It’s back to the short track for the third and final time this spring. This time the venue is Richmond International Raceway, the .75-mile gem that offers a preview one of the most important races of the season – the cut-off race for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The track, a 0.50-mile dirt track in its 1953 debut but a 0.75-mile triangular-shaped layout since fall 1988, is the third-oldest venue on the current schedule after Martinsville Speedway (1949) and Darlington Raceway (1950).
Momentum figures to be big this week: Denny Hamlin won for the second time on Sunday at Kansas Speedway and has a pair of Richmond victories (fall 2009-10). Kyle Busch has won three consecutive spring races at the track but remains winless through this year’s first eight races. Kevin Harvick is the most recent Richmond winner last September en route to a third-place championship finish.
Several questions loom: Can Hendrick Motorsports finally get its 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup victory? Will Martin Truex Jr., second in Kansas and enjoying his best points ranking (second) ever, break a winless drought of 175 races?
Richmond’s 400-lap, 300-mile race can be seen on FOX (live, 7:30 p.m. ET).
The NASCAR Nationwide Series roars back into action in Richmond on Friday (ESPN2, 7:30 p.m. ET) with action sports star Travis Pastrana making his long-awaited debut. Virginia native Elliott Sadler is the series points leader by four over defending champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. NNS points eligible competitors hope to snap a wins drought dating to the spring of 2004.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors begin a count-down to the May 18 North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. James Buescher became the season’s second first-time winner on April 21 at Kansas Speedway and trails standings leader Timothy Peters by four points with four of 22 races complete.
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