Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin will have the pit stall closest to pit exit for tonight’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Jimmie Johnson will have the first pit stall near pit entrance.
Drivers with either an opening before or after their stall are Hamlin, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, and Johnson.
The numbers in the boxes represent the car number. The number below the box represents the pit stall.
RICHMOND, Va. -- With one ferociously fast pit stop, Kyle Busch erased a lackluster qualifying effort and cruised to victory in Friday night’s Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway.
A master at getting on and off pit road in minimal time, Busch entered the pits in fourth place under the first caution of the race after a tap from J.J. Yeley sent Justin Marks spinning into the frontstretch grass on Lap 48.
Busch was first off pit road -- decisively -- and at that point it was game over, thanks for playing, and Busch was well on the way to his sixth NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at Richmond, his eighth in 14 starts this season and the 84th of his career, extending his own gargantuan series record.
"I never would have guessed that," Busch exulted on the team radio before he started his celebratory burnout. "Great pit stop! Awesome!"
Before the second caution flew on Lap 164 of 250, Busch had a lead of 7.312 seconds and had lapped up to eighth place in the running order before a cycle of green-flag stops began.
Busch finished 6.453 seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and runner-up Erik Jones, who ran the same setup Busch had in his No. 18 Toyota. The victory marked a decisive return to form for the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, who had crashed out of his two previous XFINITY races.
"I just doubted our car today," said Busch, who led 197 laps and scored a perfect driver rating of 150.0. "It just wasn’t right. We just kind of missed it all through practice. It wasn’t good there, and then we qualified, and it was just a handful in qualifying. We didn’t qualify very well -- seventh. That’s not very well for my expectations.
"We worked on it there at the start of the race. We were really out of control and loose, and I got to fourth, I thought that was kind where we were going to be. But my guys had an awesome pit stop, got me out front, and (crew chief) Chris Gayle made some really smart adjustments to it that first time on pit road.
"After that, it was lights out. It was on a rail from there."
Jones could only admire the skill of his more experienced teammate -- when he was close enough to see Busch ahead of him, that is.
"Not much to say," said Jones, whose two laps led during a cycle of green-flag pit stops constituted the only interruption to Busch’s charge to the finish. "He had the same setup as us. He’s just that good. It’s unfortunate. We’ve run second to him a number of times this year.
"I wish all those were wins, but we’ve been getting stronger every time."
Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by XFINITY regulars Elliott Sadler, the series leader, and Justin Allgaier. Ty Dillon, polesitter Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.
Ryan Reed, the last driver to finish on the lead lap, clinched a spot in the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase with an 11th-place run, leaving two berths still open heading to the Sept. 17 cutoff race at Chicagoland Speedway.
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.
