JUSTIN HALEY | KAZ GRALA
Richmond Advance
Event Overview

● Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Justin Haley, Driver of the No. 51 Walmart Health & Wellness Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Walmart Health & Wellness Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing (RWR), heads to Richmond (Va.) Raceway for his seventh NASCAR Cup Series start at the .75-mile oval. Best of his previous Cup Series starts there was a 21st-place finish earned in August 2022.

● Haley owns two runner-up finishes at Richmond in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, earned in 2020 and 2021, and he’s finished in the top-10 four times. He made one start at Richmond in the ARCA Menards Series East in 2015, finishing 12th out of 35 cars.

● In the Cup Series’ most recent short-track race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway two weekends ago, Haley ran within the top-15 for most of the 500-lap race. In a race that saw drivers battle significant tire fall-off, he was on track for a top-10 finish until the final five laps when tire wear became too much to manage. He finished the race 17th, the best result RWR has earned at Bristol to date.

Kaz Grala, Driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Boston native Kaz Grala makes his first Richmond start Sunday the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RWR. Grala finished 19th at Bristol in the first short-track race of the season.

● In five Xfinity Series starts at Richmond, Grala has three top-10 finishes. His best was a fourth-place result earned in April 2023, the first of his nine top-10 finishes earned last season.

● Grala also owns one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start at Richmond, and he competed in two ARCA Menards Series East races at the .75-mile oval with a best finish of eighth in 2015.

Rick Ware Racing Notes

● NHRA Top Fuel driver Clay Millican competed at the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, California, last weekend with the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series. The Parts Plus driver topped Antron Brown in the first round of eliminations to advance to the quarterfinals, where he was defeated by Brittany Force.

● In Senoia, Georgia, rain forced a one-day show for Progressive American Flat Track (AFT) drivers Briar Bauman, Kody Kopp and Shayna Texter-Bauman. Kopp took home his second win of the year in the AFT Singles feature by a margin of 1.522 seconds. It was his third podium finish in three races so far this year. In the Mission SuperTwins feature, Bauman missed out on the podium by .160 of a second, finishing fourth to match his best result of the season so far.

● Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age six when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver seat and into fulltime team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields two fulltime entries in the NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, the LMP3 class of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), where RWR won the 2022 SX2 championship with rider Shane McElrath.

Justin Haley, Driver Q&A

Final result aside, the No. 51 team had a great run in the last short-track race at Bristol. Now that you’ve had time to think it through, what are your thoughts on how that weekend went and how that plays into what we may see this weekend at Richmond?

“We just try to do the best we can and every week we unload and we’re not really sure where we’re going to be once we get on track. I feel like we’ve shown a lot of speed at the short tracks. At the Clash, we were really fast, and then at Bristol we were quick, too. This is just a growing year. It’s taking time but the scenario at Bristol kind of played into our hands a little bit and our cars were just quick. I saw people saying that we were just running to the front and waiting for the tires give up, but I was conserving all day. That’s a situation where the car was good and it was on me to manage that and try to keep us up there. We’ll see more conserving at Richmond, it’ll just be a matter of how much. We’ll be racing at night rather than during the day, like we have been, and that could mean a big difference in what we see with the car. We’ll have to take that into consideration during practice and come up with a good plan for the race.”

It seems as though everyone is seeing a completely different Rick Ware Racing as compared to years past. Does that feel accurate with what you are seeing inside the shop?

“Absolutely, and trying to change that narrative has been one of the biggest things we face. We have completely different intentions than the RWR of the past and we’re just trying each week to do the best that we can with what we have. RFK has been a big, big help to that. Ford has been a big help to that. We’re on the simulator every week, we get the same time the bigger Cup teams get, and we’re all working hard. It felt good to show that at Bristol. I guarantee we’re working just as hard or harder than anyone else out here just because of how small our team is. Our people have to work triple as hard as a big organization would. So it’s been a lot of long nights, but it’s awesome to see that effort that all the men and women in the shop are putting in come to fruition.”

Kaz Grala, Driver Q&A

The RWR cars have been strong on short tracks so far this year, but what are some of the challenges you could face at Richmond?

“Our cars have been really fast on the short tracks and I think we’ll see the same this weekend. The surface at Richmond is really abrasive and a lot of times you’ll see guys that are really quick on the short run but kind of fade later in the race. We’ve already had a race where we had to manage tires and get the most out of them late in a run, so I think we’ve got something we can work with. The biggest question will be how that changes under the lights. The last few years, the Cup cars have run during the day and you definitely see more parity when the sun is out.”

Richmond is one of the tracks where you have the most experience, dating back to your time racing Late Models. Does that give you added comfort as you continue to build your relationship with the No. 15 team?

“I’ve really enjoyed racing at Richmond and I do have a lot of track time there. I think there are a few ways that can help. I know the characteristics of the track and what I need to focus on as a driver to make it to the end. One of the great things about Richmond is you really don’t know what kind of race you’ll get. We could have long, green-flag runs or we could end up with a race where we see a lot of cautions and frustration. It’ll be important for me to manage my patience as the race goes on and just let Bill (Plourde, crew chief) and the guys give me what I need in the car.”

RYAN PREECE
Richmond Advance
No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Event Overview

● Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Ryan Preece and the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing are headed to the Commonwealth of Virginia for an old-fashioned short track battle during Sunday night’s Richmond 400. It will be Preece’s 158th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series and his eighth at the .75-mile oval. Preece earned his best result at the track in the series’ prior visit last July when he finished fifth.

● With Richmond’s worn-out asphalt and low-banked, 14-degree turns, the track echoes characteristics of the Northeast venues where Preece honed his skills on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Preece underscored those parallels during a Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2021 when the Berlin, Connecticut-native scored a dominating victory. It was the 25th of his 26 career wins on the Modified Tour.

● Last Sunday at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin Texas, Preece rallied to a 23rd-place finish after late contact in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Preece was forced to start at the rear of the 39-car field due to a change of valve springs after qualifying, but crew chief Chad Johnston orchestrated a strategy that propelled Preece to a fifth-place finish at the end of the second stage to earn him six valuable bonus points.

● Preece has competed in four NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Richmond with his best result coming in his most recent Xfinity Series start at the track –16th in April 2022.

● Joining Preece this weekend at Richmond is United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), the largest equipment rental company in the world. United Rentals has an integrated network of 1,449 rental locations in North America, 13 in Europe, 27 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company’s approximately 24,700 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers approximately 4,700 classes of equipment for rent with a total original cost of $19.3 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Barron’s 400 Index and the Russell 3000 Index®. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Additional information about United Rentals is available at UnitedRentals.com.

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You earned a top-five finish in your most recent NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond last July. You’ve also been victorious there in a Modified. What is it like to race at Richmond?

“Richmond is a large short track, but it’s still a short track. The track surface is worn out, so tire heat and falloff is a real thing at Richmond. Turns one and two, and turns three and four are completely different corners, so being disciplined in hitting your marks and having a car with good balance is important at Richmond. If you’re fighting a car that’s too tight or too loose, the issue will only be exaggerated the longer the run goes.”

Is it important to have a car that handles well in traffic at Richmond?

“I think it’s important to have a versatile car that you can move around and take to places on the track where others can’t. It’s definitely important to have a good-driving car in traffic, but it’s also extremely important to have a car that’s able to go where others can’t.”

Will there be a noticeable change on-track with the race taking place under the lights on Sunday night?

“I think Richmond is very sensitive to tire heat, so I’m not sure if you will necessarily experience as much of a balance change or encounter some of the issues that we normally would during the day. However, as the track cools off, you will probably see cars begin to turn better, but on the flip side, they could potentially become looser. It will be important to stay ahead of the track on adjustments.”

What are your thoughts on tire wear at Richmond? Could we see something like what we saw at Bristol?

“I think Bristol has always been a place where we have never expected tire wear, so if we had that amount of tire wear there, and now we’re going to Richmond where tire wear is always a big part of the racing, yes, I think we could potentially see something similar to Bristol. At that point, I think it just comes down to setting up your racecar differently, driving it differently, the whole thing. How you attack the race will be different. Going into Richmond, I don’t know what to expect. Last year, our car drove well the entire race and didn’t fall off that badly, but this year it could be about tire conservation and having a car that drives really well on lap 30 and not lap five, as in the past.”

No. 41 United Rentals Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Ryan Preece

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Crew Chief: Chad Johnston

Hometown: Cayuga, Indiana

Car Chief: Jeremy West

Hometown: Gardena, California

Engineer: Marc Hendricksen

Hometown: Clinton, New Jersey

Engineer: Scott Bingham

Hometown: Lawrenceville, Georgia

Spotter: Tony Raines

Hometown: LaPorte, Indiana

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Devin Lester

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Rear Tire Changer: Kevin Teaf

Hometown: Tallahassee, Florida

Tire Carrier: Chad Emmons

Hometown: Tyler, Texas

Jack Man: Kapil Fletcher

Hometown: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Fuel Man: Dwayne Moore

Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Joe Zanolini

Hometown: Sybertsville, Pennsylvania

Interior Mechanic: Robert Dalby

Hometown: Anaheim, California

Tire Specialist: Matt Ridgeway

Hometown: Carrollton, Georgia

Engine Tuner: Jimmy Fife

Hometown: Orange County, California

Transporter Co-Driver: David Rodrigues

Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

Transporter Co-Driver: Charlie Schleyer

Hometown: Youngsville, Pennsylvania

CLUB ENTRY LIST

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
POINT STANDINGS: 15TH

ERIK JONES
POINT STANDINGS: 21ST

CLUB NOTES

Easter with family: With the NASCAR Cup Series racing on Easter Sunday again this year, Erik Jones will take the time to celebrate his racing family. Before the race on Sunday, Jones will treat the No. 43 team, family and friends to an Easter meal at Richmond.

READwithErik: Jones will appear in the NASCAR Kid’s Zone for a book reading at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, March 31. This at-track edition of #READwithErik will feature a special furry friend, as Jones will read “How To Catch the Easter Bunny” by Adam Wallace to children and families in attendance at 4:00 p.m. on race day.

Second Cup start: This weekend marks John Hunter Nemechek’s second career NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond Raceway. Over the last three years (2021-2023) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Nemechek has finished in the top-three at Richmond Raceway (a third place and two seconds consecutively.) He has completed all but one lap (1,499 out of 1,500) – which is impressive for a short track – and has led 182 laps. Nemechek has an average finish of seventh in his six starts at the 0.75-mile Virginia short track.

Dollar Tree’s Gold Star: Primary partner Dollar Tree will honor Richmond-based store #2335 this weekend as a part of the company’s “Go For G.O.L.D.” (Grand Opening Look Daily) program. The Dollar Tree and Family Dollar primaries will highlight these stores on the deck lid of all three LEGACY M.C. entries throughout the race season.

Familiar colors: The No. 42 Safeway Toyota Camry XSE will have a similar paint scheme that was seen in Las Vegas and Phoenix, but with a slight twist. The No. 42 will have bold red stripes across the side of this week’s entry as Nemechek will represent Safeway and ACME in Richmond.

National Reading Month: The Erik Jones Foundation (EJF) has been celebrating National Reading Month throughout March by auctioning off books that Jones read during the #READwithErik program on Facebook. Anyone interested in learning more about the program and books available for auction can check out the listings here. The proceeds from this event will directly support the mission of the EJF.

Running at Richmond: Jones has four starts in the Xfinity Series at Richmond Raceway. During these starts, Jones has not started outside of the top 10 and has only finished outside of the top five once. Jones holds an average start of 3.8 and an average finish of 11.3 in the Xfinity Series at Richmond.

Xfinity success: Crew chief, Dave Elenz, has an impressive resume at Richmond Raceway in the Xfinity Series. Elenz boasts two wins (2016 and 2021), three top-five, and nine top-10 finishes with 166 laps led in 13 attempts.

NASCAR Q&A: Nemechek will join host Monica Palumbo on race day at Richmond for a Q&A session at 5:00 pm local time on the Victory Lane Stage in the infield fan grounds.

Move over Jones: LEGACY M.C.’s No. 43 mechanic, David Cropps, tackled Salisbury, N.C.’s local dirt track Milbridge Speedway on Monday night during the A1 Feature Buggy race. Cropps qualified 15th for the 50-lap event and raced his way into the top 10, where he finished seventh with a handful of the LEGACY M.C. CLUB members in attendance. Among those at the track was Jones, who can be seen celebrating the top-10 finish in the CLUB’s photo of the week.

CLUB QUOTES

John Hunter Nemechek, Driver of the No. 42 Safeway Toyota Camry XSE:

“Richmond has been one of my favorite racetracks to go to for some time now. I won there in the Truck Series and ran second in Xfinity a few times, so I should have won a few more but gave a few away. Overall Richmond really just fits my driving style tire degradation and fall off being able to manage your equipment a lot of different lines being a day-to-night race. But Richmond feels like a short track that I used to race on coming through the Late Model ranks. I’ve hit the SIM this week and am working with Ben and Trevor (Bayne) on preparation so we are ready.”

Ben Beshore, Crew chief of the No. 42 Safeway Toyota Camry XSE:

“Regarding the tire fall off, at times you are at the mercy of what everyone else is doing just in the sense if you get off strategy and are the only one on a certain strategy then you have to do a lot of passing. Richmond has a lot of tire fall off and managing tire fall off is huge so having to put any extra stress on the tires is not a good thing. Staying on the top of our game, is key.”

Erik Jones, Driver of the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:

Talk about the new short-track package and how you hope to see it perform at Richmond.

“The new package is obviously a lot different. I think Richmond will be a great test for it to see how much it has improved in traffic or hasn’t. At Richmond, we have qualified well and had speed; we just need to have more speed during the race, so hopefully, we can go there and figure that out. I am hoping that the new package gives us the opportunity to move around and try some different stuff.”

Dave Elenz, Crew chief of the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:

Talk about the difference in setup when you are looking at this run of short tracks.

“It’s nice that we have a stretch of short tracks to work on our short track program and get it a little bit better. Phoenix went really well for us and we hope to bring some of that stuff into Richmond; there is a little bit of carryover to Martinsville, but not as much. Richmond and Phoenix are pretty close, so we feel like we have a good start there. Bristol has some higher loads and less braking into the corners, so it doesn’t really transfer into Richmond as much as Phoenix will for us, but we are excited based on our results from Phoenix and looking forward to a good Easter weekend at Richmond.”

PETTY 75TH ANNIVERSARY

ABOUT PETTY 75th: The 2024 season marks a significant milestone in the history of the Petty family as they have helped define stock car racing for 75 years. Their commitment to the sport and the people who make it possible – behind the wheel, under the hood, in the back office and beyond – has shaped the growth and success of NASCAR. Their LEGACY lives on with the countless fans, drivers, technicians and team members they touched. Throughout 2024, LEGACY M.C. will celebrate the Petty family and share countless memories with friends and fans at race tracks across the country.

Petty history in Richmond: The Petty Family has an established history that will likely remain untouched at Richmond Raceway as three generations of Pettys have won a collective 16 times at this historic short track. Lee Petty won during his first and last attempts (’53 & ’60), Richard Petty won a record-setting 13 times (Spring ’61, both ’67, Spring ’68, both ’70-’73, Fall ’74, and Spring ’75), and Kyle Petty won a nail-biter in 1986 as he narrowly avoided a major wreck between Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip, earning his sole win during the 1986 season.

Petty Fest: Race fans far and wide will have the chance to celebrate their affinity with the Petty family at the 14th Annual PettyFest on April 20th. This historic event celebrates all things Petty and will take place at the Petty Museum in Level Cross, NC., from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event will feature meet and greets with Kyle and Richard Petty, tours of the original Petty homestead, food trucks, vendors, and much more. Meet and greet wristbands are limited to the first 100 guests.

BROADCAST INFO

RICHMOND RACEWAY
SUNDAY, MARCH 31ST @ 7:00 PM ET

ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

ABOUT DOLLAR TREE, INC.: Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,622 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of October 28, 2023. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Canada. To learn more about the Company, visit www.DollarTree.com.

ABOUT SAFEWAY: In 1915, M.B. Skaggs, an ambitious young man in the small Idaho town of American Falls, purchased a tiny grocery store from his father. M.B.’s business strategy, to give his customers value and to expand by keeping a narrow profit margin, proved spectacularly successful. By 1926 he had opened 428 Skaggs stores in 10 states. M.B. almost doubled the size of his business that year when he merged his company with 322 Safeway (formerly Selig) stores and incorporated as Safeway, Inc. Two years later, M.B. listed Safeway on the New York Stock Exchange. M.B. did not let the difficulties of the Great Depression dilute his pioneering focus on value for customers. In the 1930s, Safeway introduced produce pricing by the pound, added “sell by” dates on perishables to assure freshness, nutritional labeling and even created some of the first parking lots.

M.B. Skagg’s value vision still drives Safeway, though on a dramatically larger scale. Today, Safeway operates as a banner of Albertsons Companies, one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States. With both a strong local presence and national scale, the company operates stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 20 well-known banners. Albertsons Companies is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2017 alone, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the company gave nearly $300 million in food and financial support. These efforts helped millions of people in the areas of hunger relief, education, cancer research and treatment, programs for people with disabilities and veterans outreach.

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ is a professional auto racing club owned by businessman and entrepreneur Maurice “Maury” J. Gallagher and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The CLUB competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series fielding the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE of John Hunter Nemechek, the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE of Erik Jones, and the No. 84 limited schedule entry for Johnson. LEGACY M.C. also competes in the Extreme-E Series. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty “The King” serves as Club Ambassador. With a unique title signifying a nod to car clubs of past eras, LEGACY M.C. is an inclusive club for all motorsport enthusiasts to celebrate the past and future legacies of its members, while competing for wins and championships at NASCAR’s elite level. To keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and exclusive content, follow LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ on Facebook, X, Instagram and at www.LEGACYMOTORCLUB.com.