Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)
Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31
Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
Layout: .75-mile oval
Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
SHR Fast Facts:
– Short-track racing is where Noah Gragson’s career began. The Las Vegas native owns victories in two of the United States’ most prestigious Late Model races – the 2017 Winchester 400 at the half-mile Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, and the 2018 Snowball Derby at the half-mile Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.
– The next race on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Richmond (Va.) Raceway and the 33-year-old Cup Series rookie Josh Berry has turned laps there in the NextGen car. Making his Cup Series debut at .75-mile oval last year subbing for an injured Chase Elliott, Berry qualified 30th before driving through the field to take home a runner-up finish, leading 10 laps along the way. Coincidentally, Berry’s spotter this season is Eddie D’Hondt, Chase Elliott’s former spotter who helped him navigate the Richmond traffic to his runner-up finish last year.
– Chase Briscoe comes into Richmond (Va.) Raceway on a streak of quiet consistency that emulates his overall history at the .75-mile oval. The driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing has had three straight finishes of 13th or better. He finished a season-best ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway before earning another 13th-place drive last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The runs have placed Briscoe a respectable 17th in the championship standings, just three points and one position away from the top-16 – the cutoff spot for the 10-race championship, which is still 20 races away. In the marathon that is the NASCAR Cup Series, consistency is key, and just as Briscoe has shown top-15 reliability in the early races of 2024, he’s been similarly reliable at Richmond across both the Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
– With Richmond’s worn-out asphalt and low-banked, 14-degree turns, the track echoes characteristics of the Northeast venues where Ryan Preece honed his skills on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Preece underscored those parallels during a Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2021 when the Berlin, Connecticut-native scored a dominating victory. It was the 25th of his 26 career wins on the Modified Tour.
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:
WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang
The tire wear we saw in the last short-track race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway – did you like it or dislike it?
“I don’t really know how I feel about it, to be honest. I thought that it was definitely unique. I did like the fact that there was a little more strategy involved. And I even felt like, on the driver’s side, it put a little more in your hands instead of whoever had the best car was going to be really good. We probably don’t need it as drastic to where they just blow out, but I do think a good mix of that would be really cool to have, especially for the short-track races, for sure.”
Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Superior Essex Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Would you like to see that kind of tire fall-off at Richmond?
“I would like to see the tire pace slowed down as you run rather than the tire wearing out all the way to the cords. I think there are two different ways. At Bristol, the tread wore all the way off to where you didn’t have grip and that’s why you had to pace off your runs. Personally, I’d like it if they’d slow down on the grip loss the harder you push on a tire, just being able to lose grip rather than the tread depth of the tire.”
Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Richmond is another short track that you’ve called one of your favorites. What are your expectations of yourself this weekend?
“I think Richmond is one of the tracks that we expect to run well at. Stewart-Haas as a whole has been good on short tracks and has a good program, and I have had success there in the Xfinity Series, as well as in the Cup Series last year in the No. 9 car. I think it’s one of the places that we circle on our calendar knowing that I have a long history in short-track racing, and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) comes from that same background. I think it will be a strong showing, we just have to go execute to the best of our ability and there is no reason we can’t go run in the top-10.”
Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse
What are your thoughts on tire wear at Richmond? Could we see something like what we saw at Bristol?
“Richmond is a large short track, but it’s still a short track. The track surface is worn out, so tire heat and falloff is a real thing at Richmond. Turns one and two, and turns three and four are completely different corners, so being disciplined in hitting your marks and having a car with good balance is important at Richmond. If you’re fighting a car that’s too tight or too loose, the issue will only be exaggerated the longer the run goes.”
