SPRINT CUP :RICHMOND

Wanting For More: Hamlin Returns Home Seeking First Win
Denny Hamlin, from Chesterfield, Virginia, grew up in the shadows of Richmond International Raceway, so of course he wants to win this weekend.
Of course he wants to make his hometown fans hoot and holler. And, sure, it’d be nice to celebrate in a place where everyone knows your name, a hero returning home to steal a victory. It’d be storybook-type stuff.
But, quickly, “want” is morphing into “need.”
Perilously close to running out of time, Hamlin needs to win, or else face the real possibility of missing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup just one year after a career-best runner-up finish in the final points standings.
Though not dire just yet, soon it will be. Hamlin is 50 points outside the top 10, a hefty sum when each in-race position is now just a single point.
So he may need to rely on one of the two new Wild Card Chase spots. After race No. 26 at Richmond, the top 10 drivers in the points standings will earn Chase berths. Spots 11 and 12 will go to the drivers with the most wins, provided they are in the top 20.
Richmond, this Saturday night, statistically looks like as good a spot as any for win No. 1 for Hamlin in 2011.
Consider some of these stats…
• Hamlin has won two of the last three races at Richmond.
• He leads the series in pre-race Driver Rating at Richmond with a 119.8.
• In 10 starts, he has scored a Driver Rating over 100.0 eight times, including a rare perfect Driver Rating of 150.0 in the fall race of 2009.
• Even his blowup races are spectacular. He led 381 of the 410-lap event in May of 2008, but tire problems plummeted his finish to 24th.
• In four of the last six races, he has led over 100 laps.
Junior Nation: Comeback Continues
You know who enjoys this two-race jaunt to NASCAR’s largest oval and one of its shortest venues?
Dale Earnhardt Jr., that’s who.
The series last raced at Talladega Superspeedway, a spot where Earnhardt triumphed five times in his career. Now the series shifts to Richmond, a spot where Earnhardt owns three victories.
Junior’s comeback tour continues. After missing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup the past two seasons, Earnhardt marches up the points standings – and closer to Victory Lane.
Though still mired in a 101-race winless drought, Earnhardt has vaulted to third in the points standings.
His progress rivals that of 2008, when he last won, and last made the Chase.
Now 19 points behind leader Carl Edwards, Earnhardt has not held an official points lead since after race No. 27 at New Hampshire in 2004. (He did sit atop the points standings two weeks later after a race at Talladega, but only for three days. A 25-point penalty for “use of improper language” dropped him to second.)
Since that pinnacle, Earnhardt has earned four wins – one at Phoenix later that season, one at Chicagoland in 2005, at Richmond in 2006, and his last, at Michigan in 2008.
Still, despite past successes at Richmond, Earnhardt has hiccupped at the short track of late. His last four finishes: 27th, 21st, 32nd and 34th.
But if this really is a 2008-esque rebirth, there’s good news. In 2008 at Richmond, Earnhardt led both races, posted Driver Ratings of 107.3 and 129.5 and finished 15th and fourth.
Short And Sweet: Trio Dominate Richmond, Bristol And Martinsville
Something crazy happened when Kevin Harvick crossed the finish line first in early April. The rarity: someone not named Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin won a short-track race.
The trio had won 15 consecutive short track races – spanning more than two years – prior to Harvick’s victory at Martinsville. Busch had won six (four at Bristol; two at Richmond), Hamlin had won five (three at Martinsville; two at Richmond) and Johnson had won four (two at Martinsville; one each at Richmond and Bristol).
In the past 16 races, the three short-track studs rank in the top three or four in every key Loop Data category.
Check out the categories, and the stats from the past 16 short-track races …
Driver Rating: The trio ranks 1-2-3 in Driver Rating. Johnson’s first with a 115.5.
Average Running Position: Johnson ranks first with an ARP of 7.1. Jeff Gordon’s second at 8.6.
Fastest Laps Run: The trio again ranks 1-2-3, with Johnson again heading the list with 655. Close behind is Hamlin at 648 Fastest Laps Run.
Laps Led: Three drivers have led over 1,000 laps over the last 16 short-track races: Hamlin (1,512), Busch (1,369), Johnson (1,267).
Laps in the Top 15: Johnson leads with a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 90.3%. Gordon is second at 83.0%.
Gordon, for the record, has had 10 top 10s in the last 16 short-track races. His best finish was second, in last season’s May Richmond race.
Clint Bowyer: Fond Memories of Dale Jr. vs. Kyle Busch
The boos first started raining down – really raining down – upon Kyle Busch in early May, 2008.
That fateful day, Busch spun out late-race leader (and, of course, fan favorite) Dale Earnhardt Jr. which drew out the caution flag on lap 398 of the schedule 400-lap race. Earnhardt had stalked the checkered flag, just three laps from victory.
Instead, someone else won that race. That someone was Clint Bowyer.
Bowyer talked about that race – and a number of other subjects – during this week’s NASCAR national teleconference. Bowyer calls Richmond his favorite track, with good reason. He averages a finish in the top 10 (9.8) and his Driver Rating is sixth in the series.
Competition Update: Records Beware
The record for lead changes at Richmond is 25, set twice, most recently in 1996. With four of the eight races having the lead change record either broken or tied, Richmond’s mark might be doomed.
Some other notes of interest…
• There have been seven different winners in the first eight races, most since 2008.
• There has been an average of 14.6 leaders per race, most through eight races in series history.
• There has been an average of 38.5 lead changes per race, most through eight races in series history.
• There has been an average of 4,511 green flag passes all around the track per race, most through eight races since the inception of Loop Data in 2005.
• There has been an average of 54 green flag passes for the lead all around the track per race, most through eight races since 2005.