NASCAR race at Richmond: How to watch Cup race, penalties galore, story lines, more

Drivers are ready for another “first” of the 2023 season.

A week after running its first road-course race of the year, the NASCAR Cup Series will host its first points race at a short track at Richmond Raceway on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. You can watch the race on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) or listen to it on MRN or Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Here are five story lines to get you up to speed ahead of Sunday’s race.

▪ More on Richmond being the Cup Series’ short-track debut. There has been a lot to say about the Next Gen car’s new short-track package. NASCAR has given the car 30% less downforce, which is supposed to make passing more frequent and the racing just generally more fun. (That same aerodynamics rule package made the non-overtime laps at COTA quite compelling last week.) Drivers got a chance to test out the short-track package in Phoenix earlier this month, and three Cup drivers got the chance to make laps around North Wilkesboro Speedway last week. Driver feedback was largely positive at both venues. It’s worth noting, too, that Richmond’s summer race in 2022 was a good one: Kevin Harvick notched his second-straight win — prevailing through 16 lead changes and nine different leaders.

▪ Denny Hamlin gets a chance to repeat success at Richmond. The driver of the No. 11 Cup car is the only Virginia native in the Cup Series, and he has had recent success at Richmond before. He won the spring race in 2022 thanks to a late pass and a fun finish. The result marked his fourth win at his hometown track. Can he add a fifth on Sunday? The lines opened with William Byron as the favorite at 11-2 odds, followed by Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick at 6-1, then Christopher Bell at 15-2 and then Hamlin at 8-1. A win for Hamlin would be the first for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2023.

Hamlin told reporters Saturday that Richmond Raceway tends to be a good racetrack for teams to take stock of where they’re at in comparison to the rest of the field. The driver added: “This race usually plays out pretty naturally. There’s not a whole lot of chaos at the end of them that jumbles up the finishing positions. It does get strung-out, so you start to see who has great handling, aero, motor — all that stuff. Between here and once we get to another mile-and-a-half, we’re going to really identify where we stand.”

▪ Hendrick Motorsports drivers back on top of the points standings. The National Motorsports Appeals panel ruled on Wednesday that any driver- and owner-points-penalties that NASCAR assigned to Hendrick Motorsports cars should be restored. (The fines and crew chief suspensions were upheld, though.) This ruling greatly helped the three Hendrick drivers who were affected by the original points deduction, which came after NASCAR found that they illegally modified their car’s hood louvers. Those drivers: Alex Bowman (who now sits as the series points leader), William Byron (who sits third) and Kyle Larson (who sits ninth).

▪ Daniel Suárez moving past Circuit of the Americas. The driver of the No. 99 Cup car was fined $50,000 by NASCAR on Wednesday for intentionally bumping Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman on pit road after the conclusion of COTA’s wreck-riddled finish. Suárez sits 17th in points now after his 27th-place finish last weekend.

▪ Parity is looming large in the NASCAR Cup Series again. We’re entering the seventh points race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, and so far we’ve seen five different drivers from five different race organizations claim victories. And the driver who has led the most laps hasn’t even been one of those winners. That distinction goes to Kyle Larson, who has led 270 laps (or 20.22% of all laps run this season). That parity — which began in 2022 with the debut of the Next Gen car — likely won’t cease on Sunday.

Eight of the 53 NASCAR Cup Series winners at Richmond Raceway are active this weekend. Kyle Busch leads the group with six wins. Then it’s Harvick and Hamlin with four, Martin Truex Jr. with two, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano with two, and then Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson with one apiece.

How to watch NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond

• Race: Toyota Owners 400
• Place: Richmond Raceway
• Date: Sunday, April 2
• Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
• Purse: $7,529,485
• TV: FS1, 2 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 300 miles (400 laps around 0.75-mile track)
• Stages: Stage 1 (Lap 70), Stage 2 (Lap 230), Final Stage (Lap 400)

Starting lineup for Toyota Owners 400

The starting lineup was set by the rule book after inclement weather canceled Cup qualifying on Saturday.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription