A short track Saturday night marks the next test toward the NASCAR Cup Series championship as the series moves to one of the sport’s most popular venues, Richmond (Va.) Raceway for the Cook Out 400 (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Only three races remain to formalize the 16-driver Chase field that will contend for the 2026 season title and there’s plenty of action both atop the standings and at the cutoff line to decide which drivers will have a shot at hoisting the big trophy.
One of Richmond Raceway’s best, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin extended his championship lead last week with a top-five effort at Iowa Speedway, but the Iowa winner, his teammate, 23-year-old Ty Gibbs has moved into second place in the standings – tying the highest NASCAR Cup Series championship position in his young career. Both of them – and the Joe Gibbs Racing team overall – are particularly good on short tracks, such as the .75-mile Richmond oval.
It’s a particularly sentimental winning ground for Hamlin, who was raised in Virginia. The popular 45-year-old driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota is a five-time Richmond winner and boasts the best average finish (8.25) among active drivers, the sixth best all-time. Only three drivers – NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Allison – have led more than Hamlin’s 2,367 career total laps at Richmond.
Gibbs, driver of the No. 54 JGR Toyota and grandson of team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, has won two of the four short track races this year (also Bristol, Tenn.) and finished in the top-five in all four. His average finish at short tracks in 2026 is a series best 2.5. And significantly, Gibbs has earned more points in the last six races than any other driver.
Furthermore, the championship JGR organization is the most successful team at the track with 19 wins, celebrating in Victory Lane with six different drivers. Richmond along with Pocono (also 19 wins) is site of the team’s best work.
Hamlin, Gibbs, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick are the only drivers to have clinched berths in The Chase leaving 12 positions to be solidified in these next three races – at Richmond, the New Hampshire mile and the Daytona International Speedway’s famous 2.5-mile high banks.
Fifth place in the championship standings, JGR’s Chase Briscoe, and 10th place, Hendrick Motorsports driver and reigning series champion Kyle Larson are separated by only 34 points. Larson has finished 33rd or worse in four of the last five races.
JGR’s Christopher Bell, who earned his seventh runner-up finish last weekend, moved up four positions in the standings to sixth, while Hendrick’s Chase Elliott fell four positions and is now seventh. Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, a Talladega winner in the Spring, also tumbled in the points and fell three positions to eighth place following Iowa.
Penske’s Austin Cindric holds the 16th and final spot in the Chase rankings, but is only 29 points up on 17th place, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Ryan Preece and 47 points ahead of 18th place, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who has made a real move forward in recent weeks.
Ranked 27th in the standings, the two-time defending Richmond race winner, Austin Dillon is not among those closely vying for a Chase bid, but he possesses all kinds of motivation – competitively and emotionally – heading into the weekend.
The driver of the iconic No. 3 Richard Childress Chevrolet, Dillon stands a shot to become the first driver since NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison (1982-83) to win three straight races at the track.
Although he is 144 points out of the top-16 that will advance to The Chase, Dillon is a multi-time winner at both Richmond and also at the site of the regular season finale in two weeks, Daytona International Speedway.
“Last year was the most dominant we have been, but we need to make it better, the other teams will come out swinging,” Dillon said of the Richmond weekend. “They will have seen the data of what we’ve been doing, so you need to put it all together and hope it works out.
Considering the tragic circumstances the RCR team has endured this season – driver Kyle Busch’s unexpected death from sepsis in May – a victory for this organization would be among the most dramatic and applauded in the sport’s history. Richmond is a place the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Busch was among the best all-time and represents great opportunity for Dillon to make history of his own.
“We want to go get a win with the No. 3,” Dillon said, “If we could do that it would be great for Chevrolet and RCR. We have fought through a lot of adversity this year losing Kyle [Busch]. Making solid runs is what we’re focused on and making sure we’re set up for a good following year, trying to learn as much as we can. We want to win. We want to get to Victory Lane and points follow that.”
Of note at Richmond: the driver that leads the most laps has not won in the last nine races here. … Every car was running at the end of two of the last four races. …Three of the last four races had a caution flag fly in the final 10 laps. …Three of the last four races featured a pass for the win in the last 10 laps.
Practice for the Cook Out 400 is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. ET Friday, followed immediately by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 3:30 p.m. ET – both sessions will be on truTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Preece is the defending polesitter. Hamlin is the last driver to win from pole at Richmond when he hoisted the trophy in 2016, 17 races ago.
— NASCAR News Wire —