Richmond Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Alex Bowman
Richmond Fantasy Spin – Alex Bowman is a former winner at Richmond who should be solid, but can he put a race together? Bowman literally hasn’t finished in the top ten since Richmond this spring and currently has seven straight results of 14th or worse, so he’s certainly not safe. That said, Bowman has been pretty solid at shorter-flat tracks this year. In 2023 on this track type, Bowman has the 11th best Total Speed Ranking and a 12.5 average running position. In terms of results minus Gateway where he had engine problems right at the end while running in 13th, Bowman has a 10.3 average finish. On Sunday, I’m going to view Bowman as a low double-digit to mid-teens driver.
Richmond Track History – Alex Bowman has been a strong performer at Richmond. Bowman raced his way to victory lane in spring 2021 and since 2020, Bowman has a 9.7 average finish and an 11.5 average running position. This spring when the #48 was running well, Bowman finished 7th in Stage #1, 7th in Stage #2, had a 5.5 average running position, had the 8th best Total Speed Ranking and then finished 8th when the checkered flag waved. Last summer, Bowman started 5th, finished 8th in Stage #1, but then his afternoon just kind of went south after that. When the checkered flag waved, Bowman finished 20th, had a 19.1 average running position and had the 22nd best Total Speed Ranking. Last spring, Bowman started way back in 28th, but that wasn’t a problem and he finished 8th when the race reached its conclusion. In the race, Bowman ranked as the 3rd Fastest Driver Late In A Run and his Total Speed Ranking was tied for being the 10th best. In the three races prior to that, Bowman had results of 12th, 1st and 9th.

Ty Gibbs
Richmond Fantasy Spin – Ty Gibbs will be a great mid-tier option at Richmond. The #54 was strong this spring en route to a top ten, and I think he has a good chance to duplicate that performance if he can have an incident free race and avoid trouble, which has dashed many promising performances this year.
Richmond Track History –This spring at Richmond, Ty Gibbs had a hot rod and finished 9th. Additionally, Gibbs finished 10th in Stage #2, had the 11th best Total Speed Ranking, the 11th best Green Flag Speed and had a 13th place average running position. Last summer at Richmond in his Cup track debut, Ty Gibbs didn’t run well and finished last (36th). “Performance Wise”, Gibbs was about 20th place good but on lap 184, his race was over due to engine problems. On lap 182 just prior to his demise in the #45, Gibbs was running in 20th. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Gibbs ranked 18th.

Bubba Wallace
Richmond Fantasy Spin – At Richmond, don’t overlook Bubba Wallace, despite his track record being quite bad. This spring, Wallace ran well but had a misleading result, and overall at shorter-flat tracks in 2023 his Total Speed Ranking ranks 13th over the combined events. New Hampshire is a similar track, and Wallace just finished 8th there a few weeks ago. On Sunday, I’m going to view Wallace as a low double-digit to mid-teens driver who might flirt with a top ten.
Richmond Track History – This spring at Richmond, Bubba Wallace finished 22nd but you can get out an asterisk mark. During green flag pit stops in the lap 290’s while running in 11th, Wallace got a safety violation pit penalty which dropped him off the lead lap back to 19th. For much of the race leading up to that, Wallace consistently ran around the low double-digits to mid-teens. Additionally, Wallace had the 13th best Total Speed Ranking and a 17.2 average running position, despite his penalty which impacted him for the last quarter of the race. Last summer, Wallace finished 13th, had a 15.6 average running position and had the 15th best Total Speed Ranking. In spring 2022 before the #23 team started to run well, Wallace finished 26th, had a 24.4 average running position and had the 24th best Total Speed Ranking. I’ll note, Wallace did have to make an unexpected pit stop on lap 326 for a loose wheel during a round of green flag pit stops, but he was only running around the low 20’s before that so I can’t say it impacted him too much.

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