07/26/2023
RFK Advance | Richmond II
Richmond II Event Info:
Track Info: Richmond Raceway, ¾-mile D-shape
Date: Sunday, July 30
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Format: 400 laps, 300 miles, Stages: 70-160-170
TV: USA
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 12:35 p.m. ET, Practice (USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 1:20 p.m. ET, Qualifying (USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3 p.m. ET, Race (USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Pace Laps:
- Richmond hosts its second race date of 2023 this weekend as the Cup Series continues the push to the 2023 NASCAR Playoffs.
- Jack Roush has 15 wins all-time at Richmond including five in the NCS.
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: BuildSubmarines.com
- Having finished in the top five at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the BuildSubmarines.com car’s debut, the #CarWithAMission is set for its second race. In part, it represents approximately 1,000 Virginia suppliers within the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base. Hundreds of jobs and training opportunities are available in the commonwealth, including at more than 20 trade and technical schools in the Hampton Roads area. NASCAR fans are invited to be a part of the team that creates Navy submarines.
- Joining BuildSubmarines.com on the car this weekend will be Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding. Its 20,000-plus employees design, build and refuel nuclear submarines among other critical work for the U.S. Navy.
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Fastenal
Keselowski at Richmond
Starts: 27
Wins: 2 (2014, 2020)
Top-10s: 13
Poles: 2 (2014, 2019)
- Keselowski, a two-time winner at Richmond, makes his 28th 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 10th there this spring after starting 24th, and 15th last fall. He’s finished inside the top-15 in every race since the spring of 2015, and in that stretch has led laps in 10 different races. In total he’s led 1178 laps at Richmond in 13 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 12.3 average finish holds as one of his best among all tracks with 13 top-10s overall and six finishes inside the top five.
- He also has two poles – 2014 and 2019 – for an average starting position of 11th, 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: 14
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 15th start at Richmond on Sunday where he has a 24.1 average finish. But, he’s coming off a career performance in this race 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 two of the last three races.
- Buescher started seventh this spring, tying his best effort at Richmond to date – having also qualified seventh there back in the 2019 spring race.
- 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 364 starts at Richmond Raceway, earning a total of 15 wins, 90 top-five and 152 top-10 finishes. RFK Fords have sat on the pole 14 times and led 4,961 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 223 NCS races at Richmond with 75 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 2,443 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
Pocono: Cautions dominated Sunday’s action at Pocono with 11 total for 44 laps. Keselowski finished 16th, while Buescher earned stage one points and went on to finish 18th.
Points Standings (6: 12th, 17: 13th): Both RFK cars still sit in the playoff picture with now five races remaining in the regular season. Buescher carries an 84-point advantage on the next-closest car without a win (the No. 23), while Keselowski is just ahead with an 11-point advantage to Buescher.
By the Numbers at Richmond
Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
223 5 38 75 7 86568 2443 17.5 16.8 64926
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
364 15 90 152 14 119234 4961 15.3 14.9 89425.6
