RICHMOND, Va. – 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 and five others have a race win needing 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 have all 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 Martin Truex Jr. 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 and also to provide 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 spring board 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,” said Buescher 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 conceded. “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, Team Penske’s Blaney 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. ET. Both sessions will be broadcast on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
