Richmond up next as NASCAR returns from its Olympic break for final 4 races of regular season

Firmly on the playoff bubble, Chris Buescher can take solace in the fact that this upcoming part of the schedule was so good to him last year.

Not that he’s taking anything for granted.

“Three of the next four races we’re heading into we were able to win last year,” Buescher said. “That’s a pretty awesome statistic as we look at it, but last year’s results don’t equal this year’s. We’ve been very good at a lot of different styles of racetracks. We’ve been very close to locking ourselves in.”

NASCAR returns from its Olympic break this weekend, and Sunday night’s Cup race at Richmond begins a four-race pre-playoff sprint. Twelve drivers have already won races this year, but Buescher isn’t one of them. He ranks 12th overall in the points standings and third among winless drivers.

In other words, squarely on the playoff borderline.

Last year, Buescher was also winless entering the second race at Richmond, but he prevailed in that one, then won again the following week at Michigan. He added a third victory in under a month at Daytona in late August.

“We had been inching towards that kind of success and finally just fired on all eight when we got to Richmond,” Buescher said. “I think that was a big confidence booster for our team as we headed into the next few. We were able to go to Michigan and do the same things, pull off a little bit of strategy there, but also just execute at the highest level, and then Daytona was very much just a team win for us.”

This year’s final stretch before the playoffs includes Richmond, Michigan, Daytona and Darlington. Those venues range in size from the short track (0.75 miles) at Richmond to 2 1/2-mile Daytona. Denny Hamlin won at Richmond for the fifth time earlier this year. Kyle Busch is the active leader at the track with six victories, but he hasn’t won there since 2018.

Scenarios

Seven drivers have already clinched a spot in the 16-driver postseason: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Christopher Bell.

Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez and Austin Cindric have all won this season, and they would all clinch spots in the playoffs unless a first-time winner prevails at Richmond.

On the bubble, the top winless racers in the standings are Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Buescher and Ross Chastain. On the other side of the current cut line are Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Busch and Todd Gilliland.

Choices

This is the first time in a points-paying Cup race that teams will have multiple tire options. Teams will get sets of Goodyear “Prime” tires and sets of “Option” tires. The former has harder rubber with more longevity but potentially less grip. The latter may provide more short-term grip and speed.

The four tires must match at all times, and teams will only have two sets of Option tires.

“I just call them reds and yellows. I can’t keep up,” Bruescher said. “We do get the longer practice on Saturday to learn, and I promise we’ll be taking lots of notes to figure out what we think is going to happen in the race, but again, it’s going to be an afternoon, early evening practice in the daylight and we’re going to be running this race into the night, so it’s not going to be the best read on what we’re actually going to see in the race.”

Last time out

Hamlin’s victory in March at Richmond — his home track — came in overtime over Truex, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Hamlin is trying to become the first driver to sweep both Cup races at Richmond since Truex in 2019.

In the final race before the Olympic break, Larson won the Brickyard 400. He leads the standings and is the only driver with four wins this season.

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