Keselowski earns pole at Richmond
Bell claims win in first Xfinity playoff race
Brad Keselowski won the pole for NASCAR Cup Series race Saturday night at Richmond Raceway in Virginia.
Keselowski earned his second career pole at Richmond and the 17th of his career with a lap at 127.185 mph. It will be his 16th top-10 start in 28 races this year, and he’ll be looking to match his performance in 2014 when he won here from the pole position.
“The car drove very, very well,” Keselowski said, adding that he didn’t participate in the two daytime practice sessions because the conditions were going to be so different with the sun not quite so high in the sky. “We’ve had exceptional short-run speed here the last few times, again this weekend, but then the races seem to be playing out with long runs.
“If we can just hold on with the shortrun speed we have on the long runs, we’ll be in good shape for this weekend.”
Kevin Harvick finished second at 126.559 mph, followed by Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer.
“It’s really just about protecting yourself at this point and starting in the front of the field sets you up good to score some points in stage one and get a good pit stall selection,” Harvick said. “It gets everything going and it’s really survive and advance.”
Local favorite Denny Hamlin, who grew up about 20 miles away, will start sixth and championship leader Martin Truex Jr. eighth.
Elliott was pleased with his effort, but cautiously so.
“We qualified second here a couple of years ago and ran really bad in the race, so I tend to not get excited over qualifying efforts at this place,” he said. “If the car drives good and we don’t mess up and I don’t mess up and have good pit stops, we’ll have a shot at it.”
Elliott actually started second in April 2018 at Richmond, but also finished second.
All four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in the playoffs will start in the top 16.
Kyle Busch, a six-time winner here, will start fourth and three-time Richmond winner Hamlin will start sixth. Truex, who won on a short track for the first time at Richmond in April 2019, will start eighth and Erik Jones will start 16th, mirroring his spot in the championship.
Besides Hamlin, Harvick and Jimmie Johnson have also won three times at Richmond and Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer have each won twice. There will be 38 drivers in the field, but only 11 have won on the track.
Difficulty passing has been a hot topic in the series this year, but Keselowski said long green-flag runs could remedy that.
“If you get long runs it becomes an easy track to pass at because the mechanical grip is pretty low and you really have to drive the cars and the aero grip kind of evens out because everybody is in traffic,” he said.
Xfinity
Christopher Bell passed pole-sitter Austin Cindric for the lead after 85 laps and won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Friday night at Richmond Raceway.
Bell, the championship leader coming into the first race of the playoffs, won both stages and led 238 of the 250 laps for his seventh victory of the season. It was his 15th career win in 68 starts.
“Going 92 laps straight there is really difficult, man,” Bell said. “We were sliding all around. I just knew or I felt like if I could get to traffic I was going to be in good shape because the car could really move around good. I could run up, I could run down.”
Cindric rallied to finish second, followed by Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier and Chase Briscoe.
Bell started the night having already won 15 race stages, more than twice as many as any other driver, and went from the fourth starting spot to the lead after just six laps. He led the rest of the 75-lap first stage, lost the lead to Brandon Jones and then Cindric for a total of six laps and then went back in front for the rest of the race on the 85th circuit.
“It was pretty good on the short and long run,” Bell said of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “[Custer] could close a little bit on us in the middle part of the run, but I tried to keep hitting my marks, keep my rear tires underneath me and keep hitting that yellow line.”