DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When it comes to NASCAR and short track racing, recent history has assured that nothing is assured.
That high intensity only increases and will be on full display as a three-race short track portion of the season schedule begins Saturday with the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
Last year, there were six different winners in six short track races on the schedule with Virginia’s Denny Hamlin and fellow veteran Kevin Harvick hoisting the trophies at Richmond Raceway where the series races this weekend. In all, six drivers tallied average finishes of 10th or better in last year’s six short track races led by Christopher Bell (6.6) and William Byron (7.2).
And Bell (356) and Byron (334) also led the most combined laps.
Interestingly, neither Bell nor Byron has won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond. There have been five different winners in the last five Richmond races and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is the winningest active driver with six victories. The last time a NASCAR Cup Series driver scored his first career victory at Richmond was Kasey Kahne back in 2005.
In this race last year, Hamlin led only the final five laps to claim his first win of the season — a slight .552 seconds over Harvick, while third-place finisher Byron and seventh-place finisher Ryan Blaney combined to lead 250 of the 400 laps.
Both Hamlin and Harvick enter Richmond looking for their first wins of the season.
Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, is ranked 14th in the standings with a best showing to date of sixth place at both California’s Auto Club Speedway and Atlanta. Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, is sixth in the standings with a top finish of fifth at Auto Club Speedway and at Phoenix.
Not only are they highly-motivated to make that first trip to victory lane — Harvick is retiring at season’s end — but they are both four-time winners at Richmond, second only to Busch in trophies won among active drivers.
Last week’s first road course of the season, won by Tyler Reddick at Circuit of The Americas in Texas, was certainly drama-filled with a lot of the bent fenders and hot tempers more typically associated with a short track.
So, there is a lot of anticipation for this week’s follow-up action at Richmond.
“Richmond will be a good gauge of where you stack up — slow, a bunch of mechanical grip, tire conservation, so I’m optimistic for sure,” said Blaney, who is ranked eighth in the driver standings heading into Sunday’s race.
“I thought we had good cars there last year in both races from the whole team and I’m excited to get there. Hopefully, we learned a little bit from Phoenix that we can apply over to Richmond and keep building on that race track. I think it’s okay, but you can always improve, and I think we can get a little bit better.”
Keyword: Hamlin Seeks Repeat Richmond Win, Bowman Defends Lead