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| Kyle Busch leads active drivers with 6 Richmond wins. |
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Federated Auto Parts 400
The Place: Richmond Raceway
The Date: Saturday, September 21
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN, 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)
2018 Race Winner: Kyle Busch
Mike Stefanik decal to honor late legendary champion
This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will honor NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Mike Stefanik, who died in a plane crash last Saturday. A decal commemorating his life will be placed on the A-Pillar on each car. The decal will reflect the red of his most recent paint schemes, as well as his stylized name from his car. Additionally, the years of his nine NASCAR championships (seven in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and two in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) are listed on the decal (1997 and 1998 are repeated for his championships in both series in the same year).
The decal will also run on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Pinty’s Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East cars competing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend. The Modifieds will then carry the decal for the remainder of the 2019 season.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Truex locked into second round of Playoffs
For the first time this season, Martin Truex Jr. takes over the top position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings thanks to a hard-fought victory in last week’s Playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And he arrives at Richmond Raceway for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) the most recent winner there – earning the win last April.
Truex’s five victories in 2019 are most in the series. He and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch are the only two drivers in the series to win at least four races a season the last four years. They each have won a series high 21 races since 2016. And neither appears to be slowing down.
Truex, specifically, boasts some important momentum. He has 11 top-five and 16 top-10 showings through the opening 27 races and holds a three-point edge on second place Kevin Harvick in the Playoff driver standings following Las Vegas. He has five top-six finishes in the last seven races. His previous wins came in April (at Richmond), May (at Charlotte, Dover) and June (Sonoma).
Richmond has been a good place for Truex, who was third in this Playoff race last year and has five top-10 runs in the last seven races there. Ironically, his worst finish in that stretch was a 20th in the 2017 regular season finale at Richmond and Truex would go on to win his first Cup title two months later. He won four of the 10 Playoff races that year, including the Homestead-Miami season finale.
Kyle Busch looking to bounce back by defending at Richmond
After a couple challenging weeks behind the wheel, Kyle Busch welcomes the opportunity to restore his Playoff course this week at Richmond Raceway, where he is the defending race winner. The Monster Energy Series Regular Season Champion has suffered back-to-back rough outings in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – a season-worst 37th-place finish at Indianapolis two weeks ago and a 19th place in the Las Vegas Playoff opener last week.
Although Busch’s work this season earned him the top ranking to start the Playoffs, the tough luck at his home track of Las Vegas has now dropped him to fourth in the standings – 19 points behind the points leader, his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. It’s the lowest Busch has been ranked since the first Las Vegas race of the season, when he was also fourth in the standings. The upside for the 2015 Monster Energy Series champion is that he led the points for 14 weeks. And he leads the Monster Energy Series with six victories at this week’s venue, Richmond Raceway.
Busch swept both Richmond races in 2018 and is coming off an eighth-place finish at the track in April. He has top-10 finishes in eight of the last 10 races. And he is one of only four active drivers to win a Richmond race from the pole position (2010). He has the best average finish (7.0) in the field since 2005 and boasts the second-best driving rating – 110.2, compared to Kevin Harvick’s series-best 110.4.
Since 2005, Busch has a series best 17 top-five finishes in 28 starts at Richmond - 60 percent of the time he finishes in the top five. His six career wins is twice that of any driver in this week’s field. His victory in May 2018, from the 32nd starting position is the farthest on the grid a race winner has started in the track’s 126-race history.
Busch’s four wins this season have come at ISM Raceway, Auto Club Speedway, Bristol-1 and Pocono-1 – however that last win was June 2. He’s been runner-up at Sonoma and Kentucky since then.
The good news for Busch is that both his 13 top-five and 21 top-10 efforts are tops in the series. And the 15 bonus points Busch earned for winning the regular season title carry over to the next Playoff round.
“It’s kind of an insurance policy,’’ Busch said. “We all pay for insurance to hopefully never have to use it, but it’s there just in case.
“For us, we’ve done a great job of being able to build those points up throughout the regular season and it’s nice to be able to have that point structure in place to kind of give you the opportunity to have your early season success help you through the postseason. I think it’s the most-fair structure that we’ve had through the Playoff era.’’
Harvick is peaking at the right time
Kevin Harvick conceded two weeks ago that maybe his 2019 Playoff push would benefit from better timing. Last year he had a career-high eight-win season but had won five of those before the midpoint of the regular season. This year, Harvick seems to be peaking just in time for the 10-race Playoff.
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford has won two of the last five races, three of the last eight. He won the Indianapolis regular season finale from the pole position and led a dominating 118 laps. Last week he led 47 laps and finished runner-up to Martin Truex Jr. in the Las Vegas Playoff opener.
Harvick shows up at Richmond Raceway ranked second in the points – tying his best points position of the year (he was ranked second for two of the season’s opening three weeks). And more bad news for competition: Harvick is the highest rated Playoff driver at Richmond.
He has three wins – the last in May 2013, won four pole positions, and earned a series best 24 top 10s and 15 top fives in 37 starts. He has finished top 10 in 64.8 percent of his starts. His seven Xfinity Series victories is most all-time, and he tied an amazing statistic – winning three Xfinity races in a row (2005-06) – to equal a mark set by Harry Gant in 1991-92.
Harvick is currently on a seven-race streak of top-10 finishes at Richmond and was runner-up to Kyle Busch in this Playoff race last year. He’s led laps in four of the last five Richmond races and twice – in 2006 (272 laps) and 2011 (202 laps) – led more than half the race total laps.
“I think the back-up plan is to survive and advance, but we want to win,’’ Harvick said. “We want to be racing for the lead and trying to win stages and be aggressive. I think being aggressive is just going to bite you less than kind of being passive and just trying to mediocre your way into the next round by looking at points.’’
Virginia is home for Hamlin
Denny Hamlin has long considered Richmond Raceway his “home” venue. Having grown up in nearby Chesterfield, Va., doing well at Richmond was always a goal. And he’s succeeded.
Hamlin has three Monster Energy Series victories and three Xfinity Series wins at the 0.75-mile oval. His 1,659 laps led in Cup there is most in the field. He is one of only four active drivers to win from the pole position (2016).
In seven of the last eight Richmond races, Hamlin has finished sixth or better. He was fifth this April. He has 12 top-five and 16 top-10 efforts in 26 starts, including a runner-up finish to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2006 - his first ever Monster Energy Series race at his home track. Six times he’s led at least 100 laps, including 381 of 400 laps from the pole position in 2008 – only to finish 24th while Clint Bowyer celebrated in Victory Lane.
Hamlin could really use some of his hometown magic. He tumbled from second in the points standings to start the 10-race Playoff push to a season-low seventh place following a 15th-place finish in the Las Vegas Playoff opener last week.
Still Hamlin’s season statistics are impressive. He has 13 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes through the opening 26 weeks and is averaging a 9.9 finish. In seven of the last nine races he’s finished sixth or better – and that includes two victories, at Pocono2 and then Bristol-2 from the pole position.
Team Penske performing
All three Team Penske drivers – Brad Keselowski (third), Ryan Blaney (fifth) and Joey Logano (ninth) – earned top-10 finishes in the Las Vegas Playoff opener. And Logano’s 105 laps led was most among all competitors.
They arrive in Richmond with a lofty record to launch from. Logano is a two-time Richmond Monster Energy Series race winner (in 2014 and 2017). Keselowski won in 2014 and has four Xfinity Series victories at the track.
The reigning Cup champion Logano is ranked third in the Playoff standings – only seven points behind leader Martin Truex Jr. Keselowski is fifth, 24 points out. And Blaney is 10th, 43 points behind Truex and 12 points up on 13th place Ryan Newman with two races remaining to settle which 12 drivers move on to the next round of the Playoffs.
Richmond has been a stellar overall venue for Team Penske, which swept both race wins in 2014, including one of the most dominant performances in track history from Keselowski who led 383 of the 400 laps to win the fall race.
Logano has the second-best average finish (10.2) on the season among the top five in the points. Of those drivers, only regular season champ Kyle Busch (8.6) has a better average finish.
On the bubble
Four drivers came out of the Las Vegas Playoff opener ranked below the top-12 cutoff with two races left to try and get inside that group to advance to the Round of 12.
Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman is 13th in the standings – six points behind 12th place Aric Almirola. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch, the 2004 Monster Energy Series champion, is ranked 14th, 14 points behind Almirola.
Clint Bowyer, who won the pole position last week at Vegas but finished 25th, is ranked 15th – 21 points behind his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Almirola. And Erik Jones, who is points leader Martin Truex Jr.’s teammate, is currently 16th in the standings – 26 points behind Almirola. Jones has had horrible luck the last two weeks with a finish of 39th in the Indianapolis regular season finale and then 36th last week at the Vegas opener with his No. 20 Toyota suffering a mechanical problem.
Newman, Kurt Busch and Bowyer all have previous victories at Richmond. Both Busch (2005 and 2015) and Bowyer (2008 and 2012) have two wins. Newman won in 2003.
Of the four, Newman has the best career average finish (12.5) and top 10 mark (19) in 35 Richmond starts. Bowyer is averaging a 12.7 finish in 27 starts with 15 top 10s. Busch has a 15.3 average finish in 37 starts. Busch and Newman have the most top-five finishes (seven) among the four drivers.
Best of the rest
Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson made good on his promise to remain highly-competitive in the Playoffs even though for the first time in his 16-year Monster Energy Series career, he is not part of the championship mix.
Johnson finished 11th - best among non-Playoff drivers at Las Vegas. He and Austin Dillon (12th) were the only non-Playoff competitors among the top 15.
Daniel Suarez, who is ranked 17th in the points – tops among those drivers that did not qualify for the championship run – started second and led 29 laps but finished 20th. He holds a 35-point edge over Johnson in the standings. Johnson holds a 35-point advantage on Paul Menard.
Johnson is easily the most successful at Richmond Raceway among those not to secure Playoff berths. He has three victories at the track – scoring those three wins in a four-race span between 2007-09. He’s finished 12th or better in the last 10 consecutive Richmond races – seven times among the top 10. He is the only driver not competing in the Playoffs with a victory there.
Competition highlights
In winning his first pole position in 12 years, Clint Bowyer became the 13th different polesitter this season and completes a four-driver pole sweep for Stewart-Haas Racing. SHR is tied with Hendrick Motorsports with the most pole positions on the season (eight). Kevin Harvick leads all drivers with five. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron is next with four.
Team Penske is the only team other than Stewart-Haas Racing to have a pole-winning sweep. All three of its drivers – Joey Logano (two), Brad Keselowski (two) and Ryan Blaney (one) have also earned the top qualifying spot.
When it comes to race wins, Joe Gibbs Racing continued to set the high mark with Martin Truex Jr.’s win at Las Vegas on Sunday. There have been 11 winners representing six race teams. But JGR has nearly tripled the work of the next best – earning 14 wins. Next closest is Team Penske with five. Truex, alone, has a Cup Series high five victories.
The average Margin of Victory through the opening 27 races is 1.610-seconds and there have been 15 races where the Margin of Victory is less than a second.
Green flag passes for the lead are up considerably – 41.2 percent – compared to last season. In fact, there has been record green flag passing this season at Las Vegas-1, Bristol-1, Kansas-1, Chicago, Kentucky and Indianapolis.
Parade Laps: Insights ahead of this week’s driver media rotations
Six drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer and Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman will be participating in this week’s media rotations at Richmond Raceway in advance of Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m., ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Alex Bowman, 26, of Tucson, Ariz., had a stellar top-10 start to his 2019 Monster Energy Series Playoff run, finishing sixth in the Playoff opener at Las Vegas last week. He’s ranked 11th now in the championship – good enough to keep him inside the 12-driver cutoff for the next Playoff round in two weeks. It is, however, only his second top 10 since notching his first career win at Chicago in June – 11 races ago. Bowman has certainly turned in an improved scoresheet at Richmond since joining Hendrick Motorsports fulltime last year. In the three races he’s competed in for Hendrick at Richmond, he has three top 20s, including a best of 12th in this fall race last year. He was 17th at the track in April. Prior to joining the Hendrick team, Bowman had four finishes of 28th or worse at Richmond. He’s led only one lap in his career at the track – this race, last year.
Ryan Preece, 28, of Berlin, Conn., comes to Richmond with an encouraging mark of three top-20 finishes in the last five races. He was seventh at Michigan in August – one of three top 10s he’s earned this season. The driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet started 16th and finished 20th in the series’ April stop there. It’s been a challenging venue in Preece’s young career as he is 0-for-3 in top-10 finishes in the Xfinity Series as well. His best showing at the track, an 18th place last fall. Preece does still remain hot on the pace of Sunoco Rookie of the Year points leader Daniel Hemric, who sits 25th in the championship standings with only a 29-point advantage.
Aric Almirola, 35, of Tampa, Fla. is making his third consecutive Playoff appearance and started the title run with a 13th-place finish at Las Vegas on Sunday. He hasn’t scored a top 10 since a seventh at the summer Daytona race. He has 10 top 10s and one top five (ISM Raceway-1) on the season and heads into the second race of the three-race opening Playoff round ranked 12th – with 12 drivers advancing to the next round. Richmond has been a solid venue for Almirola in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. He was 23rd there in April but was fifth in this race last year and led his first career lap at the 0.75-mile oval. His best showing is fourth in the 2015 fall race. He has a pair of top fives and five top 10s in 15 Richmond starts.
Kyle Larson, 27, of Elk Grove, Calif., is coming off a solid eighth-place finish in the Playoff opener at Las Vegas and is ranked eighth in the championship - his highest ranking since the fifth race of the season. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet has six top-10 finishes in the last seven races, including a runner-up showing at Darlington, S.C. three races ago. He’s led laps in the last four races – 113 of his 304 laps led on the season. Richmond Raceway has been a strong venue for Larson. He won this fall race in 2017 and finished seventh in the 2018 Playoff race there. But Larson crashed out and finished 37th in April. He has a pair of top-five and four top-10 finishes – three of those top 10s in the last four races.
Clint Bowyer, 40, of Emporia, Kans. won his first pole position in 12 seasons at Las Vegas last weekend, but a late race collision dropped him to 25th in the final race standings and he heads to the second race of the Playoffs at Richmond in a precarious 15th-place ranking. Two races remain in this Playoff opening round to decide which 12 drivers will advance to the next round of the Playoffs. The good news for the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team is that Bowyer’s tough luck at Vegas was the first time he’d finished outside the top 10 in the last four races. He is a two-time winner (2008 and 2012) at this week’s Richmond Raceway Playoff venue. He was third at Richmond this April and has three top 10s in the last four races there. Plus, he has 15 top 10s in 27 starts at the track – better than 50 percent.
Ryan Newman, 41, of South Bend, Ind. is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes – including a 10th-place showing in the Las Vegas Playoff-opening race. He has 10 top-10s on the season now and has finished 12th or better in four of the last five races. He is a Richmond Raceway winner (2003) and polesitter (2004) and has 19 top-10 finishes in 35 starts at the track. He was ninth in April in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and has finished top-10 in three of the last five races there – leading 29 laps in that span. He goes to Richmond ranked 13th in the championship, only six points behind 12th place Aric Almirola with two Playoff races remaining to set the 12 drivers who will advance to the second round.
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