This Week in Motorsports: March 28-April 3, 2022

· NCS/NXS: Richmond Raceway – April 2-3
· NHRA: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – April 3

PLANO, Texas (March 30, 2022) – It’s the annual Toyota Owners race weekend at Richmond Raceway, while NHRA goes four-wide in Las Vegas.

NASCAR National Series – NCS | NXS

Toyota Owners weekend continues to excite… Toyota is proud to partner with Richmond Raceway for the 10th consecutive season for the Toyota Owners 400. Fans will get to participate in several fan experience elements and driver appearances. The races will be paced by the Toyota Camry TRD and Toyota GR Supra and fans can get an up-close look at those vehicles and more at the Toyota Racing Experience midway display.

Truex continues to be strong at Richmond… Ever since Martin Truex Jr. scored his first Toyota Owners 400 win in 2019, he’s been one to watch at the Virginia-short track. Truex has scored six consecutive top-five finishes at Richmond Raceway, including three wins – a sweep of the 2019 races and last fall’s triumph.

Busch wants to add to Richmond success… Kyle Busch has been winning at Richmond Raceway for over a decade. He delivered the first Toyota win at the track in 2009 and has since added five additional Cup Series victories.

Hamlin ready for another home triumph… Chesterfield, Virginia native Denny Hamlin is back at his home track looking for another Richmond Raceway victory. Hamlin has three wins a piece in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Nemechek makes Gibbs season debut… John Hunter Nemechek is back in the Xfinity Series, but after multiple starts with Sam Hunt Racing (SHR), he will make his Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) season debut in Richmond. Nemechek is scheduled to compete in the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra in three events this season beginning at Richmond. Nemechek drove to a third-place finish at Richmond last season with SHR.

SHR is back home… Sam Hunt Racing is back at their home track this week in Richmond. Team Owner Sam Hunt is a Virginia-native and a VCU-graduate. For the second consecutive weekend, the team will feature a driver making his Xfinity Series debut as New Hampshire-native Derek Griffith will make his first of two consecutive starts for the team that continues to reside inside the top-10 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series owner point standings.

NHRA – Top Fuel | Funny Car

Vegas special for Todd… Las Vegas Motor Speedway continues to be a special place for J.R. Todd. At this race in 2014, Todd got the call from Kalitta Motorsports to fly cross country and hop aboard a Top Fuel dragster. Todd won a round of racing for the team during that weekend and has driven for the team ever since. The 2018 Funny Car champion has multiple wins in Las Vegas, including this race in 2019.

Torrence looking for his third straight Vegas victory… In Top Fuel, to win in Las Vegas, you must go through Steve Torrence. The reigning Top Fuel champion won both races in Las Vegas one season ago.

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About Toyota

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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Richmond Advance | Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Harrison Burton, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang, is in his first season driving for Wood Brothers Racing and is one of three Ford contenders for Sunoco Rookie of the Year. He was part of a morning Q&A session with members of the media and discussed the start to his season and hopes for this weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway.

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP THE FIRST SIX RACES? “They’ve been a learning experience for sure. We’ve had a pretty rough start, there’s no denying that. I felt like we came out of the gate really strong in L.A. and felt like we had a really good race at Daytona, showed a lot of speed and then from there it’s been a struggle. We’ve had fast cars at times and we’ve had times where we didn’t have the pace that we needed. I thought this weekend was a step in the right direction, getting stage points in both the stages was good, and I felt like being fourth in practice – things like that – we’re starting to show the flashes that we need to show, which is good. It’s a building process and I think everyone at the Wood Brothers and myself understands that this is gonna be a building process. Obviously, with the good start we had at L.A. and Daytona we wanted to continue that and that hasn’t quite happened, so we’re working really hard to make that happen and I think we’ve got a great racetrack for us coming up at Richmond.”

HOW ARE YOU GETTING ADJUSTED TO 15-20 MINUTES OF PRACTICE AND THEN GOING STRAIGHT TO QUALIFYING WITH NOT BEING ABLE TO CHANGE MUCH? “It’s tough. If you unload and you’re a little bit off, what are you going to do? I mean, you can do some soft things and then you’ve got to go qualify, so I think it’s better than nothing and, honestly, a lot of us got used to nothing so it feels sometimes like a lot of practice. I know when we had 50 minutes, I think it was at Vegas we had 50 minutes and it felt like forever, which is crazy, but obviously you want more as a rookie. You want to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can, but I’m certainly thankful that we do have some and we can learn this new car a little bit quicker because of that.”

ARE YOU FINDING YOURSELF SAYING CUP IS TOUGHER THAN YOU THOUGHT OR FEEL LIKE YOU’RE HAVING A GOOD DAY AND THEN YOU LOOK UP AND YOU’RE 25TH-30TH ON THE BOARD. ARE YOU HAVING THOSE DAYS? “I think every rookie has some days like that, where you feel like you’re driving really hard and what would be enough to be top five in Xfinity is not top five in Cup, that’s for sure. I think this weekend was something that was similar to that for me. WIth the stage points we kind of sold our whole strategy to get stage points, and it worked pretty well, and then you get buried in the back for the last stage and it’s so hard to pass through those guys. I thought we had a pretty decent car, but they’re just really good so you find yourself really battling to get to 17th, which is where I ended up. Overall, it’s certainly a challenge and it should be a challenge. I think that’s what makes it awesome. I have a lot of things that are going on that I think are good and I’m learning a lot, but also there are those days that can humble you really quick and that’s good. That’s part of the learning process and it’ll make you better over time.”

DO YOU CHANGE YOUR APPROACH OR MINDSET AT ALL THAT NOW YOU’RE THROUGH SIX RACES YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO DO CERTAIN THINGS BETTER? “Yeah, I think for me I feel like I needed to be a little bit more aggressive, understanding how important track position is. As soon as the race starts it’s time to go. It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, I’ve got 500 miles to go. I’ll figure it out.’ Well, if you lose a couple spots those guys that passed you are really smart. They’re really good and they’re hard to pass back, so you end up spending more time trying to pass them than you would trying to move forward or whatever it might be, so more recently that’s been my focus is to get a little bit more aggressive over time and get a little bit more on the offensive instead of the defensive against these guys – just kind of take the fight to them and see what we’ve got.”

WHAT ARE YOU HOPES FOR MARTINSVILLE NEXT WEEK? “I love racing at Martinsville. I love short tracks in general and I really am looking forward to the next two – Richmond and Martinsville. Martinsville in particular is cool because my family is from Virginia, I’ve got a lot of connections to Virginia through the Wood Brothers now, so it’s a cool and important race for me personally, plus I love the racetrack so that makes it even better. You can tie those same things into Richmond as well, so it’s a really really cool couple weekends for me at two of my favorite racetracks. Last year, I felt like we had the car to win at Richmond in the Xfinity Series, led a bunch of laps and the cautions didn’t fall our way there. I’m kind of hungry to get back there this weekend and then go to Martinsville. It’s definitely exciting.”

HAVE YOU EVER HAD ONE OF THE FAMOUS MARTINSVILLE HOT DOGS? “For sure, yeah. You have to. Whenever you’re there you’ve got to go grab a hot dog and enjoy it. They’re famous for a reason, so you’ve got to go try it out.”

ARE YOU A FAN OF THE SLAW AND EVERYTHING? “Yeah, you’ve got to do the whole deal. You can’t halfway do it. It’s not the same tradition if you’re not doing it all the way.”

WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE RAISING A PUPPY AND DO YOU HAVE A CAT, TOO? “No, just one puppy. One dog is all I’ve got and it’s been awesome. It’s been a cool experience for me just to have somebody hanging out with you. I’m in my apartment alone working on my computer pretty much all the time, so it’s nice to have a dog around. I have a friend and that’s always cool, but no other animals. That’s all I could handle is one dog, that’s for sure.”

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU BEEN LEANING ON BRIAN WILSON THIS SEASON? “Brian is obviously a great team leader. He’s got a championship in the Xfinity Series and I raced against him for quite a while, which was really tough. He was really good, so when I first got to work with him I was really excited and I still am excited because of the way he’s handled these situations. He has complete belief in me and I have complete belief in him and that’s really all you can ask for in a driver-crew chief combination is just understanding that, hey, there are gonna be times when maybe he misses it or maybe I miss it. We’re in our first year in the Cup Series in the positions we’re in. It’s an awesome opportunity for both of us, so we’re both excited and going to work hard every day. At the end of the day it’s a good relationship and he’s a great leader, so that’s all you can ask for.”

KYLE BUSCH
New Look, Same Impressive Stats at Richmond

HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (March 30, 2022) – Kyle Busch heads to Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway sporting a new look with M&M’S newest flavor, M&M’S Crunchy Cookie, adorning his Toyota Camry TRD for the first of seven races this spring and summer.

M&M’S Crunchy Cookie combines two favorite treats – M&M’S and chocolate chip cookies – which is now available nationwide and is bound to give race fans a fun, nostalgic snack to enjoy during this weekend’s race. M&M’S is also partnering with a cool cookie creator, Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi, to create 100, one-time-only, limited-edition cookies that will be made available to race fans on a first-come, first-served basis. Fans can sign up at MMS.com to find out when they’ll drop.

While Busch’s car will have a new look, the same impressive resume still remains when taking a deeper dive into his stats at the .75-mile Richmond short track. Busch has six career Cup Series victories at Richmond, most among active drivers. In addition to those six career wins, Busch’s Richmond stat sheet shows 18 top-five finishes and 25 top-10s in 32 career starts, making him the most consistent active driver at the track.

The Las Vegas native also leads all active drivers with his Richmond average finishing position of 6.9. Next best is Kevin Harvick at 10.0. Busch has completed all but one of the 12,828 laps available to him in his 32 Richmond starts.

The first four of Busch’s six career Richmond wins came in consecutive spring races from 2009 to 2012, besting Richard Petty’s previous record of three Richmond spring-race wins in a row from 1971 to 1973. Busch’s other two Richmond wins came in a sweep of the 2018 races there. With his impressive statistics and records to back him up, it’s little wonder that a visit to Richmond is one of Busch’s favorite stops on the NASCAR tour.

So, as the series heads to the “Capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Busch and the M&M’S Crunchy Cookie team look to bring home their seventh win there wearing the latest M&M’S colors, and perhaps enjoy a celebratory “Cookie” in victory lane.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Crunchy Cookie Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

Is Richmond one of your favorite tracks, and what are your expectations there this weekend?

“Richmond is a great place for us and our M&M’S Crunchy Cookie team. You’ve really got to be mindful of the bottom of the racetrack and, based on the past, also mindful of your brakes and how you use them, especially getting into turn one where you can really overheat your brakes, which overheats your tires and makes you slide around more. With the new cars and better brakes, we’ll see if that changes anything. Having good cars there has certainly been something we’ve been fortunate with at Joe Gibbs Racing over the years. I’ve won there six times and I’ve been in the top-f10 about every time we go there and also a lot of top-five finishes, so I would like to think we can keep that going and, more importantly, get a win. It would certainly be a good time for it, so we look forward to Richmond being one of those places where we can do that. Really excited to have M&M’S Crunchy Cookie on board with us for the first time this week. We’ve had a lot of good luck with these new M&M’S schemes and it’s also a great snack, of course.”

What does it take to get around Richmond?

“Richmond is getting a little trickier, it seems like, just with the asphalt kind of getting older and the way the cars were. The consensus at Richmond is, of course, just trying to get your car to turn, but also having really good forward bite. You have to be able to get off the corners at Richmond. All of it correlates. Everything you want as a racecar driver, you’ve got to have most all of it and, if you don’t, then you better hope you have more forward bite than the rest of them. That’s sort of the equation of Richmond. It’s a fun place to race. It’s really cool. As a driver, you wish it could widen out and give you more options of being able to run around in different grooves, but it hasn’t shown us that the last couple of years. We’re hoping to get our M&M’S Crunchy Cookie Camry another win there.”

What is it about Richmond that suits your driving style?

“I don’t know, over the years – I started out really bad there. My first Truck Series race there was horrible. I think I ran into everything but the hot dog stand. The next time I went there was with Hendrick (Motorsports) in the Busch Series in 2004 when they first repaved the track, and I ran really well. We were able to win that race, and I led the most laps. From that point forward, I feel like I kind of learned or had a sense of what it takes to be fast there and what you need to be able to do to win there. As the years have gone on, the racetrack has definitely aged, it’s definitely gone through some transition, it has lost a lot of grip. There have been some changes in that respect, as well, just trying to figure out, ‘OK, what’s next. What’s the next thing that’s going to keep you on top of your game at Richmond.’ The new car is another challenge that we will take on there, now. It’s always been a good track for me, I enjoy going there. It’s a fun short track. It’s a very challenging short track that doesn’t lend itself to typical short tracks around the country.”

Event Overview:

● Event: Toyota Owners 400 (Round 7 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 3
● 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: 240 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Meet the No. 18 M&M’S Crunchy Cookie / Joe Gibbs Racing Team

Primary Team Members:

Driver: Kyle Busch
Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Ben Beshore
Hometown: York, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Nate Bellows
Hometown: Fairfax, Vermont

Spotter: Tony Hirschman
Hometown: Northampton, Pennsylvania

Race Engineer: Seth Chavka
Hometown: Soldotna, Alaska

Race Engineer: Jaik Halpainy
Hometown: Blockville, New York

Over-The-Wall Crew Members:

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Front Tire Changer: Thomas Hatcher
Hometown: Middleburg, Florida

Jackman: Kellen Mills
Hometown: Mesa, Arizona

Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey
Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham
Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois

Road Crew Members:

Engine Tuner: Dan Bajek
Hometown: Camden, New York

Truck Driver: Chris Miko
Hometown: Bronx, New York

Truck Driver: Mike Curtis
Hometown: Grandby, Connecticut

Mechanic/Tire Specialist: Justin Peiffer
Hometown: Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Mechanic: Scott Eldridge
Hometown: Warsaw, Indiana

Mechanic: Tony Hamm
Hometown: Walla, Walla, Washington

Notes of Interest:

● All in the Stats:Busch has six wins, 18 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s and has led a total of 1,528 laps in 32 career Cup Series starts at Richmond. Busch’s average Richmond finish is 6.9.

● Top-10 Streak: Busch currently has a streak of eight consecutive top-10 finishes at Richmond, a streak which started in September 2017. The streak is longest current top-10 streak at the .75-mile short track in the Cup Series.

● Get Out the Broom: Busch swept both races at Richmond in 2018, as he brought home his fifth career spring race win there that year and his first in the fall race. Both 2018 wins came from a starting position outside the top-10.

● Short-Track Ace: Busch has shown quite the propensity to win at NASCAR’s core short tracks. In addition to his six wins at Richmond, Busch has eight wins in NASCAR’s top series at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and two at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for his 16 total wins on those three short tracks alone.

● Spring is in the Air: While Busch added a win in the fall Richmond race to his resume in 2018, the two-time Cup Series champion has shined in the spring race there. His four consecutive Cup Series spring-race wins from 2009 to 2012 bested Richard Petty’s previous record of three Richmond spring-race wins in a row from 1971 to 1973. Busch also won the 2018 spring race at Richmond.

● 222 and Counting: Busch will be aiming to add to his record 222 overall wins among NASCAR’s top three series this weekend at Richmond. In addition to his 59 Cup Series wins and 102 in the Xfinity Series, Busch has 61 wins in the Camping World Truck Series.

Team: No. 6 Violet Defense Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Josh Sell
Twitter: @RFK6Team, @RFKRacing and @keselowski
Race Format: 300 miles, 400 laps, Stages: 70-160-170
Practice – Saturday, April 2 at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1, SiriusXM Channel 90
Qualifying – Saturday, April 2 at 11:15 a.m. ET on FS1, SiriusXM Channel 90
Race – Sunday, April 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Weekend Format

· Practice and qualifying are back in the weekend schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series, which this weekend features a pair of group practice sessions Saturday morning, immediately followed by single-car qualifying.

· Qualifying will again be split into two groups with the top-five fastest cars in each group transferring to the final round. The final round of qualifying to determine the pole sitter will feature 10 cars, as all qualifying this weekend will include just one lap per car.

Keselowski at Richmond Raceway

· Keselowski, a two-time winner at Richmond, makes his 25th Cup start at the 3/4-mile track this weekend. He is one of the more recent winners in Virginia, having led 192 laps in the 2020 fall race after starting ninth.

· Keselowski’s first win at Richmond came back in 2014 when he started from the pole and led 383 of the 400 laps. In total, Keselowski has led laps in 12 of his 24 starts at Richmond for a total of 1177 led, the most of any track on the circuit. Of those 12, he has led more than 100 laps in five different events.

· His 12.3 average finish stands as one of his best on the circuit as he has finished 14th or better in 12-straight races. In those 12 races he has an average finish of 7.6.

· Keselowski also made 17 Xfinity Series starts from 2006-17 in Richmond earning four victories and 10 top-10s. He won his last NXS start there in 2017, and also went to victory lane in 2010 once and 2013 twice.

Josh Sell at Richmond Raceway

· Sell, filling in for Matt McCall during RFK’s appeal, will be on the box for his second race as crew chief with Keselowski.

QUOTE WORTHY
Keselowski on racing at Richmond:
“Richmond has been one of my better tracks, especially lately, and somewhere I’m confident at and enjoy running. It’s on us to figure out the key to success there this weekend, and we’re ready to get to work doing that in the Violet Defense machine come Saturday.”

Last Time Out

Keselowski overcame a long Sunday afternoon at COTA to finish 14th in the Wyndham Rewards Ford.

On the Car

Violet Defense returns for its fourth appearance aboard Keselowski’s No. 6 this weekend. His teammate – Chris Buescher – will sport an identical scheme with the number as the only difference for Sunday afternoon’s race from Richmond.

About Violet Defense

Violet Defense uses UV disinfection to protect everyday spaces from harmful pathogens by killing up to 99.9% of E. coli, Salmonella, MRSA, C. diff., Norovirus, C. auris, and coronavirus. Violet Defense’s technology is the only known Pulsed Xenon solution that can be installed into a room full-time, creating a continuous way to address disinfection needs of all types of settings. For more information, visit www.violetdefense.com or follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn (@violetdefense).

Team: No. 17 Violet Defense Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @RFK17Team, @RFKRacing and @Chris_Buescher
Race Format: 300 miles, 400 laps, Stages: 70-160-170

Practice – Saturday, April 2 at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1, SiriusXM Channel 90
Qualifying – Saturday, April 2 at 11:15 a.m. ET on FS1, SiriusXM Channel 90
Race – Sunday, April 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Weekend Format

· Practice and qualifying are back in the weekend schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series, which this weekend features a pair of group practice sessions Saturday morning, immediately followed by single-car qualifying.

· Qualifying will again be split into two groups with the top-five fastest cars in each group transferring to the final round. The final round of qualifying to determine the pole sitter will feature 10 cars, as all qualifying this weekend will include just one lap per car.

Buescher at Richmond Raceway

· Buescher makes his 12th start at Richmond on Sunday where he has a 26.3 average finish. He finished 24th in the most recent race last fall.

· He also made five NXS starts for Jack Roush from 2011-15, earning three top-10s with a best finish of seventh (2014).

· Buescher’s best qualifying effort came back in the 2019 spring race, lining up seventh.

Scott Graves at Richmond Raceway

· Graves will be atop the box for his 12th Cup race Sunday afternoon. In 11 prior starts he has a best finish of fifth, which came with Ryan Newman in the 2019 fall race.

· Prior to that he also finished ninth with Newman in the spring, and most recently ran 20th last fall.

· Graves’ top qualifying effort of 11th came with Daniel Suarez back in the 2017 spring event as he has a 21st average starting position overall.

QUOTE WORTHY
Buescher on racing at Richmond:
“It’s no secret that Richmond is one of those places I’ve struggled to figure out in the past. But, having said that, we found something that worked out in Phoenix, so we’re hopeful that type of run will carry over to this weekend. It has been up and down for us thus far, but the goal is to obviously keep it on the upswing. We’re excited to be back in the Violet Defense colors this weekend, and can’t wait to see two matching Ford Mustangs ripping around the track.”

Last Time Out
Buescher finished 21st in the Fifth Third Bank Ford last weekend at COTA.

On the Car

Violet Defense makes its first appearance with the No. 17 team this season, the first of two scheduled races with the Indianapolis Road Course race being the second. Both Buescher and teammate Brad Keselowski will run matching schemes throughout the weekend, with the number as the only difference on the purple machine.

About Violet Defense

Violet Defense uses UV disinfection to protect everyday spaces from harmful pathogens by killing up to 99.9% of E. coli, Salmonella, MRSA, C. diff., Norovirus, C. auris, and coronavirus. Violet Defense’s technology is the only known Pulsed Xenon solution that can be installed into a room full-time, creating a continuous way to address disinfection needs of all types of settings. For more information, visit www.violetdefense.com or follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn (@violetdefense).