This week’s Go Bowling 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the opening of the 2019 Xfinity Series Playoffs. Twelve drivers – including four rookies – will be competing for the crown.
Tyler Reddick, last week’s Las Vegas winner, is the defending champion and will be trying to win a second straight but with a different team, Richard Childress Racing. Should Reddick win again it would mark the first time the series had a back-to-back champion since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won in 2011-12 driving for Roush Fenway Racing.
In fact, a driver has earned consecutive titles only six times in series history – Stenhouse, Martin Truex Jr. (2004-05), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-99), Randy LaJoie (1996-97), Larry Pearson (1986-87) and Sam Ard (1983-84). Never has a driver won consecutive championships driving for two different teams, however.
Reddick and his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro team certainly made a bold statement at Las Vegas – taking the checkered flag on a pit stop gamble that worked. He pitted off sequence and then stayed on track longer than his closest competitors and was able to hold off Bell – who led a dominating 154 of the 200 laps – by .738-seconds. It was Reddick’s fifth win of the season and he has a series-best 20 top-five and a series-best 22 top-10 finishes.
Making good on a bold pit call like that may come in handy with this group of championship contenders in particular. Bell and Custer have won six races each and when you add in Reddick’s numbers that means this “Big 3” – as they are known – have won 17 of the season’s 26 races.
Certainly, Custer’s and Bell’s work at Richmond, in particular, looks as if they arrive the drivers to beat. Reddick has finished top-10 the last two races.
The veteran Allgaier – a five-race winner in 2018 – is on a streak of 10 top-10 finishes, and has runner-up showings at Indianapolis, Charlotte and the season-opener at Daytona. And still looking for that first victory of the season, Allgaier is super motivated. He’s had four top-five runs at Richmond, including a third-place this April. He was runner-up to Kyle Larson in 2017.
Rookie Noah Gragson impressed immediately at Richmond, finishing runner-up to Bell last Spring by less than half a second in his first Xfinity Series race at the track. He was 22nd earlier this season. Austin Cindric has two top-five finishes in three starts, including a runner-up to Custer this season.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
