03/28/2023
RFK Advance | Richmond I
Richmond Event Info:
Track Info: Richmond Raceway, 3/4-mile D-shaped
Date: Sunday, April 2
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Format: 400 laps, 300 miles, Stages: 70-160-170
TV: FS1
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 10:05 a.m. ET, Practice (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 10:50 a.m. ET, Qualifying (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3:30 p.m. ET, Race (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: Solomon Plumbing
- April is designated as Month of the Military Child (MOMC), a time to celebrate the resiliency and strength of children within military families. Brad Keselowski and CFF will recognize MOMC by featuring the name of military children in purple letters – the official color of MOMC – above the passenger side door on the No. 6 Ford.
- Names will appear on the name rail for each of the April races – Richmond, Bristol, Martinsville, Talladega and Dover. Part of CFF’s mission is to honor military members and their families who all make sacrifices.
- This week’s featured name is Finn Kilbourne.
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Castrol Edge
Pace Laps:
- The Cup Series heads to Richmond for its first of two dates in 2023, a track where Jack Roush has 15 wins all-time with five in the Cup Series.
- Brad Keselowski has 14-straight top-15s at Richmond, while Chris Buescher is coming off his career-best performance of third last fall.
Keselowski at Richmond
Starts: 26
Wins: 2 (2014, 2020)
Top-10s: 12
Poles: 2
- Keselowski, a two-time winner at Richmond, makes his 27th Cup start at the ¾-mile track on Sunday. He won the lone race at Richmond in 2020 after leading 192 laps.
- More recently, Keselowski finished 15th last fall and 13th last spring. He’s finished inside the top-15 in every race since the spring of 2015, and in that stretch has led laps in nine different races. In total he’s led 1177 laps at Richmond in 12 different races, his most of any track on the circuit.
- Keselowski won back in 2014 after starting on the pole, leading 383 of the 400 laps.
- His 12.4 average finish holds as one of his best among all tracks with 12 top-10s overall and six finishes inside the top five.
- He also has two poles – 2014 and 2019 – for an average starting position of 10.5, also one of his best marks.
- Keselowski made 17 Xfinity Series starts from 2006-17 earning four victories and 10 top-10s. He won his last NXS start there in 2017 and also went to victory lane in 2010 once and 2013 twice.
Buescher at Richmond
Starts: 13
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 14th start at Richmond on Sunday where he has a 23.6 average finish. But, he’s coming off a career performance there last fall where he finished third, by far his career best at Richmond.
- Last spring he ran 15th as his two best career results at the track have come in the last two races.
- Buescher’s best qualifying effort came back in the 2019 spring race when he lined up seventh. Last season he started 18th in both races.
- Buescher made five NXS starts for Jack Roush from 2011-15, earning three top-10s with a best finish of seventh (2014).
RFK Historically at Richmond
Cup Wins: 5 (Mark Martin, 1990; Jeff Burton, 1998; Matt Kenseth, 2002; Kurt Busch, 2005; Carl Edwards, 2013)
- History in the Commonwealth of Virginia: Overall, RFK has 362 starts at Richmond Raceway, earning a total of 15 wins, 90 top-five and 151 top-10 finishes. RFK Fords have sat on the pole 14 times and led 4,960 laps across NASCAR’s three major touring series.
- To Xfinity and Beyond.: RFK has earned nine victories, 43 top-five finishes, 66 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 11.8 at Richmond in the Xfinity Series. All in all, three different drivers are responsible for the nine victories at the Virginia short track (Edwards, Mark Martin and Jeff Burton).
- Nine and Counting: RFK’s nine victories at Richmond rank fourth among all tracks the organization has competed on in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, trailing Darlington Raceway (15), Charlotte Motor Speedway (12) and North Carolina Speedway – formerly known as Rockingham – (11).
- Tale of the Tape: RFK has started 221 NCS races at Richmond with 74 top-10 and 38 top-five finishes along with seven poles. Former drivers Mark Martin (1990), Jeff Burton (1998), Matt Kenseth (2002), Kurt Busch (2005), and Carl Edwards (2013) are responsible for RFK’s five Cup wins, and a Jack Roush Cup Series Ford has led 2,442 laps at the .75-mile track.
RFK Richmond Wins
1990-1 Martin Cup
1993-1 Martin NXS
1993-2 Martin NXS
1997-1 Martin NXS
1998-1 Burton NXS
1998-2 Burton Cup
1999-1 Martin NXS
1999 Biffle Truck
2000-2 Burton NXS
2002-2 Kenseth Cup
2005-1 Edwards NXS
2005-2 Busch Cup
2008-2 Edwards NXS
2009-2 Edwards NXS
2013-2 Edwards Cup
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
COTA: Chris Buescher powered through the field to finish eighth, his sixth-straight top-10 in road course racing, driving from the 32nd starting position. Brad Keselowski was en route to a solid result before a mechanical failure ended his day prematurely.
Points Standings (6: 9th, 17: 13th): Despite the negative ending, Keselowski still maintains his top-10 standing while Buescher sits just four points out of the top-10.
By the Numbers at Richmond
Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
221 5 38 74 7 85770 2442 17.5 16.8 64327.5
121 9 43 66 5 28923 2341 12.1 11.8 21692.3
20 1 9 11 2 3743 177 11.7 11.1 2807.3
362 15 90 151 14 118436 4960 15.2 14.9 88827.1
