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No. 18 Cup car fails pre-race inspection twice at Richmond
If Kyle Busch is to win his first race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season on Saturday at Richmond Raceway, he will have to come all the way from the rear to do it. That’s because the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota failed pre-race inspection twice and will have to move to the rear during pace laps.
RELATED: Richmond starting lineup
Busch, who leads active drivers with six wins at the .75-mile Virginia short track, was originally slated to start sixth. Kevin Harvick will lead the field to the green flag in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with Joey Logano, in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, also on the front row.
Busch enters tonight’s second race in the Round of 16 of the NASCAR Playoffs in 10th place in the standings, seven points above the cutline. Coverage for tonight’s race gets underway at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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Gallery: Five to Watch: Key story lines for Richmond playoff race (NASCAR)
The second race in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set for Saturday night with the running of the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There are 11 previous winners in the field with eight of them being playoff drivers led by six-time winner Kyle Busch, who has yet to visit Victory Lane this season. Regular-season champion Kevin Harvick, who will start from the pole after winning last weekend at Darlington, is a three-time Richmond winner along with Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson. Richmond will be the first of two consecutive short tracks in the Round of 16.“You don’t want your season’s hopes and dreams coming down to Bristol, where anything can and probably will happen,” said Clint Bowyer, who is a two-time Richmond winner and sits 13th in the playoff standings. “You want to get your work done this weekend in Richmond. Nobody wants to go to Bristol knowing they have to have a great finish to advance to the next round.”
JGR SEEKS FIVE: Joe Gibbs Racing is seeking its fifth straight win at Richmond. Martin Truex Jr. completed the season sweep last year while Kyle Busch turned the trick in 2018. Virginia native Denny Hamlin has finished sixth or better in eight of his last nine starts at Richmond, including his third win in 2016. Truex, who has combined to lead 777 laps in the last five Richmond races, led a race-high 196 laps in the playoff opener at Darlington. Truex will start 14th after finishing 22nd last weekend when he made late-race contact with Chase Elliott while battling for the lead that was chalked up to be a “racing incident.””The past handful of seasons it has been a really good track for our team,” said Truex, who has a 1.7 average finish in his last three Richmond starts. “I think anytime you go to a place that you have had recent success, especially in the playoffs, it’s a bonus. I’m excited to go there. Hopefully, it would be nice to get a win. It’s been a while.”
GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Brad Keselowski is looking forward to Richmond as he leads the series in average finish (2.0) in the two short-track races (tracks under 1 mile) this season, including a win at Bristol. Keselowski won at Richmond in 2014 and has finished in the top 10 in his last four starts there. Keselowski also leads all drivers with a 5.5 average finish in the six races this season with the 750 horsepower, low-downforce rules package at tracks 1.058-miles or less. Keselowski and his Penske teammate Joey Logano are tied for the most top 10s, with five, with the 750 package.“I am super pumped about it,” Keselowski said. “We have ran a handful of short track races this year. I don’t know if we count the 1-mile tracks as short tracks or not. It seems like one year we might and the next year we don’t, but we have really kicked some butt at those tracks. Our expectations going into Richmond are really high. We expect to lead a lot of laps, be up front and potentially bring home our fourth win of the year. I am very, very pumped and optimistic about it.”Along with Keselowski, Kurt Busch, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson are the only drivers to capture top 10s in both short-track races this year.
BRINGING MOMENTUM: Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Alex Bowman bring some momentum to Richmond as they both look to score their first top 10 at the .75-mile track. In the last three races of the season, Byron and Bowman have recorded finishes of seventh or better with Byron’s all resulting in top fives, including a win at Daytona. Bowman and Byron sit fifth and ninth, respectively, in the playoff standings and each will start in the top five Saturday night.”We have struggled at Richmond in the past,” said Bowman, who will start fourth. “The last three weeks have been pretty good to us and we have some momentum going into this weekend’s race. We had as strong run in Darlington last weekend and are sitting in a good spot in the playoff standings. As a team, we have to go into Richmond and capitalize on stage points and keeping the car clean.”
INTERIM CREW CHIEFS: Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch will each be without their crew chiefs on Saturday night due to a one-race suspension after two lug nuts on both the No. 14 and 18 cars were not safely secured following the playoff opener at Darlington. Bowyer will have Greg Zipadelli on top of the pit box in-place of Johnny Klausmeier and Jacob Canter will fill-in for Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens. Zipadelli was Bowyer’s interim crew chief for the first Michigan race this season and also for Chase Briscoe on the Xfinity side for four races and won three times. Canter has worked with Busch in the Xfinity Series this year and scored the win at Charlotte. The two will get the Richmond weekend started together on Friday night when Busch makes his final Xfinity start in 2020. With technology, Busch doesn’t expect much to be different on Saturday with Stevens still involved, just this time from afar. “They’re still going to have the same photos available to them, the TV coverage available to him,” Busch said. “Me talking on the radio is basically me talking directly to Adam, it’s just I can’t hear back from Adam. That will be all information coming back to me from Jacob. Obviously the car back at the shop is all setup by Adam and everything else, it’s just a guy on top of the box.”
GREAT START FOR DILLON: Austin Dillon got his playoffs off to a great start with a second-place finish at Darlington to advance two positions in the playoff standings to eighth. Dillon now turns his attention to Richmond where he has two sixth-place finishes in his last three starts. Dillon finished ninth in the last race with the 750 horsepower, low-downforce package and sixth in the first short-track race of the season at Bristol.”Richmond Raceway is one of the tracks the No. 3 team has circled as a definite place where we can gain maximum points and compete for a win,” Dillon said. “It will be crucial to our playoff run. It’s funny because there was a time in my career when I did not run well at Richmond at all. It was a thorn in my side, but over the years that has changed. Richmond has become a much better place than it used to be for me. I think the low-downforce package has really helped our team at that track.”
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