Parks Pit Report: Toyota Owners 400

The one thing I never want to have when I watch any kind of racing is to have a boring day, or night should it be.  Under average circumstances, one wouldn’t honestly think a race at Richmond could be boring.

Think about that for a second, a track that is just 3/4ths of a mile in length, but has extremely high speed and there is limited time to rest on every lap.

But, full disclosure, that is what Saturday night’s race at Richmond was…boring.

A race that is 400 laps in length you’d expect to see action through the entire race.  Sure there were excellent battles for position through the field, but there were no wrecks or incidents through the entire first half of the race.  NASCAR ran 200 laps at Richmond, with tight corners and limited passing opportunities, with no incidents.

It wasn’t until less than 50 to go when things began happening due to the fact the restarts packed everyone together and made for some intense battles, and made at least the latter part of the event exciting.

It felt almost like a race at Daytona or Talladega because for the most part of the race it was low action, and it wasn’t until the late going when the action intensified.  Ironically the next race on the schedule is Talladega, and I’m even thinking the race next week in just one stage will have more action than most of what Richmond had on Saturday night.  That’s hard to do, especially since Richmond is always a popular track among fans and drivers.  It’s a track I have been to on two occasions, including on my birthday, and it was always a fun track to be at because of its uniqueness and intensity.

Saturday night was just bland, and I never see that from this track.

Never thought I’d say this, but I hope the next race is more exciting than what I saw on Saturday night.

STAGE 1:  Joey Logano

STAGE 2:  Joey Logano

RESULTS:  1-Kyle Busch  2-Elliott  3-Hamlin  4-Logano  5-Harvick  6-Johnson  7-Larson  8-Keselowski  9-Bowyer  10-Suarez

NOTABLE FINISHES:  12-Byron  14-Truex Jr.  15-Dillon

CAUTIONS:  6 for 46 lap.  Laps 102-111 (Stage 1 Conclusion); 202-212 (Stage 2 Conclusion); 355-361 (#12, 17, 72 Incident-T4); 369-378 (Fluid On The Track); 391-394 (#38 Inicident-T3); 397-400 (Debris-T3).

LEAD CHANGES:  16 among 7 drivers.  M. Truex Jr. 1-38; J. Logano 39-111; Kurt Busch 112-169; C. Bowyer 170-192; J. Logano 193-211; Kurt Busch 212-251; C. Bowyer 252-272; Kyle Busch 273; D. Hamlin 274-276; M. Truex Jr. 277-323; K. Harvick 324-331; C. Bowyer 332; D. Hamlin 333-335; M. Truex Jr. 336-370; Kyle
Busch 371-390; M. Truex Jr. 391; Kyle Busch 392-402.

TIME OF RACE:  3 Hrs, 8 Mins, 1 Sec.

AVERAGE SPEED:  96.215 MPH

MARGIN OF VICTORY:  0.511 Seconds

POINT STANDINGS (Earned/Behind Leader [Playoff Points]):  1. Kyle Busch, 415 [17]; 2. Logano, -56 [2]; 3. Bowyer, -86 [5]; 4. Harvick, -91 [12]; 5. Keselowski, -112 [3]; 6. Hamlin, -129 [1]; 7. Truex Jr, -131 [7]; 8. Blaney, -133 [2]; 9. Kurt Busch, -133 [2]; 10. Larson, -136; 14. Dillon, -207 [5]/