Mash The Gas: Richmond Preview

Cars race during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on April 26, 2014 in Richmond, Virginia. [Credit: Matt Sullivan/NASCAR via Getty Images]

by Dan Margetta and John Wiedemann

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series continues the short track run as the Richmond International Raceway hosts the Toyota Owners 400 under the lights Saturday night.

The Richmond International Raceway is a ¾ mile tri-oval with minimum banking and historically drivers who race well at flat tracks such as Phoenix and New Hampshire also perform well here.

The Sprint Cup drivers are set to get back at it under the lights Saturday night in Richmond and here are a few to watch…

Joey Logano (Dan Margetta)
Joey Logano is the winner of the fall event here and he comes into this spring event as a 6-1 favorite to win Saturday night. He finished sixth in this race last year but what stands out to me is how well he has run at similar tracks characteristic wise such as Phoenix and New Hampshire. The Penske cars have proven to be among the strongest in the field so far this year and with Logano already in the Chase by virtue of his Daytona 500 win, he and the #22 team are free to focus strictly on the victory this week. After being taken out of contention early last week at Bristol, look for Joey Logano to be among the front runners on Saturday night in Richmond.

Kevin Harvick (John Wiedemann)
Bristol Motor Speedway was a streak buster last weekend as all drivers that had top 10 finishes in every race this season, including Kevin Harvick, ran into or had trouble run into them. A return to form should be expected from Harvick this weekend. Actually, if he just would have followed Matt Kenseth last weekend, his streak could still be intact. But that was last weekend and Richmond is this weekend. And that should make Harvick happy. With three wins, an average finish of 11th, eight top five and 17 top ten finishes, Harvick looks to be back at the front of the pack and a contender for victory at Richmond.

Jeff Gordon (DM)
Jeff Gordon is listed at 10-1 odds to win this week in Richmond and he doesn’t seem to be a bad bet as he not only finished second in both Richmond events last season but in three of the last five Richmond races. Career wise, Gordon has two Richmond victories to go along with 18 top five finishes and 28 top ten results. Jeff Gordon has avoided the bad luck that plagued him to start the season of late and the team should be ready to punch their ticket to the Chase in this his final full time season. Richmond is a good place for Gordon to pick up that victory and he should be one of the drivers to watch this Saturday night in the Toyota Owners 400.

Denny Hamlin (JW)
When the cars returned to the track at Bristol following the rain delay, Denny Hamlin wasn’t in the #11. Suffering from back and neck spasms, Hamlin turned the driving of his Toyota to Erik Jones. Returning this weekend should be pretty easy for Hamlin as the series heads to a track where he dominates the stats. In seventeen races, Hamlin has two wins, seven top five and nine top ten finishes. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are running great and come off a win last weekend at Bristol by Matt Kenseth. The only thing that should hold back Hamlin would be a return of the spasms. If he is healthy, look for Denny to dominate.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (DM)
It’s about time for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to get going again and start contending for wins, like he was in the opening weeks of the season. Richmond presents a good opportunity to accomplish that as Earnhardt does have three victories here and nine top five finishes. Last year he finished seventh and twelfth in the Richmond races and comes into this year’s event at 12-1 odds to win. The team brings a brand new, never before raced, chassis to race this week which should show the talents of his heavily engineering background loaded team. Earnhardt hasn’t won here since 2006 but the timing seems right for a strong run on Saturday night.

Ryan Newman (JW)
Normally a driver that quietly shows up out of nowhere with a solid run at the end of the race, Ryan Newman should be near the front pretty quickly this weekend. It may be a surprise to some by Newman has the seventh best driver rating and third best among the top 16 drivers in the standings. Newman has a win at Richmond to go along with six top five and 16 top ten finishes. His average finish of 11.2 puts Newman right up at the top with drivers like Hamlin and Harvick. With the second-most quality passes, Newman can get to the front.

Jamie McMurray (DM)
Jamie McMurray is my long shot pick this week and he enters Richmond with 30-1 odds to win. However, McMurray has finished fourth at Richmond in the fall race in 2013 and 2014 to go along with his strong second place finish earlier this year at Phoenix. McMurray has been hanging around the front of the field lately and his #1 team has shown they are ready to win. Jamie McMurray is most likely overlooked by many this week but he could surprise some people at Richmond Saturday night.

Chase Elliott (JW)
Chase Elliott returns to the top series for his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. Things didn’t go so well for the youngster at Martinsville where he got stacked up early and never really got a chance to race. Chase had runner-up finishes in both Xfinity races at Richmond last season and if there were any nerves running in his first Cup race, they should be gone now. I will refrain from predicting where he will finish, save for saying it can’t be worse than Martinsville. No matter what happens, Elliott will be one to watch.

 

Check out Richmond International Raceway at their website (http://www.rir.com), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RichmondInternationalRaceway), Twitter @RIRInsider (https://twitter.com/ririnsider) and Instagram (https://instagram.com/ririnsider)

 

 

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