Truex heads to Richmond, looks to race his way into Cup playoffs
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick certainly earned one of the most dramatic victories of the season last weekend at Michigan International Speedway.
The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s win, his first in the last 65 races, catapulted him from 17th place in the standings into playoff contention with only three races remaining to set the 16-driver field.
The clutch performance certainly increases the drama expected for the rest of the month. The schedule features races at the Richmond Raceway short track, the Watkins Glen International road course and the regular-season finale at the always unpredictable Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway has typically lived up to its “Action Track” nickname, and with the current playoff intensity, the moniker is certainly welldeserved.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, a two-race winner already in 2022, won the spring Richmond race. And his teammate, Martin Truex Jr., is the defending winner of this summer/fall event — a good sign for the driver of the No. 19 JGR Toyota who dropped to 17th place in the standings with Harvick’s win last week.
He trails Ryan Blaney by 19 points for that 16th and last automatic playoff transfer position.
Truex is one of seven multiple winners at Richmond, sweeping the 2019 season races and last hoisting a trophy in this race last year. He’s had top-10 finishes in three of the last four races leading into Richmond, tying a season-best fourthplace finish after leading 172 laps at New Hampshire four weeks ago.
The three top-five finishes and 10 top-10 finishes through the first 23 races is well off the Truex pace the sport has come to expect, however. He’s had at least 20 top-10 marks in the five previous seasons.
Even if Truex doesn’t win the race, a good finish could possibly move him ahead of Blaney’s tenuous 19-point advantage only intensifying the dramatic run to playoff eligibility.
Seven of the nine the active Richmond winners have already secured playoff positions with a win this season. Those drivers are Kyle Busch, who has a seriesbest six victories, Hamlin (4), Harvick (3), Truex (3), Brad Keselowski (2), Joey Logano (2), Kurt Busch (2), Alex Bowman (1) and reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson (1).
Truex and Keselowski are the two still searching for their first victory of 2022.