (unapproved adjustments)
UPDATE: Kurt Busch out again
Key things to watch 🔑
Big story line
It has been the story line all week and it is no different here. Will there be a 16th winner? Kevin Harvick’s momentous win at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday left two strong playoff contenders straddling the cutline: Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. Unfortunately for Ryan Blaney, the timing this week lines up perfectly for Truex to pounce — at least that is what history tells us. Truex has three wins in the last six races at Richmond and has led an imposing 1,285 laps at the Virginia short track. Blaney, on the other hand, has just two top-10 finishes in 12 starts, though they came in the last two races. The good news for Blaney fans is that his improvements here have been remarkable as of late. But will it be enough to hang on to his 19-point lead?
Who’s hot? Who’s not?
After breaking the streak of 65 consecutive races without a win, Kevin Harvick is in prime position to become a title favorite down the stretch. The momentum the No. 4 team has found recently is very notable, reeling off five top 10s in the last eight races and storming their way to Victory Lane. Don’t expect them to slow down at Richmond this weekend, either. Harvick and company finished runner-up in the spring race and have finished inside the top eight in 12 of the last 15 races. Harvick’s got the hot hand.
Though Tyler Reddick has won two of the last six races, the No. 8 team’s performance on ovals has been underwhelming compared to their success on road courses. Reddick has three finishes of 21st or worse, including a pair of DNFs, alongside the two wins and heads to Richmond where he has yet to register a top 10 in the Cup Series. Sure, a pair of wins leaves Reddick and company comfortably heading into the playoffs. But with more ovals than road courses in each of the rounds, they need to flip the switch. Fortunately, Reddick finished 12th in the spring race so there is definitely something to build on there.
Driving under the radar
If you haven’t been paying attention to racing at Richmond, this driver to watch out for Sunday may come as a big surprise: Austin Dillon. Dillon raced his No. 3 Chevrolet to a 10th-place finish in the spring and now has five top 10s in the last seven races at Richmond. Recently, he has been one of the best here. With all the talk about other drivers a bit nearer to the cutline, Dillon winning this weekend is certainly not out of the question. And as the 16th, and perhaps most unlikely, winner, it would shake up the playoff picture considerably.
Practice and qualifying
The fact that both Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions went largely without incident revealed how much better handle drivers have on the Next Gen car compared to this year’s spring race at Richmond. Most expected the Toyotas to come out the gate in dominant form, but it was the Chevrolets and Fords who shared the majority of the afternoon’s success. Kyle Larson earned his third Busch Light Pole Award of the season, besting Ross Chastain at the buzzer with a 23.042-second lap time. Hendrick Motorsports claimed three of the top five spots on Sunday’s starting grid. Chastain set the pace in practice, followed by Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and spring winner Denny Hamlin. | Full recap here
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
Race-day staples ✅
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Paint Scheme Preview: Vivid paint schemes for Virginia | Pick a favorite • Power Rankings: Denny Hamlin is on the rise | Updated drivers rankings • NASCAR betting: BetMGM odds for Sunday’s race | Underdogs, value bets • Fantasy Fastlane: Can Martin Truex Jr. turn the tide? | Top plays, sleepers • Bubble Watch: Which drivers are close to the cutline? | Read more
• Backseat Drivers: Is Bubba Wallace too hard on himself? | Watch the debate
• Stacking Pennies: Kyle Petty joins the show | Listen to full interview
Catch the pack 💨
Read up on the top headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.
• Martin Truex Jr.: Driver opens up on Richmond success, more | Read more
• Driver analysis: Does Ryan Blaney or Martin Truex Jr. have the edge? | Read more
• Jordan Brand: New 23XI scheme for the No. 45 at Richmond | Read more
• At-track etiquette: Justin Haley opens up on growing fanbase, driver interaction | Read more
• New facility: NASCAR Productions center set to begin construction | Read more
• New signing: Noah Gragson inks 2023 deal with Petty GMS | Read more
• Block party: Bubba Wallace, NASCAR host event at Richmond | Read more
• Richmond president speaks: ‘I want Richmond to win’ | Read more
• Playoff breakdown: How the field looks entering Richmond | Read more
• Austin Dillon: Inside his role as Carolina Cowboys’ GM | Read more
• Justin Haley: Running Xfinity Series race with Kaulig Racing at Daytona | Read more
• Silly Season: Driver moves, changes are heating up | Track them here
• Get your tickets: Tickets are now on sale for the 2023 Busch Light Clash | Read more
Get in on the action 💰
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.
• BetMGM: Public likes Truex to spoil Hamlin’s homecoming | Read more
• The Action Network: Odds, picks and predictions for Richmond | Read more
• Backseat Bets: Can Kevin Harvick take down Denny Hamlin? | Watch the segment
• Play it LIVE: Full guide to 2022 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
• Going all the way: 2022 Cup Series championship odds | See them here
Racing twice at Richmond ✌️
There is so much NASCAR history at Richmond Raceway, so let’s break down some of the basics.
• Do you remember?: Memorable moments at Richmond | Relive them
• Earlier in 2022: Denny Hamlin takes Round 1 at Richmond | Full race recap
• Race Rewind: Hamlin pulls through for home-state win | Watch highlights
• Last year at Richmond 2: Back to front, Truex puts on a show | Watch highlights
Fast facts ⏩
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Chase Elliott will lock up the Regular Season Championship by leaving Richmond with a 121-point lead. • Ryan Blaney lost 52 points to Martin Truex Jr. in the last four races in the cutline battle. • Truex finished top five in the last seven Richmond races, the longest streak since Rusty Wallace had seven. • Four of the last eight races in 2022 were won by drivers getting their first win of the season. • The longest active top-10 streak is four races by Bubba Wallace. The longest by any driver this year is six.
Say what? 🎙
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.
• “Just the atmosphere, the people. I think that’s the most important thing is the people and being able to feel comfortable at an organization, that’s pretty unique as it is, I feel like. JR Motorsports, it’s been a home for me the last four years and the leadership and the same qualities that they really instill in their company, I feel like that’s what we’ve seen here at GMS. So looking forward to the opportunity.” — Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series on signing the 2023 deal with Petty GMS Motorsports
• “I think it’s definitely been a letdown for me personally. I wanted to come out and do a really good job and I feel like I made a lot of mistakes early. Some things I feel like I did well early, but I don’t know. I don’t know what the grade would be. I haven’t really thought a lot about that. I think the biggest thing is just trying to build off of every weekend. Last weekend at Michigan was so tough because we just missed it in practice and qualifying and then you get into the race and get crashed early and don’t have a chance to really build off of anything. I’m just trying to get better and better each weekend.” — Harrison Burton, driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, on his 2022 season
• “We’re going to show up and fight like we always do. We know Richmond is a good opportunity for us and we want to make the most of that opportunity, but we don’t really change who we are at this point in the season. James (Small, crew chief) and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing are doing everything we can and that’s all I can ask for as a driver. I have a lot of confidence going to Richmond and know what we’re capable of.” — Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
