Five things to watch in Friday's Xfinity race at Richmond
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action Friday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, which will be the second of four with the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus on the line.
Race action
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Here are five things to watch in the ToyotaCare 250 (7 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1):
- Four drivers – Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Elliott Sadler and Spencer Gallagher – are eligible to win a $100,000 bonus from Xfinity’s Dash4Cash program in Friday night’s race. Whichever of the four drivers finishes highest in the race will win the bonus. In addition, the top four finishers in the race who have declared for Xfinity Series drivers points will be eligible for the next bonus next weekend at Talladega, Ala. Ryan Preece won the award last weekend at Bristol but is not entered in this weekend’s race. Hemric (3.5) has the best average finish of the four qualifiers at Richmond.
- Jeb Burton, the son of NASCAR veteran Ward Burton, will be making his series season debut on Friday night, driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 3 Chevrolet with crew chief Nick Harrison atop the pit box. Burton hasn’t made a series start since last August at Bristol. He has one top-five and three top-10 finishes in 22 series starts. He has two series starts at Richmond and finished 19th in both.
- Through the first seven races of the season there have been seven different winners, which has all eyes on Richmond to see if the streak can stay alive. If an eighth different winner happens this weekend, the 2018 season will tie the 1998 and 2006 seasons for the third-longest different winner streak to start the season. The record for the highest number of different winners to start a season is 13 back in 1988.
- Camping World Truck Series driver Noah Gragson will be the sixth different driver to make his Xfinity Series debut this season. Gragson is driving Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota this weekend, his first of three series races with JGR. Gragson is the fifth different driver in the No. 18 this season, joining Kyle Busch, Kyle Benjamin, Preece and Daniel Suarez. The No. 18 is second in the series’ car owner standings.
- Sadler has led the series standings for all but two weeks of this season but Hemric is closing fast and sits six points behind entering this weekend’s race at Richmond. Sadler has made 29 series starts at Richmond, with five top-five and 14 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 13.5. In Sadler’s last four starts his average finish at Richmond has been a 4.75. Hemric made his series debut at Richmond last season and in two series starts has a pole, two top-fives and an average finish of 3.5.
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