RICHMOND RACEWAY / ROAD AMERICA NOTES
Sat., July 29 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series @ Richmond, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sat., July 29 – NASCAR Xfinity Series @ Road America, 3 p.m. ET (NBC)
Sun., July 30 – NASCAR Cup Series @ Richmond, 3 p.m. ET (USA)
The finale of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season highlights this weekend’s action on Saturday night at Richmond Raceway with five Ford drivers still having a chance to make the postseason field. The NASCAR Cup Series will close out the Richmond portion of the weekend on Sunday while the NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers tackle the course at Road America on Saturday.
Joey Logano: “Richmond is probably one of our best tracks. I feel really good about it. It’s a track that, for whatever reason, Paul really has his head wrapped around and gives me a really strong race car. I assume he’s gonna be able to do that again because he’s done that for years, and it’s also a track that fits into my wheelhouse and we can really work together. It’s a track that’s not a hammer track. It’s not one of those new asphalt tracks where you can drive so hard every lap without penalty. You eventually pay a penalty at Richmond, so that makes it kind of fun for me. You go back to the old school style of racing with a lot of tire fall off and it makes you feel like you have a bunch of horsepower, but you actually can’t put the power down, so all of that type of stuff is pretty fun.”
Michael McDowell: “Our short track program has taken a big step in the right direction and at Richmond we obviously had a little bit of strategy that got up there, but we had a top 10 car, so I feel good about going back there. I feel good about what we learned at New Hampshire and some other short track stuff, too. It’s a daytime race starting in the afternoon, so it’s usually slicker and opens up some strategy. That’s been a strength of ours, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Brad Keselowski: “I like any track that we run well at. I’m entirely selfish. We’ve had some really good runs there. We’ve won some races and led a lot of laps and that always makes a track a lot of fun, and then the last two races there we’ve had some competitive runs as well, so I’m excited to go back there and build off it.”
HARVICK GOING FOR REPEAT
Kevin Harvick is the defending winner of this weekend’s Cup Series race at Richmond after posting his second straight series win a year ago. Harvick, who won at Michigan the week before to break a 65-race winless streak, went back to victory lane after leading 55 laps and holding off a late charge from Christopher Bell. The win was Harvick’s 60th Cup victory, one of only 10 drivers in NASCAR history to achieve that.
RICHMOND ONE OF LOGANO’S BEST
It would be easy to look at Joey Logano’s two career wins at Richmond and say it’s got to be one of his best tracks on the circuit, but the statistics provide further proof. In 28 career starts, Logano has 12 top 5 and 17 top 10 finishes, which gives him an average finish of 10.2. That’s his second-best average finish on tracks where he’s run more than five races. The only track where Logano has a better average finish is Las Vegas, where his three wins and 12 top-10 finishes in 20 starts works out to a 9.9 average finish.
HARVICK A CAREER TOP-10 FINISHER AT RICHMOND
Another Ford driver who has experienced consistent success at Richmond is Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick. This weekend will mark his 45th career Cup Series start at the track in which his 9.5 average finish is fourth-best among tracks currently on the circuit in which he has more than five starts. The other three tracks that statistically are Harvick’s best include: Homestead (7.3), Phoenix (8.6), and Indianapolis (8.6).
KESELOWSKI SOLE RICHMOND WINNER IN 2020
Richmond Raceway hosted two NASCAR Cup Series events a year from 1959-2019, but in 2020 the track had only one event due to COVID and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski took the checkered flag in dominating fashion. Keselowski led 192-of-400 laps in recording his second career Cup win at the Virginia short track, and automatically advanced to the Round of 12. Overall, Ford led 297 laps on the night and had five drivers finish in the top 10, including Joey Logano (3rd), Kevin Harvick (7th), Aric Almirola (8th) and Clint Bowyer (10th).
EDWARDS WINS ELKHART DEBUT
Carl Edwards, who was named to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list earlier this year, added Road America to his extensive list of circuits where he was victorious. The series made its debut there in 2010, when Edwards led 35 of the 50 laps to reach victory lane. A restart with three laps remaining showcased Edwards’ ability to quickly master the 4.048 mile road course as he skyrocketed to a 4.302-second margin of victory.
A CINCH FOR CINDRIC
Austin Cindric is the most recent Ford winner at Road America from his 2020 championship campaign. After a major weather delay in Stage 1, Cindric powered his Ford Mustang to the front, leading a total of 19 laps for the win. Chase Briscoe also shared the top-three with Cindric, finishing third.
REGULAR SEASON FINALE
Three Ford drivers have clinched spots in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs with a fourth or even a fifth hoping to punch their ticket on Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. Zane Smith, Ben Rhodes and Ty Majeski are all assured spots in the 10-driver postseason field while Matt Crafton and Hailie Deegan are still in the mix going into the final race of the regular season. Crafton goes into the event with a nine-point advantage over Stewart Friesen, but trails ninth-place Nick Sanchez by 12, so it’s possible he could move up in the standings and open a potential spot for Deegan, who would make the field with a victory.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT RICHMOND
1957 – Paul Goldsmith
1959 – Tom Pistone and Cotton Owens
1960 – Speedy Thompson (2)
1963 – Ned Jarrett (2)
1965 – Junior Johnson (1)
1968 – David Pearson (1)
1969 – David Pearson (1)
1970 – James Hylton (1)
1979 – Bobby Allison (2)
1980 – Bobby Allison (2)
1981 – Benny Parsons (2)
1984 – Ricky Rudd (1)
1986 – Kyle Petty (1)
1988 – Davey Allison (2)
1990 – Mark Martin (1)
1992 – Bill Elliott (1)
1993 – Davey Allison (1)
1994 – Ernie Irvan (1)
1995 – Rusty Wallace (2)
1996 – Ernie Irvan (2)
1997 – Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett
1998 – Jeff Burton (2)
1999 – Dale Jarrett (1)
2001 – Ricky Rudd (2)
2002 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2005 – Kurt Busch (2)
2013 – Carl Edwards (2)
2014 – Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski
2017 – Joey Logano (1)
2020 – Brad Keselowski
2022 – Kevin Harvick (2)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
AT ROAD AMERICA
2010 – Carl Edwards
2013 – AJ Allmendinger
2020 – Austin Cindric
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT RICHMOND
1999 – Greg Biffle
2000 – Rick Carelli
2020 – Grant Enfinger
