Deadspin | Weekend Preview: Richmond Raceway

After a two-week summer break, the NASCAR Cup Series resumes its schedule in Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — the last short track race of the regular season on the famed three-quarter miler.

Only four races remain to set the 16-driver playoff field. Seven drivers have already secured their position in the playoffs. Five others have a race win and need only to collect more points to officially become part of the playoff-bound. Multi-race winners Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Christopher Bell are in.

Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez and Austin Cindric all have won a race and are collecting points at this point to formally clinch their championship shot.

That leaves five positions to be settled in the final four races of the regular season, with former series champ Martin Truex Jr. (+108 points) and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs (+42) in solid positions in the standings.

Chris Buescher (+17) and Ross Chastain (+7) are holding down the final two positions in the current top 16, with Bubba Wallace (-7) and Chase Briscoe (-83) next closest.

The Hendrick Motorsports teammates Larson and Elliott along with 23XI Racing’s Reddick are still in a dramatic battle for the all-important regular season championship and the 15-point playoff bonus that goes with that. Larson leads Elliott by 10 points, and Reddick is only 15 points off Larson’s bumper.

Should either Larson or Elliott win that title, they would join Truex and Kyle Busch as the only two-time regular-season champions since the format went into place.

The entire starting field will have a new dynamic to strategize with this weekend as NASCAR is introducing two tire compounds to be used at the teams’ discretion during the 400-lapper. It’s being hailed as another opportunity to build off the same two-tire option in the NASCAR All-Star Race at another short track, North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway in May. It also provides another competitive element to the race with so much on the line heading into the playoffs.

Teams will have six sets of “prime tires” and two sets of “option tires” for use during the race. Goodyear’s “prime” tires are a harder rubber compound with typically less grip but will last longer. The new “option” tire has a softer rubber compound offering more grip and speed but will not last as long.

There have been nine different winners in the last nine Richmond races, with RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher the defending summer race winner — claiming the trophy at Richmond, then winning two of the next four final races (at Michigan and at Daytona Beach) to close out the regular season.

Buescher would love to use Richmond as a playoff springboard again this year for his No. 17 RFK Ford team. Although he was runner-up in the closest finish in NASCAR history at Kansas earlier this year, he is still racing for his first trophy of 2024.

“Last year, we had been inching towards that kind of success and finally just fired on all eight when we got to Richmond,” Buescher said this week.

“We executed that day extremely well from race strategy to on track decisions to restarts, pit road. We finally put it all together, and I think that was a big confidence booster for our team as we headed into the next few.”

Buescher noted that for much of his career he did not like the Virginia short track but recently has changed his view.

“It was a fun racetrack but just hadn’t been able to truly figure it out until the last couple of years,” Buescher said. “Honestly, from where I’m at, we have worked hard at it. There’s been a couple things on my side that have helped.

“(Team co-owner) Brad (Keselowski) has been a big part of that. Brad runs very well there and has been able to give me a handful of pointers that have led me down a better path, and our team has stepped up in a massive way and brought some very fast race cars that ultimately just make me look better.

“When we bring those race cars to the track and we’re that competitive off the truck, it makes my job a lot easier when I know that we’re in the ballpark.”

Hamlin won at Richmond in March. Kyle Busch (2018) and Truex (2019) are the last drivers to sweep a season and win back-to-back races at the three-quarter miler. Should Hamlin win Sunday night, he would tie Busch for most wins (six) at the track among active drivers.

Joe Gibbs Racing team has won five of the seven short track races this season with Hamlin winning three times (at Richmond; Bristol, Tenn.; and Dover, Del.) and Bell twice (at Phoenix and New Hampshire). Hendrick’s Byron won at Martinsville, Va., and reigning series champion Blaney of Team Penske won at Iowa.

Busch, who currently boasts the highest Richmond trophy haul in the field, is still racing for his first victory of the season to maintain a remarkable winning streak that’s currently at a series-high 19 years. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champ is ranked 19th, 112-points behind Chastain in that last playoff position.

An extended 45-minute practice is slated for Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 5:35 p.m.. Both sessions will be broadcast on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

–Richmond is set to decide Truck Series playoff field

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to action in Saturday night’s Clean Harbors 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Richmond Raceway — the last regular-season race of the year and one that will formally set the 10-driver 2024 playoff field and crown the regular-season champion.

Five drivers have earned playoff positions with victories this year — including Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, Nicholas Sanchez, Ty Majeski and Rajah Caruth. Five other drivers are currently “in” playoff position via points – Tyler Ankrum (+83), Grant Enfinger (+77), Taylor Gray (+48), defending series champion Ben Rhodes (+22) and Tanner Gray (+5).

Daniel Dye (-5) and Stewart Friesen (-16) are just below the cutoff line and within reasonable distance to challenge for a playoff position in the right race circumstances Saturday night. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton is just behind Friesen in the standings, 43 points back.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Eckes holds a 50-point advantage on TRICON Garage’s Heim for the regular-season title despite Heim’s series best five-win tally. The 23-year-old Eckes could clinch the regular-season championship by scoring 11 or more points on Saturday. The regular-season title includes the all-important 15-point bonus playoff points to carry throughout the seven-race postseason. If Eckes claims that title, he would be the eighth different driver to do so.

Enfinger, driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, is the only full-time driver in the field that has a previous win at Richmond, claiming the 2020 victory in the series’ first race back at the three-quarter miler after a 15-year break. Enfinger’s 5.5 average finish (four top-10s in as many races) is best among those with at least four starts at the track.

Carson Hocevar – now a rookie in the NASCAR Cup Series – won the Richmond truck race last year by more than 2 seconds over Majeski, who led a race-best 168 of the 250 laps. Among the four drivers closest to the cutoff mark, Rhodes was 12th last year, Tanner Gray was 16th, Dye was 21st and Friesen was 27th.

Of that foursome, Rhodes boasts the best average finish of 10.0 in his four Richmond starts with a pair of top 10s and 79 laps led. Tanner Gray has never scored a top 10 at Richmond with a best showing of 16th-place in three of his four starts there. Dye has just one previous race at the track, and Friesen has one top 10 in his four starts – 10th place in 2020 – and has never led a lap.

Highly-touted young ARCA Menards Series drivers Connor Zilisch, 18, and William Sawalich, 17, will be on the starting grid this Saturday. Zilisch will drive the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in making his second of five scheduled starts on the season. Sawalich will make his fourth start this season driving the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra. He scored a season best 12th-place finish at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the last race. He finished 10th at Richmond last year.

A half-hour practice is scheduled for the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series at 2:35 p.m. ET, followed by Cometic Gasket Pole Qualifying at 3:05 p.m.

–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media