Oliver Eriksson claimed victory in the second round of the Nitrocross season at Richmond Raceway, capping off a fine weekend which gave him the championship lead for the first time ever. The Olsbergs MSE driver started second on the grid, but …
Oliver Eriksson claimed victory in the second round of the Nitrocross season at Richmond Raceway, capping off a fine weekend which gave him the championship lead for the first time ever.
The Olsbergs MSE driver started second on the grid, but capitalized on a half-spin for polesitter Fraser McConnell on the opening lap to snatch the lead – a lead which he held for the rest of the six-lap main event.
McConnell didn’t give up, though, hounding the Swede throughout the race ass both gapped third-placed driver Viktor Vranckx, another driver to benefit from McConnell’s first lap mishap.
The Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + Team Frazzz driver closed to within 0.302s of Eriksson by lap four, but with both leaving their longer joker lap until the final lap, the positions remained firm.
For Vranckx, third was not only his first podium finish in his short Nitrocross career, but it makes him the youngest podium finisher in the history of the premier Group E class at just 19-years-old.
Robin Larsson finished fourth, advancing from sixth on the grid after the opening lap skirmish, with Tanner Foust behind him in fifth. Lia Block matched her career-best result from Saturday with sixth, being passed by Foust on the final lap as she jokered – something Foust had done on lap one.
Conner Martell was classified seventh after retiring on the second lap of the race with damage sustained on the opening lap after coming together with Andreas Bakkeurd, another result of the field compacting at Turn 3 behind McConnell. Bakkerud didn’t make it to the end of the first lap after he took on terminal front end damage.
Behind points leader Eriksson, McConnell sits 11 points back, with reigning champion and Saturday winner Robin Larsson another four back in third. Vranckx’s maiden podium ensures he leaves Richmond fourth in the points, 16 ahead of fifth-placed Bakkerud.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps said the sport is not a “demolition derby” when discussing the finish at Richmond Raceway, and the subsequent decision to penalize winner Austin Dillon, with Kevin Harvick. The interview was filmed for Harvick’s podcast …
NASCAR president Steve Phelps said the sport is not a “demolition derby” when discussing the finish at Richmond Raceway, and the subsequent decision to penalize winner Austin Dillon, with Kevin Harvick.
The interview was filmed for Harvick’s podcast on Fox Sports. It took place before the National Motorsports Appeals Panel denied Richard Childress Racing’s appeal for Dillon and the No. 3 team after his Cup Series playoff eligibility from the victory was stripped because of the contact Dillon made with Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap.
Dillon had one of his best performances at Richmond, with a sixth-place qualifying effort and 35 laps led. He was pulling away from the field in the final laps before a caution set up overtime. Logano beat Dillon through Turns 1 and 2 on the first lap of overtime, but Dillon drove into Turn 3 and spun Logano on the final lap. He then right-hooked Hamlin in Turn 4 to secure the victory.
It took NASCAR three days to review the incident before penalizing Dillon. Not only were the perks of the victory taken away, but his team was also docked 25 points in both the drivers’ and owners’ championship standings. Brandon Benesch, Dillon’s spotter, was suspended for three weeks for his radio communication during the final lap, but the appeals panel reduced the penalty to one week.
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“If we hadn’t penalized him, I think what we would see over the next 12 weeks would be significantly different,” Phelps said. “We just can’t have it. It really comes down to: what do you want your sport to be? And that’s why I think we ruled the way we did because we’re not [a] demolition derby. We’re just not. We’re a sport that if we had done nothing, we would have opened ourselves up for a mess, honestly.”
Childress is making a final appeal because the organization said in a statement it doesn’t believe the outcome reflects the facts presented. The final appeal will be heard Monday morning.
Dillon was 32nd in the championship standings going into Richmond. Unless the final appeal goes in Dillon’s favor, he needs a win at Daytona International Speedway (Saturday, 7:30pm ET, NBC) or the regular season finale at Darlington Raceway (Sept. 1) to secure a spot in the postseason.
“We don’t want to penalize drivers,” Phelps said. “We don’t want to have cars not pass tech. All of that, we don’t want. But there is a responsibility, if you’re going to be fair about the rules that you’re going to put in place and then officiate, that you have to do it with the utmost integrity, and I believe that our officials right now — Elton Sawyer and his team — they have the utmost integrity.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t believe that Elton Sawyer doesn’t have the most integrity of someone that’s in his position. So, the decision … each of those is unique, and we have to treat it as unique.”
Phelps explained the NASCAR competition department reviewed the finish from Richmond before recommending a penalty. Their decision then goes to NASCAR’s upper management — including Phelps, NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France, and COO Steve O’Donnell — for review. However, unless the group feels it is “significantly wrong,” the decision won’t be overturned.
“The difficulty as it relates to this specific incident, I’ve heard from drivers over the years, ‘I don’t know where the line is. Tell me where the line is. Can you show me the line?’” Phelps said. “I can’t show you the line, but you will know when it’s been crossed. So, if you hook someone going 170 miles per hour on a mile-and-a-half track, you have crossed the line and we’re going to park you. And we’ve been consistent; we’ve had two of those. Do we want to do that? We don’t, but we need to make sure that we are keeping our drivers safe, and when you have a situation like that, it’s not safe.
“Again, as we were looking at the data and what happened, it happened so quickly, but you had two incidents in a split second. Turn 3 had an incident; Turn 4 had an incident and the race was concluded. I think the bump and run or slam and run, whatever it was, I won’t suggest there wouldn’t have been a penalty — I have no idea because you had a second move, and the second move was a hook, in our opinion. Which was both the eye test as well as the data would suggest that happened.
“It’s hard to hide from the data. Then he put a competitor at risk. Denny took a hard hit, one of the hardest hits I think he’s had in this Next Gen car. There was a line that was crossed, in our opinion.”
Austin Dillon has been stripped of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff eligibility that came with his victory at Richmond Raceway. NASCAR announced the penalty Wednesday after reviewing the finish of Sunday night’s race where Dillon made contact with Joey …
Austin Dillon has been stripped of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff eligibility that came with his victory at Richmond Raceway.
NASCAR announced the penalty Wednesday after reviewing the finish of Sunday night’s race where Dillon made contact with Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Dillon spun Logano in Turn 3 on the final lap of overtime in the Cook Out 400 and right-hooked Hamlin off Turn 4. He was 32nd in the championship standings going into the weekend.
Dillon does keep the victory despite it not counting toward the postseason. The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team was also docked 25 points in both the owners’ and drivers’ championship standings for the incident.
Richard Childress Racing also lost the eligibility for the owner’s championship from the penalty.
Additionally, Brandon Benesch, Dillon’s spotter, has been suspended for the next three races. Benesch instructed Dillon to “wreck him” as Hamlin came to his inside in the final corner.
NASCAR also fined Joey Logano for his post-race actions. A frustrated Logano came down pit road and throttled up near NASCAR officials and team members, including those of Dillon’s crew who were making their way to the frontstretch to celebrate with the winning driver.
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer found it a fair to say that ideas have changed regarding acceptable racing contact, before admitting the sport needs to learn from what happened on Sunday night at Richmond Raceway. Those that …
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer found it a fair to say that ideas have changed regarding acceptable racing contact, before admitting the sport needs to learn from what happened on Sunday night at Richmond Raceway.
Those that need to learn are not NASCAR. The sanctioning body instead finds itself at a defining moment in its history where the reins need to be pulled back in on the garage.
Austin Dillon had a win-at-all-costs mentality on the final lap, which resulted in wrecked race cars for Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. As Sawyer reminded everyone, NASCAR is a contact sport, and it was within Dillon’s right to use his front bumper. But if the first contact with Logano was understandably aggressive – but perhaps not liked – it was also arguably within the lines of many previous incidents. The second contact, a right rear hook of Hamlin, should be considered intolerable.
Sawyer described the chain of events as close to crossing the line. NASCAR will dig into all available data – audio, video and SMT – concerning the finish, and any reaction will come this week. It would serve NASCAR’s best interest to have the last word in the matter, and that final word needs to be strong.
A former competitor himself, Sawyer already gave the correct analysis that needs to be put into action: “Racing in the era that we race in today and the way our young kids are coming up racing at short tracks, we want to make sure that the highest level of racing, which is NASCAR Cup Series, is done at the highest level and it’s done with the utmost integrity and sportsmanship and that’s what we’re about. So, we’ll see if we need to adjust accordingly going forward.”
Highest level. Integrity. Sportsmanship.
The finish at Richmond didn’t seem to strike those chords. It was less competition or craft, and more destruction and deflection to the system. Perhaps drivers have become too comfortable feeling that way, since the reward seems to outweigh the risk of being punished more often than not.
“My parents used to say if you want to sit at the adult table, you have to act like an adult, and we just don’t as a sport sometimes,” Hamlin opined. “It’s frustrating as someone who has been doing this so long to see where we’ve come [from]. I’ll just bitch and complain my last few years, but this is just crazy.”
Layne Riggs was given a two-lap penalty for sending Stefan Parsons into the wall in Nashville earlier this year. Danny Hansen/Motorsport Images
Hamlin also had plenty to say about there being “no real officiating” in favor what he perceives to be an embrace of the chaos and headlines. As famed wrestling promoter and personality Eric Bischoff titled his autobiography, controversy creates cash. Except, Hamlin knows there are rules in place to prevent, as he described, “ridiculous acts” that rarely get enforced. Then, when they do, such as Layne Riggs being made an example of in a Craftsman Truck Series race earlier this year with a two-lap penalty for reckless driving, they seem questionable compared to what others got away with.
Yet, hooking someone in the right rear has been the most consistent call NASCAR has made over the last two years, with suspensions for drivers like Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott. Following its review, an explanation is owed by NASCAR as to why what Dillon did was or was not different.
NASCAR is not immune to criticism for being more entertainment than competition. Some will not let it outrun comments from former executives about “boys, have at it,” even if the context around that time has long been forgotten. Or there are those quick to point out that one of the sport’s most revered figures will always be known – whether rightly or wrongly – as having made a career of using the front bumper of his black No. 3 Chevrolet.
All of those comments can be true, but it is simultaneously true that things have to change. And as long as the course is corrected, it’s OK to be in this position. Sometimes, harsh reminders by those in charge are necessary about what is expected of its competitors because the sport’s reputation has become one headline too many.
“I’m not really sure what to say about that,” Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s as far from racing as you can get, and it’s really disappointing that NASCAR allows stuff like that to go on. I don’t know what else to say.”
Wolfe, understandably, got more animated as the conversation continued and his comments more pointed. It might have been Wolfe’s voice, but it was the thoughts of many.
“That wasn’t a racing incident,” Wolfe said. “Anyone can see that. So, I guess what I’m asking NASCAR is: What have we gotten to? Is this not racing anymore? At some point, we’re going to have to not turn into a circus here.
“I get it. We want stories. We want cars that don’t run good in the playoffs. But, gosh, we’re still racing here and when we lose sight of that, I don’t know what we’re doing anymore.
“So it’s very frustrating that all the time and effort and all our sponsors and everyone puts into this, and then it turns into that on the last lap. I don’t know what we’re doing, and it’s hard to understand. That was not a racing incident, racing hard for a win. There’s a difference and everyone in this garage can look at that and know that’s not what just happened.
“This is up to NASCAR to do the right thing. At some point, we’re going to have to make the call of what’s acceptable and not and just flat-out wrecking someone is not racing. So are we a racing series or what are we? If we’re not a racing series, then we need to let everyone know we’re not racing anymore because that was not racing.”
While it is not new that the garage is calling for NASCAR to take action on a particular situation, there has been an escalation in frustration in recent years about the code of conduct on the racetrack. It has grown from rivalries and retaliation to how a race winner is decided, reaching and staining the sport’s highest level.
The time has come for NASCAR to do some cleaning up.
Austin Dillon felt he did what he had to do to cross the finish line first Sunday night at Richmond Raceway. Dillon ran into the back of Joey Logano in Turn 3 on the final lap, which spun Logano from the race lead. In the next corner, Dillon …
Austin Dillon felt he did what he had to do to cross the finish line first Sunday night at Richmond Raceway.
Dillon ran into the back of Joey Logano in Turn 3 on the final lap, which spun Logano from the race lead. In the next corner, Dillon right-hooked Denny Hamlin as the two were side-by-side with the checkered flag in sight. The victory, Dillon’s first since August 2022 in Daytona, took him from 32nd in the Cup Series standings to the postseason.
“I was just trying to get to him,” Dillon said of the first contact with Logano. “I went into Turn 3 in fifth gear and drove in, tried to get him loose, and got him up the track. I got the car downshifted, and the car actually turned pretty good when I did that, and then when I was coming back left, [Hamlin] was coming and that was just kind of a reaction.
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“The No. 22 [Logano] was trying to get him loose but the No. 11 [Hamlin] was more just a reaction, and I wasn’t lifting at that point because I was more looking at where [Logano] was. When the No. 11 came across, it was just a reaction.”
Dillon did not recall hearing instructions to “wreck him” over his team’s in-car radio coming off Turn 4. The audio quickly went viral, leading to questions and criticism for Dillon and his team.
“Dude, at that point, I’m elbows up, holding the throttle down, just trying to get to the start/finish line. Literally,” Dillon said. “I am sideways off of [Turn] 4 because I’m always three-quarters of a lane up the track, hammer the gas, and I’m just looking at the start/finish line. That’s it. I ain’t hearing [expletive] at that point.
“Your eyes turn red. You see red. You get to the end of the race. Daytona, last lap, when I won there at the 500 – your eyes see red. There’s one thing on your mind: get to the start/finish line first. Period. No matter if anybody came on the radio. It doesn’t matter. You have one job to do – to get to the start/finish line first. A lot of people lose their jobs because they don’t get to the start/finish line first.”
The overtime restart put Dillon on the offensive. Dillon had taken the lead of the race with 28 laps to go and was in control of the field when the final caution came with two laps to go when Ryan Preece was spun by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Dillon’s No. 3 team kept him in the top spot during the final round of pit stops.
But Logano cleared Dillon through Turns 1 and 2 on the restart. Dillon came from what Logano said was three or four car lengths behind entering Turn 3 on the lap to make contact.
Logano called for the victory to be taken away. NASCAR will review the finish. However, Dillon was unapologetic for how he succeeded, seeing no difference in what his competition had done in the past.
“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” Dillon said. “This was the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win; I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start/finish line. I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people, and it’s just part of our sport.
“Remember when Joey said, ‘[that’s] short-track racing’? He knows what it was. In your shoes, what would you do?”
NASCAR will review all available data concerning the last lap events from Sunday night at Richmond Raceway where Austin Dillon made contact with two drivers en route to victory. “Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time,” said NASCAR …
NASCAR will review all available data concerning the last lap events from Sunday night at Richmond Raceway where Austin Dillon made contact with two drivers en route to victory.
“Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time,” said NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer. “We always hear, ‘Where’s the line?’ and ‘Did someone cross the line?’ I would say that the last lap was awful close to the line.
“We’ll take a look at all the available resources from audio to video, listen to spotters, we’ll listen to crew chiefs and drivers, and if anything rises to a level that we feel like we need to penalize, then we’ll do that on Tuesday.”
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Dillon was running second when he drove into Turn 3 on the final lap of overtime in the Cook Out 400 and hit the rear bumper of Joey Logano’s Ford Mustang. The contact sent Logano into a spin and the outside wall. Logano, who finished 19th, called it a chicken (expletive) move as Dillon came from a couple of car lengths back to make contact.
The chain of events continued when Dillon hooked Denny Hamlin in the right rear of Turn 4. Hamlin was to the inside of Dillon – given the opportunity as Dillon washed up the track after the contact with Logano – before his car was shot to the outside wall because of the hook, which cleared Dillon’s path to victory.
Logano finished 19th. Hamlin crossed the finish line fifth.
“It happened fast,” Sawyer said when asked if NASCAR didn’t view anything egregious in real time. “But I would say, if you look at that, in my view that’s getting right up really close to crossing the line.”
Sawyer felt Sunday night was a great race with positives, such as the option tire Cup Series teams had in their allotment. But as it pertains to the last lap, Sawyer reiterated NASCAR is a contact sport that wants drivers to race hard. The debate during NASCAR’s review of what took place at Richmond is how far the drivers can go, and Sawyer also agreed that perhaps what’s acceptable in NASCAR today has changed from what was seen throughout its history.
“Our sport is 75 years old – a lot has happened in 75 years,” he said. “So, I think we have to learn from the incident tonight and move forward and see if there’s something that … racing in the era that we race in today and the way our young kids are coming up racing at short tracks, we want to make sure that the highest level of racing, which is NASCAR Cup Series, is done at the highest level and it’s done with the utmost integrity and sportsmanship and that’s what we’re about. So, we’ll see if we need to adjust accordingly going forward.”
Whether that will include a penalty to Dillon, perhaps even taking the win away, is to be determined.
“Historically that hasn’t been our DNA to take races away, but that’s not to say that going forward this wouldn’t start to set a precedent,” Sawyer said. “We have to look at it.”
Denny Hamlin had a question of his own when he faced reporters Sunday night at Richmond Raceway after being wrecked by Austin Dillon for the victory. “Where is the line?” Hamlin responded. The retort had nothing to do with the location of the finish …
Denny Hamlin had a question of his own when he faced reporters Sunday night at Richmond Raceway after being wrecked by Austin Dillon for the victory.
“Where is the line?” Hamlin responded.
The retort had nothing to do with the location of the finish line. It came instead as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was asked if Dillon should be penalized for his last-lap actions where he made contact with two drivers to win the Cook Out 400. Dillon first hit Joey Logano in Turn 3, which spun Logano from the race lead before he hooked Hamlin off Turn 4.
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Hamlin was running on the bottom of the racetrack in a position to drive past Dillon and Logano after the two had their incident. But a right-rear hook delivered to Hamlin sent the No. 11 Toyota into the outside wall and secured the victory for Dillon.
“We have rules to prevent ridiculous acts but it’s been a long time since those rules have been enforced,” Hamlin said. “Didn’t Layne Riggs spin someone out and get a two-lap penalty or some [expletive]? This is tough because this is what the young short-track racers see, and they think this is okay because they watch the professionals on Sunday who are supposed to act like adults just do dumb [expletive], and it’s just amazing that it’s allowed.
“But I don’t fault him because he’s completely desperate, right? He’s 30th in points, he jumps 20 spots in points, or whatever the hell it is. His season is saved. Now, he’ll have to pay repercussions down the line for this, but it’s so worth it from his standpoint because there are no guardrails or rules that say, ‘Don’t do that.’ And there’s no one in the tower that has any problem with it. So, we’re never ever going to get taken seriously as a sport because we have no real officiating.”
Hamlin had resigned himself to finishing third before he saw how far Dillon drove into the corner on the final lap. At that point, Hamlin knew the Richard Childress Racing driver was “going to do something silly.” It was unfortunate, Hamlin said, to be one of two guys to get wiped out.
The radio communication for Dillon’s team left no doubt the driver was going to do whatever it took to prevail. After the contact with Logano, there was a sentiment of “wreck him” on Dillon’s No. 3 radio as Hamlin got to his inside.
Hamlin became animated upon hearing that and said, “Well then, what are we talking about then? I don’t know. Maybe they [NASCAR] address it. I would say not.”
The right rear hook is what Hamlin upset the most. It is a move that has drawn penalties in the past, including when Hamlin was on the receiving end of a right-rear hook from Chase Elliott last year, which resulted in Elliott getting suspended for one race.
Hamlin said hooking another driver is “100%” worse than driving into the back of them.
“I don’t know what the G [forces] were, but it crushed me on the right side,” Hamlin said about hitting the wall after the contact from Dillon. “He right rear hooked me, so what do you want me to do?”
Hamlin, his crew chief Chris Gabehart, and other Joe Gibbs Racing personnel visited the NASCAR hauler about the events of the last lap. Afterwards, Hamlin did not want to reveal what was said behind closed doors.
Joey Logano blasted Austin Dillon for having “no intention” of racing to the finish Sunday night at Richmond Raceway and instead choosing to make contact for the victory. The race went to overtime with Dillon as the race leader. But Logano beat …
Joey Logano blasted Austin Dillon for having “no intention” of racing to the finish Sunday night at Richmond Raceway and instead choosing to make contact for the victory.
The race went to overtime with Dillon as the race leader. But Logano beat Dillon through Turns 1 and 2 on the restart and was leading going into Turn 3 on the final lap. Dillon, looking for his first victory in two years, drove hard into the corner to get to Logano’s bumper and made contact. It sent Logano into a full spin before his car hit the outside wall.
Dillon then made contact with Denny Hamlin off Turn 4 to secure the win. Hamlin had the momentum and moved underneath Dillon when the incident between him and Logano occurred. But Dillon came back down the track and hit Hamlin in the right rear.
Admittedly, Logano was not expecting there to be contact from Dillon.
“When you get that far ahead — that’s three to four car lengths ahead into [Turn] 3,” Logano said. “I didn’t even back up the entry. I was like, ‘I’ll just wrap the bottom here, I’m good,’ and he just drives in so hard. Obviously, he didn’t make the turn because he hit me, and the 11 [Hamlin] was going to win the race.
“So, he had no intentions to race. I beat him fair and square on the restart, and he just pulls a chicken [expletive] move. He’s a piece of crap. The kid, he sucks. He sucked his whole career, and now he’s going to be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”
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Dillon was 32nd in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings entering Richmond. The victory shuffles the playoff grid by putting Dillon into the postseason.
When asked if Dillon should be penalized, Logano initially said, “I don’t know. I don’t know. Apparently, it’s OK. What do you want me to say? Apparently, you can come from five car lengths back and completely wreck someone and then wreck another one to the line, and we’re going to call that racing. Cool.”
Logano was then asked if they should take the win away from Dillon, “Yeah [but] they won’t.”
In the heat of the moment, Logano didn’t know how he would react going forward. As time passed, he was still red-faced, sweating and animated, whether talking to his team or the media about what transpired on the last lap.
“But I know it’s ridiculous, and you can’t stand for it,” the two-time series champion said. “I can tell you that much. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next. Obviously, I got to think about it, but you can’t let (expletive) like that happen.”
Bubba Wallace is as aware as anyone in the Toyota Racing camp that the stretch of races in the NASCAR Cup Series lays out perfectly over the next month. Given that, the agenda is simple: don’t fumble. “We’re all hyper-sensitive about where we’re …
Bubba Wallace is as aware as anyone in the Toyota Racing camp that the stretch of races in the NASCAR Cup Series lays out perfectly over the next month.
Given that, the agenda is simple: don’t fumble.
“We’re all hyper-sensitive about where we’re at,” Wallace said at Richmond Raceway about his 23XI Racing team.
Richmond’s Toyota Owners 400 (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, FOX) is the first stop where a Toyota driver has pulled into victory lane in five of the last 10 races. Wallace led 80 laps at Richmond Raceway in the summer race last season.
Sitting 18th in the championship standings, Wallace has two top-10 finishes with 21 laps led. He’s earned just 12 stage points. The sluggish start Wallace, crew chief Bootie Barker and the No. 23 team have had is another reason the stretch ahead sets up well and is all the more critical.
“After race four, we were having a come-to-Jesus meeting,” Wallace said. “I don’t care that it’s early (in the year). It’s the same start that I’ve always had, and I said I didn’t want that. So, we’re looking to turn it around.”
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Wallace initiated the meeting. The season had started with back-to-back fifth-place finishes before a stuck lug nut in Las Vegas cost Wallace multiple laps and resulted in a 35th-place finish. It was a 16th-place result at Phoenix Raceway. A flat tire cost the team at Bristol Motor Speedway (29th).
“We had two, three races where stuff would happen, and we’re finishing last or wherever,” Wallace said. “So, we have to get our stuff together. I just set the tone (with the meeting).”
Martinsville Speedway (April 7), Texas Motor Speedway (April 14), Talladega Superspeedway (April 21), Dover Motor Speedway (April 28), and Kansas Speedway (May 5) take the series toward summer. Wallace won the pole, led 111 laps, and finished third at Texas last season. It was a race that got away when Wallace gave up control on a late-race restart. He is a former winner at Talladega and Kansas.
There has been a mix of races through the first six races. Wallace for a stretch of oval racing.
“I’m excited,” he said. “We’ll be good.”
It starts with Richmond, where Wallace qualified fifth.
“Denny [Hamlin] said the next five weeks there is no reason why Toyota shouldn’t be in victory lane, so make sure it’s one of ours,” Wallace said. “So that’s enough motivation to go out and get the job done. We learned a lot here in the fall; got behind on a little bit of strategy, but I think it’s a new opportunity for us.
“We’re really invested (in) what we need to do for this weekend.”
Kyle Larson was fastest in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond Raceway with a lap of 121.836mph (22.161s). Joey Logano was second fastest at 121.490mph and Chris Buescher was third fastest at 121.463mph. John Hunter Nemechek was fourth …
Kyle Larson was fastest in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond Raceway with a lap of 121.836mph (22.161s).
Joey Logano was second fastest at 121.490mph and Chris Buescher was third fastest at 121.463mph. John Hunter Nemechek was fourth fastest at 121.403mph and Alex Bowman completed the top five at 121.354mph.
Larson is the defending winner of the spring Richmond race. Buescher won the summer race.
Ty Gibbs was sixth fastest at 121.277mph, Ryan Blaney was seventh fastest at 121.207mph, and Josh Berry was eighth fastest at 120.849mph. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was ninth fastest at 120.530mph and Justin Haley rounded out the top 10 in practice at 120.417mph.
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Cup Series championship points leader Martin Truex Jr. was 21st fastest. Truex’s lap was 118.499mph.
Ty Dillon, making his return to the Cup Series with Kaulig Racing, was 35th fastest in practice at 117.683mph. Ross Chastain was last at 116.646mph.
There were no incidents in practice. Thirty-six drivers are entered in the Toyota Owners 400.
Ryan Blaney was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. It was Blaney over Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, and Kyle Larson.
