Elliott Sadler continues to sit atop the Xfinity Series point standings following a fourth-place finish Friday night at Richmond.
Sadler extended his lead to 58 points over Daniel Suarez. The top 40 drivers did not change positions in points following the Virginia 529 College Savings 250.
With an 11th-place finish, Ryan Reed became the 10th driver to lock himself into the Chase. Two spots remain in the 12-driver playoff field.
Virginia native Denny Hamlin surged to the Coors Light Pole Award in Friday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, snagging the top starting spot for Saturday night's regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway.
Hamlin powered the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota to a best lap of 122.344 mph in the last of three qualifying rounds on the .75-mile track. It's his first pole position of the season, third at Richmond and 24th of his Sprint Cup career.
Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) is the final race before the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup post-season field is decided. Hamlin will start alongside Kyle Larson, who notched the second-fastest lap at 122.288 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet.
Defending race winner Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) and Kurt Busch (No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet) completed the top five.
Ryan Newman, the highest-ranked driver outside the provisional Chase grid, will start in the 15th position in the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet. McMurray will aim to keep his grasp on the final provisional playoff berth as he makes his 500th Sprint Cup start.
Pocono winner Chris Buescher, hopes to maintain his position among the top 30 in points to clinch a Chase berth and will start 31st in the Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford. David Ragan, his closest pursuer in the Sprint Cup standings, will start 21st.
JGR's Carl Edwards, a winner in the series' most recent Richmond stop last April, just missed the cut-off line for the final round with a qualifying speed of 122.272 mph. His time was just .002 seconds slower than Joey Logano's (No. 22 Team Penske Ford) second-round lap.
Martin Truex Jr., last weekend's Bojangles' Southern 500 winner at Darlington Raceway, was sixth-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. Jeff Gordon qualified 11th as he preps for his sixth start of the season as a fill-in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet.
Rookie Chase Elliott was a surprising omission after the first elimination, his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet residing outside the fastest 24 qualifiers in Round 1. He'll start 34th in Saturday night's 400-lapper.
Cole Whitt failed to qualify for the 40-car field.
Keep an eye on these five drivers in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.
Kyle Busch
A well-timed bump from teammate Carl Edwards kept Busch from claiming his fifth Richmond win back in April. Nonetheless, Busch’s four wins and 6.9 average finish there leads all active drivers. An interesting note, however, is that none of those four wins have come in the fall (best fall Richmond finish – second, three times).
Brad Keselowski
With 12 top-10 finishes in his last 16 races, Keselowski enters the Chase on solid footing. As for Richmond, he looks to recapture the form he had during fall 2013 and both of the 2014 races there. Across those three races, Keselowski led more than half the total laps (639 of 1200) – including 383 in a dominant fall ’14 win. But in the three Richmond races since, he’s only led 15 laps combined.
Joey Logano
Like his Team Penske teammate, Logano has maintained impressive consistency over the summer with 11 Top-10 finishes in his last 13 races. He’s also been a front-runner at Richmond in recent years. Since 2013, Logano has posted six top-10 finishes in seven RIR starts, including a win in the 2014 spring race.
Jamie McMurray
Sitting on the Chase bubble, McMurray got some help when Ryan Newman lost 15 points this week for failing post-race inspection at Darlington. In his last six Richmond races, McMurray has posted three top-5 finishes and has finished no worse than 16th. Provided someone currently outside the Chase doesn’t score a surprise win, another run in that top 10-15 range likely pushes McMurray over the top.
Kasey Kahne
Kahne has only had two top-5 finishes this year, but one of them came at Richmond in April with a foutth-place finish. This weekend is a must-win for Kahne, who sits 44 points behind the cutoff. But as he proved at Atlanta two years ago, he’s capable of saving his season with a late victory.
Ty Dillon posted the fastest lap in Friday’s lone Xfinity practice session at Richmond International Raceway with a lap of 122.144 mph.
The top seven on the speed chart are full-time Xfinity Series drivers.
Dillon was followed by Daniel Suarez (121.212 mph), Blake Koch (121.190), JJ Yeley (120.984), Ryan Reed (120.805), Brandon Jones (120.741) and Jeremy Clements (120.719). Brad Keselowski, who was eighth, was the first full-time Cup driver on the speed chart at 120.697 mph.
Jeb Burton had the best 10 consecutive lap average at 118.043 mph. He was followed by Justin Marks (117.805 mph) and Erik Jones (117.107).
Austin Theriault had the only significant contact with the wall, hitting it with less than 20 minutes left in the 1-hour, 55-minute session.
Xfinity qualifying is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. ET with the race set to take the green flag at 7:44 p.m. ET. Both can be seen on NBCSN.
Kyle Busch posted the fastest lap in Friday morning’s Sprint Cup practice at Richmond International Raceway with a lap of 120.979 mph.Toyota took four of the top five spots, including the first three.Southern 500 winner Martin Truex Jr. (120.649 mph) was second, followed by Denny Hamlin (120.552), Kasey Kahne (120.439) and Matt Kenseth (120.208). Kahne’s Chevrolet was the only non-Toyota in the top five.Toyota also went 1-2-3 with the best 10 consecutive lap average. Busch led the way with an average of 119.781 mph. He was followed by Truex (119.458) and Carl Edwards (118.840).
