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| Martin Truex Jr led lots of laps last spring at Richmond. |
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Toyota Owners 400
The Place: Richmond Raceway
The Date: Saturday, April 13
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: FOX, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300 miles (400 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 100),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 200), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 400)
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Kyle Busch looking for three in a row
They say Virginia is for lovers and one thing Kyle Busch would love to do is win his third straight race at Richmond Raceway this Saturday (April 12, 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader and winner of three races already this season (including last weekend’s battle at Bristol) is looking to do what was last accomplished in the early 1980s by Bobby Allison – win three consecutive races at the 3/4-mile track.
Only three drivers have won three or more in a row at Richmond – all NASCAR Hall of Famers – David Pearson (three, 1965-66), Richard Petty (seven, 1970-1973) and Allison (three, 1982-83).
And in the last 20 years, only one other driver has even won back-to-back races – Jimmie Johnson in a sweep of the 2007 season races.
It will be hard to bet against Busch achieving that mark of three straight this weekend. The Las Vegas native remains the lone Monster Energy Series driver to finish in the top 10 in each race this season. And last year the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry also won Bristol the weekend before the Toyota Owners 400.
Overall, Busch has six Richmond Cup wins in 27 starts – along with 17 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes. And even if he doesn’t visit Victory Lane on Saturday, he still stands a good shot at extending his top-10 streak to 11 races as he has an average finish of 6.9 at Richmond.
Harvick still hungry for a win
After posting eight wins in 2018, Kevin Harvick is winless thus far in 2019 and has to be missing the sweet sound of confetti cannons in Victory Lane.
Despite failing to post a win through the opening eight races, the 2014 Monster Energy Series champ has six top 10s (Daytona and Bristol being the lone exceptions) and three top fives. And a fun fact there – all of those top fives were fourth-place finishes for the driver of the No. 4 Stewart Haas Racing Ford Mustang.
But could Richmond be the place that puts Harvick back on top? He has three wins at the track and finished in the top five in both races last season. Overall in 36 starts at Richmond, Harvick has 14 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes.
He’s completed over 99% of the laps in those races, led 1,109 laps (fourth on his career tally list: Phoenix – 1,595, Dover – 1,442, Atlanta – 1,197) and has yet to post a DNF at the 0.75-mile track.
However, it’s been five years since his last win at Richmond Raceway – which came in the spring race in 2013 while he was still with Richard Childress Racing. But in the 10 races at Richmond since joining Stewart-Haas, Harvick has been amazingly consistent – posting seven top fives and recording a worst finish of 15th.
So, could this be the track that puts Harvick back on top? Survey says…possibly!
Seven-time getting back on track
The last time a winner of a Richmond Raceway Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series contest went on to win the year-end title was 2008. And in fact, that same driver achieved the same feat in 2007.
The driver? Jimmie Johnson.
After posting his second top-10 finish in a row, and fourth of the season, last weekend at Bristol, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is hoping this positive trend continues as he hopes to end a nearly two-year winless streak…and potentially march towards a record-setting eighth championship.
The last time Johnson visited Victory Lane was in June of 2017 at Dover. Through eight races last year, he had two top 10s and an average finish of 19.12. This year, he has an average finish of 14.5 to accompany his four top 10s.
There’s reason to have optimism that Johnson can post a solid finish or even reach Victory Lane at Richmond this weekend. He has three wins, seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes and has finished all but one race in 34 starts. And he has top-10 finishes in seven of the past nine races at the track – including a sixth-place result in this race last season.
The terrific two at the top
Nobody has dominated the Monster Energy Series this season like the Fords of Team Penske and the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing.
The organizations have shut all other teams out of Victory Lane in 2019. Penske’s Joey Logano (Las Vegas) and Brad Keselowski (Atlanta, Martinsville) have captured three races while JGR’s Denny Hamlin (Daytona, Texas) and Kyle Busch (ISM Raceway, Auto Club, Texas) have combined for the other five wins.
And there’s no reason to think that trend couldn’t continue this weekend. The dynamic duo has combined to win eight of the last 10 races at Richmond Raceway. The lone standouts were current Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson in the 2017 fall race and Kurt Busch in the spring of 2015:
Spring 2014 – Joey Logano (Team Penske)
Fall 2014 – Brad Keselowski (Team Penske)
Spring 2015 – Kurt Busch (Stewart Haas Racing)
Fall 2015 – Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Spring 2016 – Carl Edwards (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Fall 2016 – Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Spring 2017 – Joey Logano (Team Penske)
Fall 2017 – Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Spring 2018 – Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Fall 2018 – Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Here’s a breakdown of the current driver lineups for the two teams and their historic performance at Richmond:
Joe Gibbs Racing
Kyle Busch – The leader among active drivers with six wins at the track (double that of the next closest competitors), he also has 17 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes in 27 starts.
Denny Hamlin – The Virginia native has three wins at his home track along with 11 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes in 25 starts.
Martin Truex Jr. – The first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver has yet to win in 26 starts at Richmond, and has three top fives and nine top 10s.
Erik Jones – The JGR driver with the least experience at the track has one top-10 finish in four starts.
Team Penske
Joey Logano – The reigning Monster Energy Series champion leads the team with two wins at Richmond, along with eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 20 starts.
Brad Keselowski – The 2012 series champion has recorded a win in 19 starts and has tallied four top fives and nine top 10s. Richmond will be Keselowski’s 350th career Monster Energy Series start.
Ryan Blaney – The most junior member of the team has yet to post a top 10 in six starts at Richmond.
Chip Ganassi Racing looking to break up the band at the top
If there’s a team who might feel optimistic about their chances of breaking up the pair of dominating forces on the winners’ list this year it could be Chip Ganassi Racing.
Kyle Larson is one of two non-JGR or Penske drivers to record a win at Richmond in the last 10 races – winning the fall race in 2017. And the only other driver outside of those teams to win at Richmond in that 10-race stretch was Kurt Busch (then with Stewart Haas Racing but now teamed up with Larson at CGR) in the spring of 2015.
Busch’s 2019 has started off strong. Through the opening eight races, he has three top-five and six top-10 finishes – including a runner-up to his little brother Kyle last weekend at Bristol. And he currently sits eighth in points.
Overall, he has a pair of wins at Richmond, along with seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes in 36 starts.
Larson has only recorded two top-10s this season and sits an uncharacteristic 14th in points.
In 10 starts at Richmond, he has the win from 2017, two top fives (including a runner-up finish in the fall of 2016) and four top 10s.
Parade Laps: Insights ahead of this week’s driver media breakouts
Six drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be participating in this week’s media rotations at Richmond Raceway leading into this Saturday’s Toyota Owner’s 400 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Ryan Blaney – The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang has yet to post a top 10 in six career series starts at Richmond Raceway – and is the only member of his team to not have a win, yet, in 2019. Currently sixth in points, he has four top fives and four top 10s so far this season along with a Busch Pole and a season-best finish of third at Phoenix.
Chris Buescher – Racing with a full-time teammate (Ryan Preece) for the first time at JTG Daugherty Racing is the driver of the No. 37 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Buescher is currently 23rd in points and recorded a ninth-place finish at Atlanta earlier this season. He, like Blaney, has six starts at Richmond without a top 10.
Martin Truex Jr. – The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry is still chasing his first win of the season – and his first win at Richmond Raceway. He does have three top fives and nine top 10s in 26 starts at the 0.75-mile venue. Overall this season he is seventh in points with two top fives and five top 10s.
Aric Almirola – Almirola’s streak of six top-10 finishes came to an abrupt end last weekend in Bristol after getting caught up in an early-race incident. Besides last week, the driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang is having a fantastic start to the year. In 14 starts at Richmond, he has two top fives and five top 10s, including placing fifth here last fall.
William Byron – The second-year Hendrick Motorsports driver who pilots the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has just two starts at Richmond and is still looking for his first top 10 there. Byron is currently 20th in the points standings and has a season-best finish of sixth at Texas for his lone top 10 of the year.
Paul Menard – Legendary Virginia-based Wood Brothers Racing is hoping the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang can net the team their 100th Monster Energy Series win in their home state. His best finish of the season came last weekend at Bristol (sixth). In 24 starts at Richmond, he has one top 10 – a fifth-place result in the fall of 2013.
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