NASCAR Cup Series

Like many a school kid returning to school after spring break, Paul Menard and the No. 21 Menards/Maytag team will be hitting the books this week as they prepare for Saturday night’s 400-lapper at Richmond Raceway.

Jimmie Johnson on racing at Richmond before the Boston Marathon: “I'm looking forward to racing this weekend in Richmond and am ready for Boston. This weekend I will be focusing on nutrition and final preparations for the event Monday. We have had some small victories over the last few weeks on track, and I’m really proud of the effort (No. 48 team crew chief) Kevin (Meendering) and the team have put in."

Mission 600 is a go. Charlotte Motor Speedway will – in conjunction with the Department of Defense – incorporate all five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces with Coca-Cola Racing Family driver trips to regional military bases before the historic 60th running of the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26.

Toyota Speeding Through 2019… Toyota Racing continued its incredible start to the 2019 season at Bristol Motor Speedway – sweeping the NASCAR national series weekend for a third time (ISM Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway) in just an eight-week span. Toyota drivers have earned 15 victories of a possible 20 NASCAR national series events this season. Toyota also leads the manufacturer championship standings in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS), NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS).

Stenhouse has 12 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Richmond with an average starting position of 15.4 and average finishing position of 19.8.

“I'm ready to regroup at Richmond. The track is usually pretty fast after the sun goes down, but it's also a track that requires good tire management. We will need to be smart and execute well throughout the whole weekend. We know we can do that and have a solid run.”

Newman will make his 35th Cup start at Richmond on Saturday. In 34 prior events, Newman has 18 top-10s with seven top-fives and one win (2003). He’s led 483 laps at the .75-mile track with an average finish of 12.6 overall.

AFTER MARTINSVILLE HEADING INTO RICHMOND, HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT THE CHEVROLETS ARE MOVING FORWARD, ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF WHAT WE SAW IN TEXAS WITH THE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CARS?“We feel like the Chevrolets are in a better spot than we were last year. We’ve had speed in our camp, at RCR and ECR in lot of the qualifying sessions, but we haven’t been able to turn it into finishing results that we’d like. Some of the Hendrick cars had some good speed last week. That’s good to see. And, Kurt Busch has also been pretty good all year. So, it’s moving in the right direction. I hope that we can continue the same path that we’re on and keep building on it. But, every week seems to be a different challenge, so we’re still progressing.”

After races at Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway in thelast month, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues its recentshort track run this weekend at Richmond Raceway. Ford Mustangdrivers make up half of the Top 10 in the series point standings, ledby Joey Logano, who moved from fifth to third after his third-placeeffort on Sunday.

Richmond Preview: The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Denny Hamlin’s home track of Richmond Raceway for a Saturday night race on April 13. The Chesterfield, Va., native has three wins at the three-quarter mile speedway and has led a career-best 1,659 laps around the Virginia oval. With two wins to his name already this season, Hamlin and team will be seeking their third victory, potentially moving them into first in the Cup Series standings.