The NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond on Saturday night was almost exactly what I figured we would see. We had 11 cautions for 75 laps. Of those 11, six came in the last 110 laps, which, quite honestly, is normally the case of what happens there. We got close, but we never got to the point in a long run where we had to have green-flag pit stops.
The race at Richmond International Raceway also, to a certain degree, was a case of featuring a lot of comers and goers. In the early going it, absolutely looked like everyone was simply racing for second as Matt Kenseth dominated. He ended up leading 140 laps. Then Clint Bowyer got out front and he ran well, leading 113 laps.
Following that as we got deeper into the evening and the track cooled down, those cars started fading and we saw somewhat a changing of the guard. The two drivers who were pretty much up front all night long and desperately needed a win were Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch. Montoya led 67 laps and seemed to have the race in the bag until that last caution came out and created a green-white-checkered situation for the finish.
Richmond is a great place to race. Unless something structurally happens that would force them to, I just hope the officials don’t repave that place. The track had a lot of speed in it. For the fifth time in 2013 we set a new track record with this Generation-6 car.
The thing I loved was that as the runs got longer, there was give-up in the tires and the cars started sliding around. When you saw drivers stopping after only six or 10 laps when another caution would come out to get new tires, you just knew having fresh tires was going to be huge.
Then when we saw that last caution come out and 30-plus of the lead drivers came to pit road, fully knowing there was probably going to be a two-lap shootout, boy, did we know something big was brewing. We sure weren’t disappointed, either.
I’m a gambler. I was that way as a crew chief, but when I saw Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger stay out while everyone else pitted, I just knew the biggest problem those three were going to have was simply trying to get out of the way of everyone else with those fresh tires. In all fairness, Burton did hold on to a fifth-place finish. That was, by the way, his first top-five finish of 2013.
McMurray, however, restarted either second or third by staying out but in only two laps on those old tires, he finished 26th. The third one to stay out, Allmendinger, finished the night in 14th.
It was great to see Kevin Harvick get his first win of the season in his last year at Richard Childress Racing. Mike Joy, myself and Darrell Waltrip sat down with Harvick a couple of weeks ago just to get a feel of where things are with him, and he made it crystal clear that folks better not look at his crew as a lame-duck team. He said it is “business as usual.” He said that’s the way the team is going to be to the very end. I think that speaks volumes for Kevin and Richard’s character.
Harvick’s win also jumped the No. 29 team two spots in the points. It is now in ninth place, 72 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
Now we are headed this weekend to what we always tell you is a wild-card race. It simply goes by the name of Talladega Superspeedway.
If you thought the finish of that race on Saturday at Richmond was crazy, well, buckle up, because you haven’t seen anything yet.
