Richmond Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is at Richmond Raceway this weekend for some good old Saturday night racing with the Toyota Owners 400. Richmond is one of those tracks that we visit twice per year, and we’ll be back in the fall during the Playoffs. Similarity-wise, Phoenix is the closest to Richmond, and if you remember back to that race in March, it was Kyle Busch that went to victory lane (surprising, huh?). Rowdy also swept both Cup Series races at Richmond last season.

Kevin Harvick is on the pole for Saturday night’s race with That Jones Boy starting alongside him. The full starting lineup  for this year’s Toyota Owners 400 can be found by clicking here. You can find the practice speeds for Friday’s only practice session (Happy Hour was cancelled) here: Practice #1. You should also read our in-depth notes for that session here: Practice #1.

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Final Top 25 Fantasy NASCAR Rankings for Richmond

1. Kyle Busch – Starts 4th – DraftKings Price: $13,000 – FanDuel Price: $15,300 – Slingshot Price: $13,800

Sorry to break it to you, but unless this #18 team has some kind of major issue on Saturday night, Kyle Busch is going to be in victory lane for the fourth time in 2019 this weekend. Rowdy is a six-time winner at this race track, and is also the defending winner of this particular race (even after starting back in 32nd). He’s also the defending winner of the fall race here at Richmond. Oh and Phoenix, the track that is the most similar to Richmond? He’s won the last two races there and finished 2nd in the previous one. Finally, looking at New Hampshire–another short, flat track–Kyle Busch has finished 2nd and 1st in the last two races there. This weekend, Busch starts 5th, and if he was starting on the pole we’d be talking about him leading every single lap. The #18 Toyota was at least a half mph faster than all but two drivers on the 10-lap average chart in Happy Hour.

2. Kevin Harvick – Starts 1st – DraftKings Price: $12,300 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $12,300

This could be the guy that keeps Kyle Busch from really dominating this race on Saturday night. The two tracks are pretty different, but it’s hard to ignore the speed that this #4 Ford had at Bristol last weekend. If there were a couple more late cautions, Harvick could have easily ended up in victory lane–he was that fast even with that early penalty. And history has shown us that when “Happy” is good in qualifying, he’s really good in the race. As far as Richmond goes, Harvick is a three-time winner here but hasn’t been to victory lane since 2011. Still, he has five top 5 finishes in the last six races here, including a 2nd-place finish last fall after starting from the pole. Practice-wise, Harvick was the only driver somewhat close to Kyle Busch in 10-lap average, coming in 2nd on that chart. My only big concern about Harvick this week is how disappointing he was at Phoenix earlier this year, but then again he won at Loudon last season, which is another short, flat track somewhat similar to Richmond, so that kind of evens out.

3. Martin Truex, Jr. – Starts 5th – DraftKings Price: $9,800 – FanDuel Price: $12,700 – Slingshot Price: $11,900

Martin Truex, Jr. doesn’t have the flat-out best speed here this weekend, but he’s going to have a good race on Saturday night. For the record, Truex ranked 14th in ten-lap average on Friday, but you have to take that with a grain of salt because it was ran in the middle of the day and we’ll be racing at night–where Truex really succeeds. He also has that blue Auto Owners paint scheme this weekend, and we all know how Truex performs with them on the hood. As far as track history, Martin has led 121 or more laps in four of the last five Richmond races, but it’s rare for him to not have a problem here; he has just two top 5 finishes over that span. The main reason you really have to like the #19 Toyota this weekend is how it ran at Phoenix earlier this year: Truex could’ve won with a late race caution there back in March. This team is still searching for their first win of 2019, and honestly, it could come this weekend.