Roger Diez: NASCAR at Richmond for 70th year

The NASCAR Cup race at Circuit of the Americas last Sunday had everything. Chaotic restarts, epic side-by-side racing, three overtimes, hard feelings, and a popular win by an up-and-coming road course ace.

In the late going Tyler Reddick was able to outdrive his rivals through all the overtime restarts, essentially having to win the race three times. Earlier, he and William Byron put on an epic demonstration of intense but clean racing, going side by side in places that should have been impossible.

COTA’s turn one proved itself to be calamity corner in one restart after another as cars funneled down from five or six wide to single file for the esses. Daniel Suarez, angry at Alex Bowman for a turn one wreck that cost him a shot at the win, chased Bowman down and hit his car in the pit lane after the race. However Bowman had been knocked into Suarez by Daniel’s teammate Ross Chastain, and the two Trackhouse drivers subsequently had heated words. NASCAR, taking a dim view of the pit road contact, fined Suarez $50,000.

It was Reddick’s first win for 23XI Racing, cementing his credentials as a road racer on top of his two road course wins for Richard Childress Racing last season.

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This weekend it’s a transition from a 3.4-mile road course to the half-mile Richmond oval. The race marks 70 years of Richmond’s affiliation with NASCAR, when Lee Petty won on April 19, 1953, in a Dodge. Eight active drivers have posted Richmond wins. Kyle Busch leads the pack with six while Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin have four Richmond victories apiece. Martin Truex has three, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano two apiece, and Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson each have one win. Harvick is the most recent Richmond winner, taking the checker last August, and Martin Truex Jr. has won three of the last seven Richmond outings.

Saturday’s TV schedule on FS1 includes Xfinity series qualifying at 5:35 a.m., Cup qualifying at 7:50 a.m., and the Xfinity series ToyotaCare 250 at 10 a.m., all from Richmond. The SpeedyCash.com 250 for Craftsman Trucks at Texas Motor Speedway airs at 2:30 p.m. The Toyota Owners 400 airs at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, also on FS1.

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It's a busy race weekend with Formula 1 and the NTT IndyCar series back in action at Australia and Texas Motor Speedway, respectively. Due to the time difference and the International Date Line, F1 qualifying took place Friday night. The race is Saturday at 10 p.m. on ESPN.

So far, this season has been a Red Bull benefit and there’s little reason to believe that Australia will be any different. About the only thing that can stop them is reliability issues. But Aston Martin has emerged as the most serious threat to Red Bull dominance with Fernando Alonso scoring podiums in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

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Josef Newgarden is the defending NTT IndyCar champion at Texas Motor Speedway with Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon winners in 2021 and 2020. Dixon leads all active drivers with five Texas wins while Helio Castroneves has three. Newgarden and Will Power have two each and one-time Texas winners are O’Ward, Graham Rahal, and Ed Carpenter.

Peacock airs qualifying Saturday at 9:15 a.m. and NBC and Peacock will simulcast Sunday’s race beginning at 9 a.m.

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In other racing news, an appeals panel has overturned portions of the penalties levied on all four Hendrick Motorsports teams for non-approved hood louvers at Phoenix. The points deductions have been rescinded but the fines and crew chief suspensions stand. NASCAR expressed disappointment that the panel did not uphold the totality of the penalties.