NASCAR Weekend Preview: Richmond Raceway

NASCAR Chase battle heats up under the lights at Richmond

A short track Saturday night marks the next test toward the NASCAR Cup Series championship as the series moves to one of the sport’s most popular venues, Richmond (Va.) Raceway for the Cook Out 400 (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Only three races remain to formalize the 16-driver Chase field that will contend for the 2026 season title and there’s plenty of action both atop the standings and at the cutoff line to decide which drivers will have a shot at hoisting the big trophy.

One of Richmond Raceway’s best, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin extended his championship lead last week with a top-five effort at Iowa Speedway, but the Iowa winner, his teammate, 23-year-old Ty Gibbs has moved into second place in the standings – tying the highest NASCAR Cup Series championship position in his young career. Both of them – and the Joe Gibbs Racing team overall – are particularly good on short tracks, such as the .75-mile Richmond oval.

It’s a particularly sentimental winning ground for Hamlin, who was raised in Virginia. The popular 45-year-old driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota is a five-time Richmond winner and boasts the best average finish (8.25) among active drivers, the sixth best all-time. Only three drivers – NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Allison – have led more than Hamlin’s 2,367 career total laps at Richmond.

Gibbs, driver of the No. 54 JGR Toyota and grandson of team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, has won two of the four short track races this year (also Bristol, Tenn.) and finished in the top-five in all four. His average finish at short tracks in 2026 is a series best 2.5. And significantly, Gibbs has earned more points in the last six races than any other driver.

Furthermore, the championship JGR organization is the most successful team at the track with 19 wins, celebrating in Victory Lane with six different drivers. Richmond along with Pocono (also 19 wins) is site of the team’s best work.

Hamlin, Gibbs, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick are the only drivers to have clinched berths in The Chase leaving 12 positions to be solidified in these next three races – at Richmond, the New Hampshire mile and the Daytona International Speedway’s famous 2.5-mile high banks.

Fifth place in the championship standings, JGR’s Chase Briscoe, and 10th place, Hendrick Motorsports driver and reigning series champion Kyle Larson are separated by only 34 points. Larson has finished 33rd or worse in four of the last five races.

JGR’s Christopher Bell, who earned his seventh runner-up finish last weekend, moved up four positions in the standings to sixth, while Hendrick’s Chase Elliott fell four positions and is now seventh. Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, a Talladega winner in the Spring, also tumbled in the points and fell three positions to eighth place following Iowa.

Penske’s Austin Cindric holds the 16th and final spot in the Chase rankings, but is only 29 points up on 17th place, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Ryan Preece and 47 points ahead of 18th place, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who has made a real move forward in recent weeks.

Ranked 27th in the standings, the two-time defending Richmond race winner, Austin Dillon is not among those closely vying for a Chase bid, but he possesses all kinds of motivation – competitively and emotionally – heading into the weekend.

The driver of the iconic No. 3 Richard Childress Chevrolet, Dillon stands a shot to become the first driver since NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison (1982-83) to win three straight races at the track.

Although he is 144 points out of the top-16 that will advance to The Chase, Dillon is a multi-time winner at both Richmond and also at the site of the regular season finale in two weeks, Daytona International Speedway.

“Last year was the most dominant we have been, but we need to make it better, the other teams will come out swinging,” Dillon said of the Richmond weekend. “They will have seen the data of what we’ve been doing, so you need to put it all together and hope it works out.

Considering the tragic circumstances the RCR team has endured this season – driver Kyle Busch’s unexpected death from sepsis in May – a victory for this organization would be among the most dramatic and applauded in the sport’s history. Richmond is a place the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Busch was among the best all-time and represents great opportunity for Dillon to make history of his own.

“We want to go get a win with the No. 3,” Dillon said, “If we could do that it would be great for Chevrolet and RCR. We have fought through a lot of adversity this year losing Kyle [Busch]. Making solid runs is what we’re focused on and making sure we’re set up for a good following year, trying to learn as much as we can. We want to win. We want to get to Victory Lane and points follow that.”

Of note at Richmond: the driver that leads the most laps has not won in the last nine races here. … Every car was running at the end of two of the last four races. …Three of the last four races had a caution flag fly in the final 10 laps. …Three of the last four races featured a pass for the win in the last 10 laps.

Practice for the Cook Out 400 is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. ET Friday, followed immediately by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 3:30 p.m. ET – both sessions will be on truTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Preece is the defending polesitter. Hamlin is the last driver to win from pole at Richmond when he hoisted the trophy in 2016, 17 races ago.

This weekend at Richmond is pivotal to setting the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase field

Only two races remain now to decide the 10 Chase positions that will settle the 2026 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship and after a two-week break in competition teams are eager to roll and finalize which five drivers will complete the Chase grid.

For championship leader and five-time race winner Layne Riggs, a good showing in Friday night’s Black’s Tire 250 at Richmond Raceway could land him the Chase’s coveted number one seed – even with another regular season race remaining next week at New Hampshire.

The Front Row Motorsports driver Riggs, who finished third at Richmond last year, goes into the weekend with a robust 100-point lead on TRICON Garage’s Kaden Honeycutt. Rigg’s teammate Chandler Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes and TRICON’s Gio Ruggiero are the others to have already clinched a Chase spot.

ThorSport Racing teammates Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, McAnally-Hilgemann’ s Daniel Hemric and Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen round out the Chase standings now.

However, only 49 points, separate ninth place Hemric from 14th place Brenden McQueen. And Tyler Ankrum is only a slight eight points off Friesen for that crucial 10th place spot.

Three of the last six races have been won by Chase contenders. Enfinger won at Richmond in 2020. Smith won in 2022 and Majeski hoisted the trophy in 2024.

In last year’s race, eventual season champion Corey Heim – who will steer the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota Friday night – led 75 laps ultimately beating the day’s most dominant driver, Majeski by .923-second. But Majeski led 143 of the 250 laps, again proving why Richmond is his best track statistically. He’s averaging a second-place finish in four series starts there and has never finished out of the top-10. The former series champion Majeski is still racing for his first win of the season.

The starting grid this week will feature some interesting storylines beyond the championship implications. Former NASCAR Cup Series star and Virginia-native Elliott Sadler, 51, will drive the No. 25 Kaulig Racing RAM in his first truck series start in 25 years. New Zealand NASCAR Cup Series star Shane van Gisbergen is entered in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with a 16-year-old teammate, Tristan McKee, who currently leads the ARCA Menards Series East points and is making his Truck Series debut in the No. 77 Spire Chevrolet.

Practice for the Black’s Tire 250 gets underway at 1 p.m. ET on Friday followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 2:05 p.m. ET – both sessions televised on FS2. Heim won the race from pole position last year.

 

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Cook Out 400
The Place: Richmond Raceway
Track Length: 0.75 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, August 15
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: USA Network, 6:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 300 miles (400 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 230), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 400)

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: Black’s Tire 250 presented by BTS Rewards
The Place: Richmond Raceway
Track Length: 0.75 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, August 14
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $789,700
TV: FS1, 7:30 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 187.5 miles (250 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 140), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)