{"id":16614,"date":"2018-04-21T17:47:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16614"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:47:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T22:47:24","slug":"nascar-saturday-richmond-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/21\/nascar-saturday-richmond-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Richmond Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Chase Elliott tries for two important milestones at Richmond<\/b><\/p>\n

RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 With a season-best qualifying effort on Friday at Richmond Raceway<\/strong>, Chase Elliott<\/strong> is in ideal position to make personal history\u2014not to mention achieving a major milestone for the Hendrick Motorsports<\/strong> organization that fields his No. 9 Chevrolets.<\/p>\n

Elliott put his car on the outside of the front row for Saturday night\u2019s Toyota Owners 400 (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the .75-mile short track, a race that will mark Elliott\u2019s 86th start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a>. Seven of those starts have ended in runner-up finishes, but Elliott is still searching for his first victory at NASCAR\u2019s top level.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Also at stake is a 250th victory for Hendrick Motorsports, which has been to Victory Lane in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 249 times with 16 different drivers. Elliott would like nothing better than to contribute to that total.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s incredible,\u201d Elliott said of Hendrick\u2019s long run of success. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge achievement. I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve helped them a whole lot to get there, but it\u2019s been awesome to be a part of that company and to have watched it over the years; and to have watched them from the couch (winning) races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to get number one for me, obviously, but the score of 250 will be pretty spectacular. For them to have 249 wins, if you could ever just get one to be amongst the people who have won there, I think would be pretty cool in itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to just keep trucking forward like we have been. We\u2019ve been struggling at some of these places and just trying to scratch and go on and get what we can and get back to the ways that I think that our teams deserves to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

AUSTIN CINDRIC ENJOYS CAREER-BEST NASCAR XFINITY SERIES FINISH<\/b><\/p>\n

All but lost in the late-race battle between race winner Christopher Bell and runner-up Noah Gragson was a career-best fifth-place finish by Austin Cindric<\/strong> in his first competition at Richmond Raceway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Austin Cindric, driver of the #60 Pirtek Ford. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

It was also an eye-opener for the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, who started from the rear because of an unapproved pre-race adjustment to the car and drove through the field to fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was more work than I thought I was going to have to do (Friday night),\u201d Cindric said after the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series event. \u201cWe were definitely a top-three car. We just needed a Cup race worth of distance to get there. Track position was pretty important. We had a great long-run car all night and definitely a car that was able to contend for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really, really happy with the guys. They\u2019ve been patient with me, and coming to this track, never having seen it before, I\u2019m happy with the run. This is my best finish so far in the Xfinity Series and we\u2019ll just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final 100 laps was something of struggle for the 19-year-old driver, after two 75-lap stages were already in the books.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy right ankle is sore just from cramping it up so hard trying not to burn it off those last 90 laps because, for me, I didn\u2019t know what I was in for,\u201d Cindric said. \u201cI had those other 75-lap runs to base off of, but you add another 25 on that and it\u2019s a chore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty happy with how it ended. Obviously, we wish we could have gotten a top-four or top-three there, but we\u2019ll keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

DANIEL HEMRIC FEELS READY FOR GIANT STEP IN RACING CAREER<\/b><\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing driver Daniel Hemric<\/strong> has 49 starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and 41 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series\u2014all without a victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Daniel Hemric, driver of the #21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet. (Photo by Jerry Markland\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But that hasn\u2019t stopped the 27-year-old from Kannapolis, N.C., from approaching his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut with confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m as ready as I\u2019m going to get,\u201d said Hemric, who drove his No. 8 Chevrolet to a respectable 22nd starting position. \u201cTwenty-two years in the making to get to this point. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to know that not only did I get to qualify for my Cup debut, but I get to go race (on Saturday).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pumped to know that I get to be here and do this. We\u2019ve got a great group of guys. It\u2019s tough when you pull a group that do not go to the race track every week and put them together and say \u2018Hey, go race against these guys.\u2019 Because these (Cup drivers) are the best in the world to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunate and blessed to be here, and I look forward to what lies ahead\u2014but just trying to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Chase Elliott tries for two important milestones at Richmond RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 With a season-best qualifying effort on Friday at Richmond Raceway, Chase Elliott is in ideal position to make personal history\u2014not to mention achieving a major milestone for the Hendrick Motorsports organization that fields his No. 9 Chevrolets. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,486,418],"class_list":["post-16614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-richmond-raceway","tag-toyota-owners-400"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MENCS-ISM-Elliott-031118.jpg?fit=3822%2C2548&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4jY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16618,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions\/16618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}