Nascar Richmond Weekend - Cup and Nationwide

The sun will set both at Richmond Saturday night and on the regular season as Nascar embarks on it's second trip to Richmond for the year and that one that will decide who's in and out when it comes to this year's version of the system we've come to know as the Chase for the Sprint Cup. This years race coming off the heels of last year's race which in saying it was controversial wouldn't even begin to explain how everything went down, a move that got one driver kicked out post-race, one driver allowed and several penalties handed out through-out.

But now as we focus on this year's chase field, we have our usual suspects as in Penske, Hendrick, Gibbs among other largers team and even some surprise drivers in Richard Petty Motorsports Aric Almirola and JTG Daughtrey's AJ Allmendinger. But on the not locked it side we have drivers like Ryan Newman who is trying to avoid a complete Richard Childress lockout of the championship hunt, Greg Biffle who being one of two drivers that is still remaining at the team next year is trying to make two cars in the title fight for Roush rather than the lone Carl Edwards who leaves that team at the end of the year, Clint Bowyer who was the source of last year's controversial ending to the race is now finding himself on the outside looking in and could be MWR's only hope at making the chase, and Kyle Larson who has had a pretty decent rookie year in cup is looking to capitalize on it with making it into Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But there's something different to this year's hunt for the title, wins are an automatic lock into the chase no matter who you are as long as you've started every race (exception being medical abscence) and that you are in the top 30 in the points standings. So this means anybody down to 30th can make it into the chase whether it be Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard or something as outlandish as Tommy Baldwin Racing's Michael Annett will make the chase as long as they win.

Here's a list of people that can still make it via win:

Paul Menard
Austin Dillon
Jamie McMurray
Brian Vickers
Marcos Ambrose
Casey Mears
Martin Truex Jr
Tony Stewart
Ricky Stenhouse
Danica Patrick
Justin Allgaier
Michael Annett

Needless to say it might be another interesting night at the ole short track in Richmond Virginia. Oh yeah and there's a Nationwide race too....You know...that one on Friday.

Cup Entry List: http://www.jayski.com/news/stats/2014/story/_/page/26-Richmond-2014-Entry-List [Source: Jayski.com]

Nationwide Entry List: http://www.jayski.com/news/nationwide/2014/story/_/page/NNS-2014-25-Richmond-Entry-List [Source: Jayski.com]

Gilliland can win and get in, he's 31st but only one point behind Annett, so Gilly will jump Annett regardless of Annett's finish. Ragan and Cole Whitt can win, but will need the finish positions of Annett and Gilliland to go their way.

>Lap 300-397 go green.
>Caution on lap 398.
>G-W-C.
>Most leaders pit
>Drivers in the win or die list who are still on the lead lap stay out on 100 lap old tyres and low fuel
>post >yfw

From Will Kimmel's facebook page:



A video to show how deep the water is in the infield: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154583855665327

A friend of mine working on a Nationwide team told me he, along with the other teams, had to get the race cars, as well as the haulers, jacked up as high as they could and pull some of the bottom drawers out of their toolbox to keep the equipment from getting flooded/wet.

This is another pic posted from Twitter:


Also, 2,000th post!

Inb4 weekend washout.

That's no infield, that's a damn river.

First Practice Results, The Top 10

1 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet 20.912 129.112 2 79 ---.--- ---.---
2 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 20.962 128.805 2 98 -0.050 -0.050
3 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 20.977 128.712 1 101 -0.065 -0.015
4 55 Brian Vickers Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 21.025 128.419 3 90 -0.113 -0.048
5 99 Carl Edwards Kellogg's/Frosted Flakes Ford 21.083 128.065 2 79 -0.171 -0.058
6 42 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 21.174 127.515 2 107 -0.262 -0.091
7 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 21.200 127.358 2 93 -0.288 -0.026
8 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna Chevrolet 21.201 127.352 2 116 -0.289 -0.001
9 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota 21.238 127.131 2 89 -0.326 -0.037
10 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 21.265 126.969 2 79 -0.353 -0.027


Vickers blew a left front on the frontstrech in Final Practice

Hmmm, Clay Rogers? I've not heard of that name for a couple of years.

Final Practice Results

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed Lap # # Laps -Fastest -Next
1 99 Carl Edwards Kellogg's/Frosted Flakes Ford 22.156 121.863 31 34 ---.--- ---.---
2 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 22.160 121.841 38 38 -0.004 -0.004
3 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Toyota 22.179 121.737 4 7 -0.023 -0.019
4 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna Chevrolet 22.183 121.715 9 17 -0.027 -0.004
5 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 22.185 121.704 35 37 -0.029 -0.002
6 24 Jeff Gordon Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet 22.191 121.671 21 21 -0.035 -0.006
7 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 22.206 121.589 32 33 -0.050 -0.015
8 43 Aric Almirola Gwaltney Ford 22.228 121.468 21 21 -0.072 -0.022
9 42 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 22.243 121.387 39 39 -0.087 -0.015
10 16 Greg Biffle 3M Call Before You Dig Ford 22.260 121.294 23 24 -0.104 -0.017

Kyle Busch wins NW pole.
Ryan Blaney 2nd, Chase Elliott 3rd, Kyle Larson 4th and Brian Scott 5th

RealRacer4 wrote:From Will Kimmel's facebook page:



A video to show how deep the water is in the infield: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154583855665327

A friend of mine working on a Nationwide team told me he, along with the other teams, had to get the race cars, as well as the haulers, jacked up as high as they could and pull some of the bottom drawers out of their toolbox to keep the equipment from getting flooded/wet.

This is another pic posted from Twitter:


Also, 2,000th post!

Damnit!!! It was Darlington that Kyle Petty wanted flooded and filled with bass, not Richmond!!!

Brad won pole for Cup race,

Wreck on lap 3 in NW, Lepage and Dick wrecked

Guess what happened in the Nationwide race?!?

PYLrulz wrote:Guess what happened in the Nationwide race?!?

Cure for insomnia? *zzzzzz....*

If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

Ceej wrote:If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

Didn't watch, haven't watched all season. Saw the post on Twitter. I think I'm safe to continue complaining.

They should've raced boats on Thursday.

Ceej wrote:If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

They could get ratings of 0.0, and NASCAR still wouldn't do anything about it.

crl wrote:

Ceej wrote:If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

They could get ratings of 0.0, and NASCAR still wouldn't do anything about it.

I'm honestly curious about this, what does the Nationwide series pull in ratings? Like for realzies.

Alta wrote:

crl wrote:

Ceej wrote:If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

They could get ratings of 0.0, and NASCAR still wouldn't do anything about it.

I'm honestly curious about this, what does the Nationwide series pull in ratings? Like for realzies.

The last three races have hovered around 1.0, which is just over 1.5 million households.

Wow, FOX Sports Live on FOX Sports 1 just showed Junior not understanding how the eliminations work. Great job, NASCAR; your most popular driver doesn't know how the Chase format works.

crl wrote:

Alta wrote:

crl wrote:

Ceej wrote:If you're complaining about Nationwide but still watch, you are part of the problem.

They could get ratings of 0.0, and NASCAR still wouldn't do anything about it.

I'm honestly curious about this, what does the Nationwide series pull in ratings? Like for realzies.

The last three races have hovered around 1.0, which is just over 1.5 million households.

I guess that's all you could expect from a lower-tier series, but i would love to see year's past comparisons.

54 rear end being taken by NASCAR R&D for further testing...

#TeamMenard

I feel bad for asking this, but is my attention span really bad or is this race just boring?

its badly boring

Memoriesallbutdone wrote:its badly boring

Well shit.

We could've gone back to the same tire compound we used for the first Richmond race this year and be happy with that. At least it kept things interesting. :S

I'd say it has been Meh. The Bowyer/Biffle battle has been good. Kes is just checking which I'm good with, but it has made it a little lackluster for the lead so far. But the last 3 races here have seen late restarts so I'm not saying anything yet.

Kes just has the car, can't blame the others for that....

And a spectator climbing up the catchfence brings out a caution...okay then

Rykia_RKXK wrote:And a spectator climbing up the catchfence brings out a caution...okay then

Have you ever!!!

So someone tried to climb the catchfence in turn 4.

Ooookay... o_O

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bw5Uzr4IEAA4klG.jpg



^THE FAN

OH NO SOMEONE'S IN THE CATCHFENCE!

...

That guy should really get down from there.

Rykia_RKXK wrote:And a spectator climbing up the catchfence brings out a caution...okay then

Might be the single most interesting thing that's happened all night.

I've never in my life someone would do something funny, yet stupid at a racetrack like that.

bigdc48 wrote:I've never in my life someone would do something funny, yet stupid at a racetrack like that.

As I recall, at last year's Daytona 500, they had to throw the caution because two fans decided to sit directly behind the fence in Turn 3 on the wall.

This race weekend has been really lackluster......

Kes just had the car.... No one could be him.

Monza doesn't look so promising also... yeah

Good win, Bread Keseloafski.

With the exception of that...*ahem*..."overserved" fan climbing the fence and bringing out the yellow, overall boring race. Can't blame anyone, Brad was as stupid fast as he's been all year. But honestly, the only other redeeming quality to this race is the Free Bloomin' Onions we're getting on Monday since Kevin Harvick finished P5.

Hell yeah Brad K. The best car by far tonight. The race though was a lackluster. 4.5/10.

This by far has got to be one of the worst races of the season.

Brad K laying it into them yet again. 383 of the 400 laps were led by the white deuce. That's not taking them to the woodshed. That's running them through the wood chipper.

This race was pretty shitty, with the only real unusual moment coming when the caution came out for a guy climbing the fence. When that's the only highlight, you know it was a pretty lackluster race, and that's a shame, considering what was on the line tonight for the guys that were on the fringe of the Chase.

This race gets a 2.0/10 from me. The only bright spot, if there is one, is that we did get a clunker tonight, but there really haven't been that many this season. The Coke 600, Dover, and Kentucky, IMO, have been the other really bad turds that have been dropped this season. Other than that, this season has actually been very solid in terms of entertainment value. We just didn't really see it tonight.

Hopefully, next week will be better... even though we are now entering the first phase of this Godforsaken Chase format.

Gordon leading the standings sure was nice, wasn't it?

Watching WVU win 54-0 in the rain against a 1AA team was more entertaining than this race...

That race was really boring!

PackerMan71 wrote:Apparently, Jimmie Johnson had to be treated for dehydration after the race. Kinda shows you how tough the drivers had it tonight with those long green flag runs.

Reminds me a bit of the 1998 fall Martinsville race where Ricky Rudd's cooling system failed on lap 1.

Also

PackerMan71 wrote:Apparently, Jimmie Johnson had to be treated for dehydration after the race. Kinda shows you how tough the drivers had it tonight with those long green flag runs.

That's why you need to stay hydrated during a race, no doubt. Even with a handful of wins, this year has not been Jimmie Johnson's year.

and this race officially takes over the 2013 Dayonta 500 has most disappointing race ever from a hype point.