2017 NASCAR Week 9: Richmond

Toyota Owners 400

Richmond International Raceway

By Richard Tix

This week we are heading right into the normal weekly contend of Good, Middle, Bad. It's been a busy stretch and next week I am off to Mexico for a full weeks vacation so in order to get it all in some things will be short and sweet,

On top of that Dale Earnhardt Junior broke his retirement news which has taken some of my free time to soak that all in. So, let's move along with the rest of the weekly content below.

**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**

The Good

• Kyle Busch- Rowdy hasn't won here since 2012, but he still has the most wins at RIR of current drivers (four). He does have three straight top tens which include two runner up finishes.
• Denny Hamlin- DH won here last fall and also has three straight top ten finishes at RIR, the other two being a pair of 6th place finishes.
• Kevin Harvick- Harvick has four top fives in his last five starts here at RIR. He has three wins, 20 top tens, and an average finish of 10.5 in 32 career starts here.

The Middle

• Kyle Larson- 16th, 11th, 12th, 12th, 15th, and 2nd almost say it all for his "middle" spot this week. I'd expect him to be closer to that 2nd spot then the 16th this weekend.

The Bad

• Ryan Blaney- Really small sample size (two races), but those two races resulted in a 28th and 39th place finish.
• Paul Menard- 20 career starts and only one top ten (a top five) says it all for Paul.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr- Ricky has one top ten in eight career RIR starts. What's bad is that that tenth place finish is also his only top 15 as well.

About the Track: Richmond

Track Stats

• Richard Petty once won 7 RIR races in a row, 9 of 10, and 12 of 17. All were from 1967 to 1975
• In 2013 Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards won from the 17th and 26th positions. Joey Logano won in 2014 (Spring) from the 17th position as well. 
• In 2009 and 2010 Kyle Busch won both early season races and Denny Hamlin won both late season. Kyle also won the early season RIR race in 2011 and 2012 making it 5 straight Toyota wins and 6 in 7 (actually 7 of 8 because Bowyer won late in 2012).
• Richard Petty has the most career RIR wins with 13.
• Of current drivers Kyle Busch has the most total wins with 4.
• Richard Petty also has the most career top 5's (34), top 10's (41), and Poles (tied with Bobby Allison with 8).
• Toyota has won three straight

Track Info

• Surface - Asphalt
• Length - 0.75 miles
• Banking
• Turns: 14 degrees
• Frontstretch: 8 degrees
• Backstretch: 2 degrees