08/08/2024

RFK Advance | Richmond II

Richmond Event Info:
Date: Sunday, August 11
Time: 6 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Format: 400 Laps, 300 Miles, Stages: 70-150-170
TV: USA
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)

Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 4:30 p.m. ET, Practice (NBC Sports App, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 5:35 p.m. ET, Qualifying (NBC Sports App, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 6 p.m. ET, Race (USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Pace Laps:

• Chris Buescher heads into Richmond this weekend as the defending race winner.
• In the last six races (dating back to Iowa) Buescher has the fourth-best average finish of any driver – 13.5 – with two top five finishes int hat span.
• Coming out of the two week break for the Olympics, RFK heads into the next month’s stretch as the defending winner at four-consecutive tracks, with Michigan, Daytona and Darlington on the slate to close out the regular season.

6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: BuildSubmarines.com

17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Fastenal

Keselowski at Richmond
Starts: 29
Wins: 2 (2014, 2020)
Top-10s: 15
Poles: 2 (2014, 2019)

• Keselowski, a two-time winner at Richmond, makes his 30^th 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 eighth in the spring race – one of three-straight top-10s – and is coming off a fall event last season where he led 102 laps and finished sixth.
• He’s finished inside the top-15 in every Richmond race since the spring of 2015, and in that stretch has led laps in 11 different races. In total he’s led 1280 laps at Richmond in 14 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 12.0 average finish holds as one of his best among all tracks with 15 top-10s overall and six finishes inside the top five.
• He also has two poles – 2014 and 2019 – for an average starting position of 11^th, 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: 16
Wins: 1 (2023)
Top-10s: 3
Poles: —

• Buescher is the defending winner of this race at Richmond, having led 88 laps en route to his first of three victories last season, and the first of three in a stretch of five weeks.
• This spring he finished ninth after qualifying 14^th.
• Despite a 21.7 average finish at the track, Buescher has two top-3 finishes in the last four Richmond races. He finished third in the 2022 fall event, one of his four top-15 efforts in the last five outings at the ¾-mile track.
• Buescher has a 20.0 average qualifying effort with a best effort of seventh (twice) last spring and in 2019.
• 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: 6 (Mark Martin, 1990; Jeff Burton, 1998; Matt Kenseth, 2002; Kurt Busch, 2005; Carl Edwards, 2013; Chris Buescher, 2023)

• History in the Commonwealth of Virginia: Overall, RFK has 368 starts at Richmond Raceway, earning a total of 16 wins, 91 top-five and 156 top-10 finishes. RFK Fords have sat on the pole 14 times and led 5,151 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 227 NCS races at Richmond with 79 top-10 and 39 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, with Buescher adding his name to that list in 2023, and a Jack Roush Cup Series Ford has led 2,633 laps at the .75-mile track.

Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Indy: Keselowski led with less than five to go in Indy two weeks ago, but ran out of fuel and went on to finish 21^st. Buescher overcame two blown tires and finished 22^nd.

Points Standings (6: 9^th, 17: 12^th): Keselowski is officially locked into the playoffs, still ninth, while Buescher continues his battle for a playoff position.

By the Numbers at Richmond

Race     Win       T5          T10        Pole      Laps              Led        AvSt      AvFn     Miles

227        6            39          79          7            88182              2633     17.5      16.6      66136.5

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

368        16          91          156        14��             120848 5151     15.2      14.7      90636.1