NASCAR Toyota Owners 400 preview in 3 minutes

Everything you need to know about Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, in three minutes:

Three things to watch

1. Tony Stewart makes his return after missing the season’s first eight races because of a broken back he suffered in a dune buggy accident. Stewart, who has three career victories at Richmond, starts 18th.

2. Will there ever be more attention paid to how crews reattach tires during pit stops? Lug nuts have been in the news all week.

3. Sunday’s race will be the first time since 1997 that Richmond’s spring event has been run in the day. The September race will continue to be under the lights.

Worth mentioning

▪  Who wins Sunday is probably anyone’s guess. Eight different drivers – Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch – have won the past eight races at Richmond.

▪  Chase Elliott goes for his sixth top-five finish of the season. His five top-fives already are the most for a rookie since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2002.

▪  Patrick Carpentier, who had 40 Cup starts from 2007-2011, will drive Go Fas Racing’s No. 32 Ford at Sonoma and Indianapolis later this season.

Best bets

Three picks for your fantasy team:

Kevin Harvick: On pole because of fast practice on Friday (qualifying was rained out). But he also had fourth-fastest practice speed Saturday (120.374 mph), so pencil him as a favorite.

Jimmie Johnson: Has been fast in practice, too, and has won three times at Richmond.

Kyle Busch: Has an average finish of 7.1 in Richmond’s spring race, better than anybody since 2005.

He said it

“It doesn’t matter to me one way or another what it is, but it is a change for sure.” -- Denny Hamlin, on the switch to day racing at Richmond.

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 12:46 PM with the headline "NASCAR Toyota Owners 400 preview in 3 minutes."