Last week Kyle Busch won at Bristol to win his second race in a row after starting in the pole position and will now try to win the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway to become the second driver this season to win three straight races.
Kevin Harvick was the first driver to do so this year when he won at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix between February 24 and March 11.
Busch, however, won’t be able to start this week from the pole as Martin Truex Jr. will do so after he beat Chase Elliot by 0.42 seconds in the final round of qualifying to claim that right and earn his third pole of the year. Those are good news for a good driver that has failed to finish the last two races and hopes to contend until the very end this week.
Truex is far from a safe bet as he’s better at the 1.5-mile racetracks, where most of his best performances of this year have taken place.
Contrary to previous years Richmond in 2018 will be a night race and that will likely favor more side-by-side racing so expect a lot of overtaking opportunities.
The ninth week of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series takes place at the three-quarter mile D-shaped track where Joey Logano won last year.
The race favorite is not surprisingly Kyle Busch as he has not only won back-to-back races at Texas and Bristol but finished 3rd or better in the last six races. Furthermore, he’s a four-time winner of this race along with three second-place finishes and 11 top-five finishes.
Kevin Harvick, who won this race in 2013, is also a driver to take into consideration as this season he not only has the three wins previously mentioned but five top-five finishes this season. On top of that, Harvick usually has good performances at Richmond as he has three top-five finishes in this race and five top-five finishes in his last seven races at this track.
Denny Hamlin also will be worth keeping an eye on as he has won the fall race at Richmond three times and finished in third place in this race last year.
Ryua Blaney, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski Chase Elliot and Joey Logano may not take the checkered flag, but they are solid sleeper picks for this week’s race.
