Richmond Early Week Preview
- RoundersKyle
- Aug 3, 2024
- 2 min read
NASCAR comes back from the 2 week break for the Olympics and heads to the short flat oval at Richmond. This week we have the Cup and Truck Series in action and the Xfinity Series gets an extra week off. Richmond is a high tire wear track and we saw that in the Cup race earlier this year at Richmond.
We are likely to see some different strategies throughout the race, with some drivers staying out on old tires on green flag runs to have better tires later in a stage or to hope for a caution. This will spread fast laps throughout the field more than a standard race. Drivers trying to get track position or trying to throw a hail mary to get into the playoff could implement this strategy.
Cup Series
Denny Hamlin won the Richmond race in the Spring and I expect him to be a top option again this week. He also has the best average running position of anyone over the last 5 Richmond races. Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson were two of the best cars in the spring as they each led over 100 laps and Truex led a race high 228 laps. I would expect all 3 of these drivers to be good this week and are the favorites coming into the weekend.
There are some other drivers that I expect to be good values this week. Josh Berry was great here in the spring as he had an average running position of 8th after starting 30th in the race. He finished 11th in the Spring this year and finished 2nd in the Spring last year. He will likely be priced in the mid range for DFS and should be a good value. Bubba Wallace is another good option as he had an average running position of 6th in the Spring and finished 13th. He should be priced in the 8k range or less and has top 10 potential for this weekend.
Truck Series
For the Truck race, the drivers that were fast at the last race at IRP should be fast again this week. Ty Majeski and Christian Eckes are both going to be good and should be top contenders for the race. They both have the best two average running positions at all the short flat ovals since the start of 2023 including their race at Richmond last season.
Layne Riggs is a good mid range option this week as he finished top 5 at both his short flat oval starts at IRP in 2023 and 2024. That should translate to Richmond and he should run top 10 with potential for more.
Bets
Nothing jumps out to me at the moment on betting odds with the lines being offered right now. Only thing I would consider is if you wanted to get an early line on Josh Berry or take the early favorite odds on Hamlin or Truex.
See the driver track data for Richmond this week: