Drivers to watch for in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway

NASCAR heads to Richmond Raceway this weekend for the first points race at a short track this season.

The Next Gen car has yet to be utilized on a track quite like Richmond, but that’s because no track on the schedule offers a straight-up comparison to what will be displayed Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox).

What we do know is that drivers who tend to run well on short tracks continue to excel at the ¾-mile oval. That’s not expected to change this weekend.

Martin Truex Jr.

Truex has been exceptional at Richmond since 2016, dating back to his days with Furniture Row Racing. Since the fall race of 2016, Truex has led 1,157 laps and boasts a streak of six straight top fives. The 2017 series champion has scored points in 17 of the 18 stages run at Richmond and notoriously finds his way to the front of the field.

Truex has been fairly quiet throughout the season’s first six races, notching three top 10s (seventh at COTA, eighth at Las Vegas and Atlanta), two finishes of 13th (Daytona, Auto Club) and a crash at Phoenix that left him 35th. He was, however, hot on the heels of teammate Kyle Busch for a potential Las Vegas win before a late caution and subsequent pit strategy jolted the results.

If ever there was a track where Truex could make a statement, Richmond would likely be it. The next step is waiting to see whether his prior successes can translate to the Next Gen car.

Kyle Busch

Joe Gibbs Racing is highly touted in this week’s edition for good reason: the organization has won eight of the last 12 races at Richmond and finished 1-2-3 in two of the last five.

Busch, of course, is a significant contributor to that stat line, collecting six career wins at Richmond, the most recent in September 2018. While it’s been some time