Richmond Raceway gets its turn Saturday night — the only shot the D-shaped, 3/4-mile short track has — at delivering its special brand of excitement in the Cook Out 400 (7 p.m., USA Network).
If the NASCAR Cup Series group is lucky — the 300-mile race, the season’s 24th — will be a return to form from the Virginia capital track’s glory days of two or three decades ago.
As the sport was blowing up in the 1990s and early 2000s — with Dale Earnhardt storming to four championships in five seasons, the arrival of Jeff Gordon and his four titles, Jimmie Johnson’s five straight crowns, and newcomers like Tony Stewart and the “Young Guns” — the Richmond track was on fire.
Among all of the events on the schedule not called the Daytona 500, Richmond and Bristol — sister bullrings separated by five-plus hours and one state line — were the hardest tickets to purchase a quarter-century ago.
Richmond had a giant sellout streak stretching 33 races, and fans created massive lines both arriving at and trying to get out of the jam-packed Virginia venue. Countless fans were stuck on the waiting list for tickets.
Despite NASCAR dialing Richmond back to one race starting last season, it still has an important slot: the third dash in a stretch of four short-track races that began at North Wilkesboro on July 19.
In Austin Dillon’s 2024 Richmond win, he used his Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet to wage war through Turns 3 and 4 coming to the checkers, spinning leader Joey Logano and right-rear-hooking Denny Hamlin — a move that led to NASCAR prohibiting Childress’ grandson from competing for a title.
However, his 2025 triumph was a blaze of glory that vaulted him into the playoffs as he zipped away from Alex Bowman by nearly 2 1/2 seconds, becoming the first driver to repeat at Richmond since Hamlin in 2009-10.
While Toyotas finished 1-2 at Iowa last Sunday, the manufacturer also occupied the final two spots in the 36-car field — 35th-place Erik Jones and last-place finisher Tyler Reddick, with each one falling two standings spots.
No top-tier driver is less hot than Reddick right now.
Six months ago, the No. 45 23XI Racing driver was the one keeping the Richmond and Bristol ticket offices busy as he won the season’s first three races and established himself as the man to beat.
Now, he’s playing catch-up in the standings, riding in fourth place as one of five Camry drivers in the top six.
Only Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford has wedged in as an interloper in third place.
On the fourth lap at Iowa, Reddick drove too hard into Turn 1 and had the car get out from under him, bringing Erik Jones along for the ride in a hard crash.
Reddick acknowledged it was driver error.
“Unacceptable, really,” said Reddick, who lost the lead in the standings to his owner Hamlin at Sonoma and now also trails Iowa winner Ty Gibbs and Blaney. “It’s one thing to wreck myself, but taking out a Toyota teammate is not what I’m supposed to do. … We got a lot of stuff to figure out.”
Reddick is running out of chances to turn things around but has a chance to do so under the lights on Saturday at a track known for excitement.
