 Opened October 12, 1946 Richmond Raceway has held several names over the years. Richmond International Raceway, Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway and assorted Fairgrounds names. Today, we refer to it simply as Richmond Raceway or.... The Action Track.
(Let's be honest, there hasn't been much action for a while) Toyota has dominated Richmond since joining the Cup Series in 2007 winning 15 of the 29 races run there since. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin alone have a combined 9 of those wins with another 3 added by their teammate Martin Truex Jr. JGR has won 17 Races since it's inception in September 1992 getting their first win in at the track 1999 with none other than Hall of Famer Tony Stewart with his first Career win. Since then we have not seen any other sort of dominance from another team or driver with several other drivers holding 3 race wins (being second most active) Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick & MTJ. Most Cup Wins For Active Drivers & Xfinity
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(* Champion, ** Champion of 2 Series, ***Champion of 3 Series)
By: Thomas Luttermoser
I've been professionally covering NASCAR for over a year now, Not since Carl Long's Engine was 0.17 C.I. too big in 2009 has NASCAR implemented such a large penalty. Long was fined 200 Points, 200 Owner points and $200,000 for this violation of NASCAR's 358 C.I. rule. Now this was massive, but it was also under a much different Points system and hurt.. But not as much as points where far more plentiful then. Since the implementation off the current points system, nothing comparable. We know that Team Co-Owner and driver Brad Keselowski's #6 Ford Mustang was impounded after Atlanta. We find out today that Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's #6 team was hit with an L-2 Penalty. For those who don't know, NASCAR announced in January the terms for said level; "Penalty options for a L-2 infraction include: • Points deductions: 75-120 points • Playoff points deductions: 10-25 points • Suspension of one or two crewmembers for 4-6 races • Fines: $100,000-$250,000" The #6 team received a massive penalty, the largest since the implementation of the current point system. 100 Driver points, 100 Owner points, 10 Playoff points. Last but very not least crew chief Matt McCall has been suspended for 4 races as well as levied a $100,000 fine. This Penalty takes Brad from 16th in points to well below the remainder of the Full time drivers into 35th. He now sits under both Garrett Smithley, David Ragan & Cody Ware with only 22 points. 1 Point over Greg Biffle who has run only 3 races. Under Sections 14.1 and 14.5 in the NASCAR Rule Book, both of which pertain to the modification of a single source supplied part. In English, simply states teams cannot mess with parts sourced from NASCAR or an outside vender. *Per Fox Sports writer Bob Packrass, the violation had to do with the Body at the rear of the race car. The team has until 5pm Tuesday to appeal the penalty assuming they were told today (Thursday) “To make sure that all of those things stay above board, there’s going to have to be a culture shift from the way that the teams and NASCAR, for that matter, have done business,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said in January when announcing the new penalty structure. “So this deterrence model has more meat in it, more meaningful penalties, but I think we all thought that it was time for this with the introduction of the new car.” Per NASCAR.com Even with a win, Brad has to maintain a 30th place standing to qualify for the Playoffs. More details to come. By: Thomas Luttermoser
Now 5 races into the 2022 Season and NASCAR's Top-Tier Chevrolet team, Hendrick Motorsports has already won 3 times with as many of its drivers. Kyle Larson continued his wining ways first at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Next Came Bowman The Showman holding off his teammate Larson & the field after a gamble call for 2 tires at Las Vegas. Now the youngest of the Hendrick bunch, William Byron scores his 3rd career finish at the all new Atlanta "super speedway". So far this season the Hendrick boys are anything but consistent sporting 5 combined DNFs split between Larson and Byron yet leading a combined 314 laps and 3 victories while also combining for 15 finishes outside of the top 15. Chase Elliott has once again been the subject of controversy this season after being late blocked and put into the wall by his own teammate in Kyle Larson at Auto Club off a late race restart. He then proceeded to run Larson to the apron then spun in the next corner blaming a broken rear suspension (many say intentionally). In the last 2 seasons Chase Elliott has shown blatant, raw consistency sliding his way with just two wins to the Final Four in Phoenix in 2021 after 5 wins his Title gripping season in which he had 5 wins. Phoenix of 2020 has since been his final win on an oval track only winning the rain shortened inaugural Circuit of The Americas race and the inaugural Cup race at Road America in '21. That consistency continues into '22 without a win, yet leading the points standings after Atlanta where he scored a 6th place finish despite being hit in the right door panel by his teammate. With no Stage wins thus far, he still manages to gather plenty of those stage points per race for a total of 33 so far. Auto Club being the only race so far this year he managed 0. Elliott has led 91 laps putting him 7th in terms of laps led this season. Consistency has been his game since the arrival of Larson at Hendrick William Byron has scored a single race win in each of his last three seasons and now the most recent race winner for Hendrick. Taken out during the first caution at the Daytona 500and early at Auto Club he has since bounced back with a 5th place spot in Vegas and this win at Atlanta. Having very strong runs before bad situations in the first two races of the season, he is looking to add to his Career best 12 top 5's from 2021. Byron is the lap leader for HMS so far leading 148 laps so far making him second overall behind Ryan Blaney's 205. Young Willy B's 55 stage points in '22 are a team high just over teammate Kyle Larson. He also has 2 stage wins giving him those 2 all important Playoff Points. Byron is still looking for that breakout season and this could be it. The 2nd winningest driver in the last 2 seasons is none other than "All Luck, No skill. Backing into Wins" Alex "The Hack" Bowman. With "only" 5 wins compared to Larson's 11 in the same timeframe, Alex Bowman has had a lot of luck and a lot of skill to put himself into contention at the end of many races including using a 2 tire stop and bending the floorboard to hold off Larson and both Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain on new tires at Las Vegas Alex scored his 7th Cup Series win. His 19 Stage points show that Bowman typically isn't in contention throughout the race, but seems to be there when the time counts. I think he's replacing Kevin Harvick as "Mr. Where Did He Come From" in the Cup Series. With only 1 Playoff Point so far coming from his stage win at Vegas, he will have to work on that full race consistency. Young Money himself, Kyle Larson, your 2021 Champion started this season off with a bang at Auto Club showing almost immediately that he is here to win in this NEXT-GEN car as well. in the first 5 races of 2022 Larson has led 59 laps on his way to 41 stage points. His downfall this year has easily been his 3 DNFs. Daytona, Atlanta & an expired engine at Phoenix are the only factors in my opinion keeping him 12th in the points and out of the top 5. Since Joining Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Larson has essentially taken the reigns from Chase Elliott who last year was defending champion as the teams top performer. I Speculated a win or 2 on the YouTube channel before the 2021 season and man was I wrong. Not only did Larson win on Mile & a Half tracks, last year... He won on Short tracks & even scored his first win on road courses at both Sonoma the Charlotte Roval and Watkins Glenn. Those three wins essentially took the mantel of Top Road Course driver from teammate Chase Elliott who formerly looked unstoppable every time we started turning right. Kyle Larson has been dubbed the "Next Jeff Gordon" and a "Generational Talent" since his rookie season in 2014. I think it's safe to say Larson is the best driver at Hendrick today. (Opinion) The best drivers at Hendrick today in order using overall performance;
(bold) Winners (*) Part Time Josh Biliki, Garrett Smithley, BJ McLeod 2000-1
Cody Ware 1500-1 Todd Gilliland 1000-1 Corey LaJoie 750-1 Michael McDowell 500-1 Ty Dillon 400-1 Justin Haley 300-1 Harrison Burton 250-1 Chris Beuscher 150-1 Darrell Wallace Jr 125-1 Cole Custer 100-1 AJ Almendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Daniel Suarez 80-1 Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon 66-1 Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric 40-1 Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick 25-1 Alex Bowman 20-1 Kevin Harvick 18-1 William Byron 14-1 Ryan Blaney 12-1 Joey Logano 9-1 Denny Hamlin, Chase Elloitt 8-1 Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Busch 7-1 Kyle Larson 4-1
Top-10 are touch to come by in the hyper competitive NASCAR Cup Series. The last time we saw 19 individual top-10 finishers in just 2 Starts was the Season. In 1973, 128 Individual Drivers made attempts at the title along with 6 drivers making partial season starts in the first two races including Bobby Unser who finished 4th at the season opener at Riverside, Mark Donohue who won said season opener and none other than AJ Foyt who finished 4th in the 1973 Daytona 500. The top-3 title finishers did not get a top-10 until the 3rd race of the season.
Here we sit 2 races into 2022 with the Next-Gen car, Daytona and Auto Club in the history books and we have 19 individual top 10 finishers. This car has (thus far) brought much more parody to the Cup Series. The Daytona 500 saw the first ever rookie winner in it's 64 years. Top-10 for the 500 saw some part timers as well as some firsts. Top-10 for Auto Club saw much of the same. The 19 Top-10 finishers;
Tom Luttermoser SFM E&C |