Richmond Raceway will host four races over three days that will culminate with the second race in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on Saturday night.
The Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 (MRN, 6:30 p.m. ET) will be the third short-track race of the season and the first of back-to-back in the Round of 16 with Bristol being the elimination race next weekend.
See Also: Richmond Schedule
Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. is the most recent winner at a short track when he scored his only win of the season at Martinsville Speedway back in June. Last weekend, Truex led a race-high 196 laps in the playoff opener at Darlington, but finished 22nd after getting together with Chase Elliott in the closing laps. Truex will start 14th on Saturday after the competition-based formula to determine the lineup with 25% of the formula being weighted on the Darlington finish.
Truex is the winner of the last two races at Richmond and has combined to lead a series-high 777 laps in the last five races there.
“Richmond is a place we feel very confident about with how we’ve ran there over the past four or five years and finally getting to Victory Lane last year,” Truex Jr. said. “It has become one of our best tracks and the guys have done a great job giving me the feel I need there. We obviously didn’t get the finish we wanted last week, but it’s a new week and we know what we’re capable of. James (Small, crew chief) and the guys are bringing unbelievable cars every week, so I expect to run up front and have a shot to win this weekend.”
See Also: Richmond Race Info and Lineups
Joe Gibbs Racing has won the last four races at Richmond with Kyle Busch taking the checkered flag in both races in 2018. Busch finished seventh last weekend in the playoff opener and is still winless in 2020. He will start sixth.
“I’ve won there six times and I’ve been in the top-five about every time we go there, so I would like to think that we can keep that string going and, more importantly, get a win,” Busch said. “We need some wins this year and we look forward to Richmond being one of those places we can do that.”
Kevin Harvick will start from the pole after winning his eighth race of the season at Darlington to advance to the Round of 12. Harvick and Busch join Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer as the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in each of the last four races at Richmond.
Keselowski’s teammate Joey Logano will start second.
Virginia native Denny Hamlin, who finished 13th at Darlington, has finished sixth or better in eight of his last nine starts at Richmond, which included his third win at the track in this event in 2016.
See Also: Richmond Driver Averages
Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and William Byron round out the top-five starters for the 400-lap race. Both Bowman and Byron have yet to finish in the top 10 at Richmond, but each have the top-two average finishes in the last three races this season at 6.0 and 3.3, respectively.
“We have struggled at Richmond in the past,” Bowman said. “The last three weeks have been pretty good to us and we have some momentum going into this weekend’s race. As a team, we have to go into Richmond and capitalize on stage points and keeping the car clean.”
Richmond marks the sixth oval track (1.058 miles or less) this season to utilize the reduced-downforce rules package. Keselowski (5.5), Harvick (6.3), Logano (7.3), Jimmie Johnson (7.8) and Truex Jr. (10.7) have the top five average finishes in those races.
Friday night will see the Xfinity Series in action for the first of two races on back-to-back days with the running of the Go Bowling 250 (MRN, 6:30 p.m. ET). Saturday’s second race, the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 250, which was realigned from Michigan International Speedway, will start at 1:30 p.m. ET on MRN.
After Richmond, only one race will remain to decide the 12 drivers for the Xfinity Series Playoffs. Eight drivers have already clinched a spot in the 12-driver postseason field: Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, and Ross Chastain.
Chastain, who will start from the pole on Friday, is seeking his first win of the season. His 20 top-10 finishes without a win are the most ever through 23 races in an Xfinity Series season.
Kyle Busch will compete in Friday’s race and will start 29th. Busch is a six-time series winner at Richmond and has finished fourth or better in his last eight starts, which includes three wins in that span.
The Richmond weekend got started on Thursday night with Grant Enfinger winning the regular-season finale for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.
The win was the third of the season and he bookended the 16-race regular season with victories that started in the season opener at Daytona.
See Also: Enfinger Wins at Richmond
Austin Hill won the regular-season title and will be the third seed (2,022 points) behind Zane Smith (2,022) and Sheldon Creed (2,026). Creed and Enfinger are currently tied for the most wins among series regulars.
“All in all, we did our job today getting the 15 bonus points and the regular season championship, which is really nice to have those bonus points, but kind of stings a little bit because we definitely felt that we had a better truck tonight than an eighth-place finish,” Hill said.
After fourth-seeded Enfinger, Brett Moffitt, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Christian Eckes, Todd Gilliland and Tyler Ankrum will make up the 10-driver playoff field.
Gilliland was the last driver to make it on points with Derek Kraus the first driver out, 13 points behind the cutoff.
“The season is not over yet just because we are not in the playoffs,” Kraus said. “We are going to race as hard as we can and try to get wins as good as we can and just bring the best Tundras we possbily can to the race track and just have a solid last seven races.”
Story updated 9/10
