NASCAR Storylines for Week of April 22, 2013

NASCAR Storylines for Week of April 22, 2013

 

A dose of “double K” – Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne – fuels the headlines as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond International Raceway for the 2013 season’s first short-track race run under the lights. The pair gave fans a re-run of their thrilling Las Vegas finish at Kansas Speedway with Kenseth again the winner but by just 0.15 seconds over Kahne.

 

Both are Sprint Cup title contenders. Kahne, in his sophomore season with Hendrick Motorsports, is second in the standings to teammate Jimmie Johnson. Kenseth proved again that his off-season switch of teams, to Joe Gibbs Racing, is paying dividends as he became the season’s third multiple winner.

 

Each has won at Richmond – but neither recently. Kahne’s first Sprint Cup victory came there in 2005. Kenseth, who counts just a single top-10 finish in his last 11 Richmond starts, went to Victory Lane in the fall of 2002.

 

Kenseth is the season’s third straight competitor to win from the Coors Light Pole, which hadn’t happened since 1985. You have to go all the way back to 1981 to find a four in a row: the NASCAR Hall of Fame combination of Darrell Waltrip and Junior Johnson at Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte and Rockingham. 

 

Here’s a dark-horse pick based on the momentum of his first back-to-back top-10 finishes. Aric Almirola, a heady 13th in Sprint Cup standings after eight races, has shown enough speed in recent events to take Richard Petty’s legendary No. 43 Ford to a Richmond victory for a 14^th time and first since February 1975.

 

Toyota has won seven of the last eight Richmond races with only Kevin Harvick (fall 2011) supplying a single manufacturer blemish over four seasons. Paul Menard rather than Harvick could be Richard Childress Racing’s best hope for a ninth Richmond victory. Menard ranks 10^th in Sprint Cup standings following his fourth top-10 finish of the season.

 

Elliott Sadler counts 13 victories spread over all three of NASCAR’s national series. Unfortunately, the Emporia, Va. veteran continues to be shut out at home – Richmond International Raceway. Sadler hopes to improve on his second-place Richmond finish in 2005 when he climbs into the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250.

 

Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive his uncle’s No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet for the first time in Friday’s race. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s organization has 26 national series starts at the .75-mile track. 

 

Matt Crafton has three weeks to savor his Kansas Speedway victory – ThorSport Racing’s third in four races – as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series goes on hiatus until the May 17 North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.