NASCAR Cup Series

Chris Buescher, the first full-time Sprint Cup driver for Texas since Bobby Labonte stopped racing full time in 2013, enters Richmond on the Chase bubble, with an 11 point cushion. Buescher’s surprise win at a rain-shortened Pocono event last month was the first win for a Texan since Bobby’s last win, the 2003 season finale at Homestead-Miami.

Denny Hamlin captured the pole for the 2016 Federated Auto Parts 400 after turning a lap of 122.344 mph. Hamlin, who was born in nearby Chesterfield, Virginia, took risks by going out first in the final two rounds and ended up beating the more conservative teams that waited until the last few minutes.

Kyle Larson set the pace for the Chevrolet SS drivers in knockout-style qualifying for the Federated Auto Parts 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway (RIR). Larson ran a lap of 22.079 seconds, 122.288 mph in his No. 42 Target Chevy SS to post his sixth top-10 start of 2016, and his third in six races at RIR. Larson, who secured a spot in the upcoming 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with his first Cup career win at Michigan two weeks ago, will start on the outside front row for the 400-lap/300-mile race under the lights at Richmond.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND - IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE POLE, BUT THROUGH TURNS 3 AND 4 SEEMED TO KILL THE LAP. WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE? “Yeah, I was losing my drive off of (Turn) 4; but I’ll take a second here."

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Qualified 12th “Our first run I kind of missed my lap a little bit but was good enough to get through. We ran an extra lap and probably didn’t need to. That kind of puts you behind the eight ball. You don’t want to run extra laps if you can help it."

When asked to rate his season on a scale of 1 to 10, Austin Dillon gave himself a 6.5/10. Speaking to the media earlier this afternoon at Richmond International Raceway, Dillon was asked to rate his season on a scale of 1 to 10.

Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 34 CSX Play it Safe Ford Fusion, enters Saturday night’s race at Richmond with an 11-point cushion on David Ragan for a top-30 points spot and a berth in the 2016 Chase. Buescher spoke about the strategy that surrounds his team tomorrow.

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) and discussed being on the Chase bubble, what it would mean to make his first career Chase for the Championship field, his approach to this weekend at RIR and many other topics.

Casey Mears topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Richmond International Raceway. The driver of the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 22.396 and a speed of 120.557 mph.

It's time to cycle through the transmission for another edition of Four Gears. This week, our resident NASCAR journalists were asked if other drivers should be as up front as Kevin Harvick was about his pit crew to affect change. They also considered whether John Hunter Nemechek deserves all the flak he's gotten for his last lap move at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and if he could've handled his last turn differently.