Richmond International Raceway Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Over the years, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon have had their share of on-track battles and some that continued outside the car, but in September 1998, the two gave Burton’s home state fans in Virginia a race to remember and one of the closest finishes ever at Richmond Raceway. Both drivers started in the top-five for the Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400, but the lead would jump between 10 different drivers in the first 150 laps of the race, including Burton, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Hamilton,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor In an effort to drive new life into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, NASCAR announced a huge realignment to the 2018 schedule on Tuesday, with several key races undergoing changes for next year’s campaign. The new changes to the 2018 schedule start right off the bat with the Daytona 500 moving back to President’s Day weekend, with the race running on February 18, 2018. Jump ahead to April and Richmond’s spring date, which had been run on Sunday afternoon over the last fewRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Needless to say, the past week has been a rollercoaster ride for Joey Logano and his No. 22 team after winning at Richmond only to have a mid-week penalty strip the benefits of the win from the driver and team and set them back to square one heading into Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega, where Logano looks to score his second win in a row at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Despite losing all of the benefits of the win from last weekend, the always positive LoganoRead More

By Aaron Bearden, NASCAR Contributor It took only one instance of a race-winner suffering an “encumbered” finish for this writer to reach a significant conclusion regarding the ruling: it, or at the minimum the name it’s been given, needs altered. One thing’s been confirmed with relative consistency regarding NASCAR’s latest buzzword – it doesn’t seem a good fit. Don’t believe me? Look no further than NASCAR’s most popular (and soon to be retired) driver. Never used the word “encumbered” to describe anything. Don’t plan on ever using it. Can weRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning last weekend at Richmond International Raceway, Joey Logano and his No. 22 team received some unwelcome news on Thursday morning as NASCAR penalized the team for a violation discovered in post-race teardown at the NASCAR R&D Center. The violation that NASCAR found was in the rear suspension area of the car and was an infraction against Section 20.14.2 of the NASCAR Rule Book: “The Truck trailing arm spacer / pinion angle shim mating surfaces must be planar and must be in complete contactRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – It took Joey Logano all afternoon to drive from the back of the field to the front in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Logano started from the rear after a post-qualifying transmission change, but when the checkered flag waved after Lap 400, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was at the head of the field, having held off a banzai charge from teammate Brad Keselowski during a 19-lap green-flag run. Logano took the lead for theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Growing up just 20 miles from Richmond International Raceway, Denny Hamlin has always run well at his hometown track, scoring three wins at the 0.75-mile oval over the years. Though Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 did not result in a win for Hamlin and his No. 11 team, they were still able to come away with their best finish of the season after ending the day in third place. Through the first seven races of the season, Hamlin would either finish inside the top-10 or findRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For Roush-Fenway Racing, 2017 has been a year of resurgence after a poor outing last season led to off-season restructuring for the team. Leading the charge thus far for the team’s return to relevance has been Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Sunday’s race at Richmond was just another example of how far the team has come in so little time. After qualifying fourth, Stenhouse was strong early in the going in the 400-lap event as he held steadfast in the top-five, but contact with the TurnRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Joe Gibbs Racing has had their hands full this season as they still search for their first win as an organization, but Richmond International Raceway looked like it would be the place for one of their drivers to finally break through, given that the team had won the three previous races at the track heading into Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400. Leading the JGR charge through the weekend was the elder statesman for the team, Matt Kenseth, who blazed his way to the pole on FridayRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For the second year in a row, Justin Allgaier found himself in the lead late at Richmond International Raceway only to not end the day in victory lane. In Saturday’s ToyotaCare 250, Allgaier was the dominant car throughout the event, but came up short of his second win of the season, having to settle for a second-place finish instead. Taking the lead for the first time at lap 27 after starting in sixth place, Allgaier would finish the first stage in second place behind AustinRead More