The Cup Series will travel to Richmond Raceway this weekend for a Saturday night short track race. There are only two races left in the regular season and two races left in the Fantasy Live regular season. It has been tough to predict some of the wild races this summer, but the race at Richmond is pretty straight forward. The drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske have dominated the races at Richmond in the Gen-7 car. Hopefully you have some of these drivers available for your lineup this weekend. The Cook Out 400 can be seen Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA.
PRACTICE SPEEDS FOR RICHMOND
NASCAR broke the teams into two groups based on the metrics from the race at Watkins Glen last week. Each group was given 25-minutes to shake down their cars for the Cook Out 400. NASCAR brought a softer tire to the track this week and the drivers had different strategies in practice. Some drivers went slower on their first 10-laps to save the tire over the long run. Other drivers had the pedal to the medal from the get go and wanted to see how the tire would wear over a long run. The practices times are skewed because of the different strategies, so I am not sure we will learn much from practice Friday. The temps are supposed to be a lot cooled Saturday night and that will change the practice speeds too. It doesn’t hurt to at least look at the speeds though.
Here are the speeds from Friday’s practice at Richmond Raceway…
STRATEGY FOR RICHMOND
There are only two races left in the Fantasy Live regular season. The allocations reset to five per driver once the regular season is completed. There is no reason to save allocations with any driver this week. The next race on the schedule in Daytona and that race is a complete crapshoot. It will not be hard to find a good driver for our lineups at Daytona, so just put together the best lineup possible this week and do not worried about allocations.
Track position, track position, track position…. If you follow my on X (Twitter), you probably know my thoughts on the Gen-7 car. The drivers could not pass at Iowa and they could not pass last week at Watkins Glen. It may be a good idea to select the drivers who start up front, because the aerodynamics of the Gen-7 car makes it extremely difficult to drive from the back to the front.
Here are the picks for the Cook Out 400…
DENNY HAMLIN (1): This is a home game for Hamlin and he always runs well in Virginia. Hamlin has finished 1st or 2nd in six of his last eight starts in Richmond. He won the race at Richmond last year. Hamlin posted the fastest speed in his group in practice and qualified 4th for the race. Hamlin will have a good chance to go back to Victory Lane at his home track Saturday night.
CHRISTOPHER BELL (1): Joe Gibbs Racing led 500 of the 815 laps in the two races at Richmond last year. It may be a good idea to play a few of the drivers from JGR. Bell has been one of the most consistent drivers at Richmond Raceway. He never won at the track, but Bell finished seven of his last eight races at Richmond in the top-six. Bell needs to get back to where he was early in the season before the playoffs start. A trip to Richmond should be exactly what the No. 20 team needs to get their season going again.
CHASE ELLIOTT (3): Elliott broke his streak of top-20 finishes last week. He should be ready to start a new streak at Richmond Raceway. Elliott finished 5th and 9th in his two races at Richmond last year. The No. 9 car had decent speed in practice and Elliott starts 5th for the race. He should score well for your Fantasy Live lineup Saturday night.
BRAD KESELOWSKI (7): I wrote in my notes for this race, “Start Brad Keselowski.” I highlighted it and put a star next to it too, so that must mean something. I wrote those notes after the race two weeks ago in Iowa. Keselowski qualified 5th, led 68 laps and finished 3rd in the Hawkeye State. He finished three of his last four races at Richmond in the top-10, so this is a good track for Keselowski. He desperately needs a win to make the playoffs, so I expect the No. 6 team to be aggressive with their pit strategy to get Keselowski to the front of the field Saturday night.
BUBBA WALLACE (8): Wallace “should” be good Saturday night. He qualified 15th and finished 6th two weeks ago in Iowa. Wallace also started 8th and finished 4th in the last race at Richmond. Wallace posted the 3rd-fastest speed in his group in practice and the No. 23 car qualified 7th for the race. Wallace has the speed and track position to score well Saturday night.
(GARAGE PICK) CHRIS BUESCHER (4): The RFK Racing cars showed up with a lot of speed Friday. That should not surprise anyone. They had speed a few weeks ago at Iowa Speedway and they have a history of running well at Richmond. Buescher won this race in 2023 and he finished 9th last year. I will have Buescher in the Garage as an insurance policy Saturday night.
* I am out of allocations with TYLER REDDICK. I would use the No. 45 car over CHRIS BUESCHER if I had Reddick available this week.
** I do not trust RYAN PREECE or AJ ALLMENDINGER for 400 Laps.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.