Official Release

Another doubleheader of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series action is scheduled for this weekend at Richmond Raceway. Ford has had good success at the three-quarter mile track, which includes Joey Logano’s victory one year ago. Here are some other notes and highlights of Ford victories through the years.

Richmond Preview: The series heads to Richmond Raceway for Saturday’s 400-lap race under the lights at Hamlin’s hometown track. The Chesterfield, Va., native has two wins at the three-quarter-mile speedway and has a led a career-best 1,653 laps around the Virginia oval. Hamlin picked up two of his ten career top-five finishes at Richmond in 2017 following a third-place finish in the spring and a fifth-place finish in the fall.

Fifty years ago, the Ford Mustang Cobra Jet took to the staging lanes at drag strips everywhere – and along with the resulting wins, a legend was born. Now comes the return of the Mustang Cobra Jet drag strip race car by Ford Performance – targeted to be the most powerful and quickest version from the factory yet, capable of running the quarter-mile in the mid-8-second range while topping 150 mph.

Jimmie Johnson on racing at Richmond after a top-five finish at Bristol: “The finish in Bristol is exactly what this team needed. I’ve known that every week we have been getting better, but it's nice to finally have a finish to back that up. Now if we could just fix these bouts of bad luck we have been having. I’m already ready to get back in the Lowe’s for Pros Chevy and looking forward to Richmond. We have put together some solid runs there lately and with the momentum from Bristol, I’m ready to roll.”

Gallagher and the No. 23 Allegiant team will utilize chassis no.215; Gallagher ran this chassis this year at ISM Raceway (Start:12th/Finish:14th) and in 2017 at Kentucky Speedway (Start:14th/Finish:13th) and Iowa Speedway (Start:12th/Finish:37th).

News and notes: After coming off another solid performance at Bristol, Spencer Boyd and team are set to head to Virginia for some more short track action at Richmond Raceway. "I've had this track circled for a while," says Boyd. "One of my favorite racing memories of all time was running bumper to bumper with Dale Jr. there last year. I'm hoping between my previous experience at the track and our team's momentum from the last couple of weeks, we can put together a really solid run." The team is excited to welcome new associate sponsor, Strike Force Energy on board this weekend. Strike Force Energy is a Veteran-owned company that makes energy packed beverage enhancers.

Roush Fenway Racing has announced a deal that will solidify its partnership of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 17 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team through 2021. Fastenal will continue to serve as the anchor partner of the No. 17 and will increase its number of primary races with Stenhouse and the team. SunnyD and Fifth Third Bank will each continue to play a major role with the team, serving as primary partners with the No. 17 in multiple events over the next four seasons.

Reed has competed at Richmond Raceway 10 times in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS). He made his first career NXS start at the track in 2013, earning a 16th-place finish. His best career finish at the track came in September 2013 when he finished ninth.

In six races at the .750-mile short track, Bayne has an average finish of 19.3 with his best of 13th coming in last season’s spring race. He also recorded two top-17 results in 2016 with a 17th-place finish in the spring race, and 14th in the fall event.

Stenhouse has ten career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Richmond with an average starting position of 15.8 and average finishing position of 20.1.