There is a long-held adage throughout stock car racing that if you have an issue with another driver and the way he raced you, you settle it on a short track. If last week is any indication, a lot of disputes are set to be hashed out within the confines of Richmond Raceway.
All the way through the field, last week's race at Pocono left drivers throughout NASCAR absolutely fuming at each other. A helmet was thrown on track, terse words and maybe more were thrown on pit road, and that doesn't even include the controversial race-winning move that pitted Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson against one another. And strangely, each incident seemed much more like what is expected to occur in a short track race rather than as a result of 400 miles at a 2.5 mile speedway.
Perhaps, then, it's perfect timing that the next stop on the Cup Series calendar is the second trip of the season to Richmond Raceway for this weekend's Cook Out 400, a race that should directly feature the two central characters of last weekend's finish. While Kyle Larson is looking for a season sweep of Richmond's two races, Denny Hamlin has four career Richmond wins and has a long-held affinity for this track as a native of nearby Chesterfield, Va.
How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond
Date: Sunday, July 30
Location: Richmond Raceway -- Henrico County, Va.
Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: USA Network
Stream: fubo (try for free)
What to watch
When the 2023 schedule was released, several tracks in the southeast with race dates during the summer -- namely Nashville Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway -- mercifully moved their races to nighttime in order to give everyone involved relief from the summer heat. However, Richmond was not so inclined, meaning this weekend presents as much of a scorcher as NASCAR will see all season.
The current forecast calls for a high of 97 degrees in Richmond on Saturday, and the forecast for Sunday doesn't offer much relief with 85-degree temperatures and high humidity. That should create track temperatures that make for a slick and greasy racing surface, but it'll also make for miserable conditions for drivers inside the cockpit and fans who will be left to bake in the grandstands. Physical endurance and the integrity of whatever cooling methods each team employs will make a big difference in who can get to the front and persevere, or who will be left hanging on and gasping for breath.
News of the week
- While Denny Hamlin has driven the entirety of his NASCAR career for Joe Gibbs Racing, there was some room to question whether Hamlin would be back with his current contract set to expire at the end of 2023. However, Hamlin isn't going anywhere: Joe Gibbs confirmed Hamlin would return next year in a post-race press conference at Pocono, and Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told reporters during a Wednesday conference call that Hamlin will be back in a Gibbs Toyota in 2024.
- Spire Motorsports has made a crew chief change on the No. 77 team, replacing Kevin Bellicourt with 2010 Daytona 500-winning crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion effective immediately. The No. 77 team has struggled immensely in 2023, as driver Ty Dillon has had just two finishes inside the top 20 all season.
- NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the sanctioning body is working on more viable ways to get cars with four flatspotted tires back to pit road. Joey Logano had expressed frustration with the process last week at Pocono, becoming the latest driver to experience what has been a recurring issue since the Next Gen car was introduced in 2022.
- Motorsports industry veteran Cal Wells III has been named the new CEO of Legacy Motor Club. Wells is the former owner of PPI Motorsports, which won two Cup Series races in the early 2000s with Ricky Craven -- including the closest finish in Cup Series history at Darlington in 2003.
Driver to watch
Thanks to improved performance over the past month and a season-high third place finish at Atlanta, AJ Allmendinger has climbed to 17th in the Cup Series points standings and is now the first driver below the playoff cut line some 17 points back of Michael McDowell. While one would think that Allmendinger's sole focus would be on making the Cup playoffs with one month to go in the regular season, Kaulig Racing is taking a decidedly different approach this weekend.
Allmendinger will neither practice nor qualify his No. 16 Chevrolet at Richmond, as he will instead travel to Road America to compete in this Saturday's Xfinity Series race while reserve driver Derek Kraus -- who has never made a Cup Series start -- prepares his Cup car. While running two races at two different racetracks on the same weekend is hardly unprecedented, it is rather unusual to forego Cup obligations in favor of racing in another series. And it's a detriment to Allmendinger, who will have to start at the rear of the field on Sunday with no track time.
Allmendinger being a Cup veteran somewhat offsets that, but he only has three career top-10 finishes in his career at Richmond and none since 2014. In both of Allmendinger's Richmond races since returning to Cup with Kaulig, he has finished no better than 27th.
Pick to win
(Odds via Caesars Sportsbook)
William Byron (+850): +850 odds for William Byron are surprisingly low considering the way he ran at Richmond in the springtime, where he led a race-high 117 laps and was among the class of the field before being taken out in a late-race accident. That run came one year after Byron led 122 laps and finished third at Richmond in 2022, which suggests Byron is primed and ready to break through at this track.
Doing so this weekend would greatly aid Byron's pursuit of the regular-season championship, as he currently has 30 points separating him from points leader Martin Truex Jr.
