The NASCAR Cup Series is back in action after a two-week break.
Four races remain in the regular season. The playoffs begin Sept. 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Here’s a look at where things stand for each Cup organization heading into Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA).
23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick has three top-three finishes in the last four races. … Reddick has a series-best 15 top 10s this season. … Bubba Wallace has gained 44 points on the playoff cutline in the last three races and enters this weekend seven points out of a playoff spot. Bad news: Wallace has never finished better than 12th in 12 previous Cup starts at Richmond … Reddick’s best finish in eight career Cup starts at Richmond is 10th. He scored that result in March.
Juan Pablo Montoya set to make first NASCAR Cup start since 2014
Juan Pablo Montoya will drive the No. 50 car for 23XI Racing in September at Watkins Glen International.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Todd Gilliland has finished 17th or better in 11 of the last 13 races. Bad News: Michael McDowell has four top-20 finishes in 26 career starts at Richmond
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: The organization has had two cars finish in the top five in three of the last five races at Richmond, including the spring when Kyle Larson was third and Chase Elliott was fifth. … Larson leads the series with four victories after his Brickyard 400 win. … Larson has won the pole for the last three short track races. The last driver to win four consecutive poles at short tracks was Geoff Bodine in 1985 and ’86 when he won five in a row. … Elliott has four top-five finishes in his last seven starts at Richmond. … Alex Bowman has scored points in five of the last six stages. … William Byron and Bowman are tied with Christopher Bell for second in top 10s this season at 12. Bad news: Byron has not led a lap since the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend. His eight-race streak of not leading a lap is his longest since 2019. Byron has led in only two of his 12 career Cup starts at Richmond.
NASCAR Cup stat leaders at Olympic break
A look at the series leaders ahead of Cup’s return to racing Aug. 11 at Richmond on USA Network.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: The organization has had at least one car finish in the top two in 11 of the last 12 Richmond races. … Denny Hamlin won at Richmond in March in the most recent Cup race there. … Hamlin has finished either first or second in five of the last seven races at Richmond. … Hamlin has led a series-high 772 laps this season. … Christopher Bell has a series-high nine stage wins this season. … Bell has six top 10s in eight career Cup starts at Richmond. … Martin Truex Jr. is one of two drivers without a DNF this year (Chase Elliott is the other). … Ty Gibbs has started in the top 10 in nine of the last 11 races, including two poles. Bad news: The organization has not won in the last four races, it’s longest winless streak of the season. … Truex is winless in the last 38 races.
Christopher Bell to be without crew chief Adam Stevens for next few weeks
Adam Stevens suffered a double knee injury during the Olympic break.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has finished 11th or better in four of the last six races. Bad news: Stenhouse has not finished better than 17th in his last eight Richmond starts.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Ty Dillon will drive the No. 16 this weekend and be a teammate to Daniel Hemric. Bad news: The organization has had five DNFs in the last three races.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: John Hunter Nemechek led 16 laps at Indy before he was eliminated in an accident and finished 29th. … Nemechek qualified 10th at Indy, tying his season-best starting spot. He started 10th in the Daytona 500. Bad news: Erik Jones has only one top-10 finish in 14 starts at Richmond.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Kyle Busch has completed all but one lap in 37 career Cup starts at Richmond. He’s run 14,835 of 14,836 laps there. … Austin Dillon finished 13th at Indy for his best result in the last seven races. Bad news: Kyle Busch has finished 25th or worse in seven of the last 10 races. … Busch has twice as many finishes of 20th or worse (12) than he does top-10 finishes (six) this year.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Riley Herbst will drive the No. 15 this weekend and be a teammate to Justin Haley. … Haley has seven top-20 finishes in the last 11 races. Bad news: The organization has never finished better than 26th at Richmond.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher, who seeks his first victory of the season, is the defending winner of each of the next three races: Richmond, Michigan and Daytona. … Buescher has gone 53 races in a row without a pit road speeding penalty, the longest active streak in Cup. … Teammate Brad Keselowski is tied with William Byron for second on that list. They’ve gone 46 consecutive races without a pit road speeding penalty. Bad news: Buescher has finished 20th or worse in two of the last three races. … Keselowski has finished 20th or worse in three of the last five races.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Spire had all three of its cars finish in the top 20 two weeks ago at Indianapolis. Carson Hocevar was 12th, Corey LaJoie 14th and Zane Smith 17th. Bad news: LaJoie has finished outside the top 25 at Richmond in five of the last six races there.
Michael McDowell’s crew chief will follow him to Spire Motorsports in 2025
Travis Peterson will join Michael McDowell on the No. 71 car next year at Spire Motorsports.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Josh Berry has an average finish of 11.4 in five career Cup short track races. In his other 29 Cup starts across all other types of tracks, he has an average finish of 23.5. … Noah Gragson has two top 10s in the last four races. Bad news: Chase Briscoe has placed outside the top 20 in three of the last four races. … Ryan Preece has finished outside the top 25 in the last three races.
Team Penske — Good news: Joey Logano has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Richmond, including a runner-up result in March. That is the longest top-10 streak at that track among active drivers. … Logano ranks behind only Kyle Larson (170 points) and Chase Elliott (158) in points scored on short tracks this year. Logano has scored 150 points. … Teammate Ryan Blaney ranks sixth this season in points scored on short tracks with 133. … Blaney has six top 10s in the last seven races, including two wins. … Austin Cindric’s seventh-place finish at Indy was his first top 10 since his win in June at World Wide Technology Raceway. Bad news: Blaney has three top-10 finishes in 16 career starts at Richmond.
NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings of Cup teams at Olympic break
Here is how Cup teams rank after 22 of 36 races this season.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Daniel Suarez finished eighth at Indianapolis. He has scored two of his four top 10s this season in the last six races. Bad news: Ross Chastain holds the final playoff spot but has seen his advantage dwindle. Four races ago, he was 93 points above the cutline. He’s seven points above the cutline entering this weekend.
Friday 5: Olympic gold medalist helps mold NASCAR drivers
Dan Jansen, who won a gold medal in 1994 in speedskating, is a part of Chevrolet’s training program for NASCAR drivers.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton’s 16th-place starting spot in the Brickyard 400 was his best qualifying effort in the last 12 races. Bad news: Burton has been eliminated by an accident in three of the last five races.
Source Agencies
