By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

High Stakes at Richmond: Cup Series Playoff spots and regular season title on the line

RICHMOND, Va. – There is both recent precedent and high motivation when it comes to the chances of a new winner claiming a Playoff position with only two races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season to settle the 16-driver championship field.

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Rewards Toyota, and Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 DEWALT Carpentry Solutions Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on August 11, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Logan Whitton/Getty Images)

Just last August, Harrison Burton delivered in the clutch winning at Daytona with two races left to set the Playoff field and Chase Briscoe answered with a walk-off victory the next week in the regular season finale at Darlington.

So much is on the line for Saturday night’s Cook Out 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the three-quarter mile Richmond oval, nicknamed the “action track.”

Five drivers still without a victory in 2025 have won previously at Richmond, including Richard Childress Racing teammates Kyle Busch (six wins) and Austin Dillon (one win), Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates Brad Keselowski (two wins) and Chris Buescher (one win) and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman (one win).

There have been 13 race winners this season to claim the majority of the automatic Playoff bids. Three drivers – 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Bowman and Buescher – round out the top-16 based on points with Buescher in 16th, holding a 34-point edge on his RFK teammate Ryan Preece.

“Richmond’s always a place I enjoy racing,” said Bowman, who is 15th in the Playoff standings taking a 60-point cushion to the good into Richmond.

“It’s such a unique short track because you have to balance speed with saving your tires over a long run. We’ve had some strong runs there before, and with the Playoff picture so tight right now, every point matters.”

Not only is there high drama in determining who claims the final Playoff positions, but the Regular Season Championship – which includes a 15-point Playoff bonus – is also coming down to the wire yet again.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, a back-to-back Daytona 500 winner, has a 42-point edge on his teammate Chase Elliott coming to Richmond. Neither driver, however, has ever won in the series at Richmond.

This season marks only the second-time in six decades the sport is making just a single visit to the popular Richmond track, which has traditionally served up drama. So, the stakes are high this weekend.

Five of the last eight races at Richmond ended with a pass for the win in the final 10 laps including the last three.

Dillon, the most recent driver to claim a last lap pass for the win – last summer – and his teammate Busch are in must-win situations to earn a Playoff berth.

Richmond is definitely part of Busch’s career highlight reel. His six wins include a visit to Victory Lane in four consecutive seasons (2009-2012). In 38 starts at the track, Busch has completed all but one lap for a total of 14,243 laps. He is the winningest active short track driver in the series with 16 career victories, but is ranked only 17th best on the short tracks driving the current Next Gen car.

Interesting to note, the driver who led the most laps has won all three short track races this season. However, in the last eight Richmond races, the driver who led the most laps has failed to win.

The last three Richmond races have been won by three different manufacturers.

Practice followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying starts at 4:30 p.m. ET – both sessions available on truTV, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Denny Hamlin started on pole last year and finished second.

Richmond heats up under the lights for the NASCAR Trucks Series regular season finale

After 17 races featuring 10 different winners – including seven championship contenders it all comes down to Friday night’s eero 250 at Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to formally set the 10-driver NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff field.

Corey Heim and Layne Riggs have each won two of the last four races and come into Richmond riding solid momentum. Heim, the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra has turned in a season for the ages, winning a series best six races – triple that of any other fulltime competitor – and carries a 178-point advantage over Riggs in the standings, having already clinched the regular season championship weeks ago.

Riggs and his Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith are the only other multiple-race winners, each collecting a pair of trophies and challenging for that runner-up position to Heim in the standings.

Former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric, McAnally Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum, Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth and Halmar Friesen Racing’s owner-driver Stewart Friesen are the other drivers with wins this season, although Friesen will not be competing for the driver’s championship after sustaining major injuries in a Modified crash two weeks ago.

That leaves four positions to be decided by the points standings and currently veteran Grant Enfinger, former series champ Ty Majeski, Kaden Honeycutt and Jake Garcia are above the cutoff line. Two-time series champion Ben Rhodes is only 11 points back from Garcia and rookie Giovani Ruggiero is only 21 points behind.

Majeski is the defending race winner. Smith (2022) and Enfinger (2020) also have previous wins at the Richmond three-quarter miler. Smith has a pair of NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at Richmond too.

Practice followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying is set for 2:05 p.m. ET on Friday – available on FS2. Christian Eckes, who now races fulltime in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the defending pole-winner. The outside polesitter (Majeski and Smith) has won two of the last three races.