Richmond has drivers feeling bit uncertain

RICHMOND, Va. — With six races in the books for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, William Byron already has a pair of victories, while Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson has one.

Neither came to Richmond Raceway brimming with confidence about Sunday night’s race on the 0.75-mile D-shaped oval.

“It’s just one of those places we go to that we just don’t have an idea of how it’s going to go,” Byron said Saturday. “We’ve had some good races here, but we’ve never showed up here knowing that we can run, you know, easy top 10 or compete for a win.

“I feel like this is one of those places where we’re still trying to build that solid notebook, but I feel really good going into this race because we had a great test a couple of weeks ago. We’ve done some different things with our preparation, so I feel good. But until we get on track, we really don’t know, and it’s probably one of the few places that is like that for us.”

Larson agreed, despite winning at Richmond for the second time a year ago: “It’s a tough place for me, so I don’t ever really come here with the highest of expectations more so just because of me. Talking to my team and stuff — we won the spring race, but we were really bad in the fall race.”

He said that before winning the pole position for Sunday with a lap of 120.332 mph during qualifying. Chase Elliott, another Hendrick driver, will join him on the front row after his time was just 0.002 second slower. The qualifying run also gave Larson the best pit location.

“It helps the confidence for sure,” the 2021 Cup Series champion said. “So, yeah, I mean, practice went well, qualifying went good.”