Racing Under The Lights At Richmond This Weekend

NASCAR heads to the ¾ mile Richmond International Speedway for racing under the lights this weekend.  Last year Kyle Busch tied Richard Petty with his third straight win at the Richmond spring race and on Saturday night he'll be shooting to join Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip as the only drivers to win the same Sprint Cup race four straight years.

Busch dominated last year’s race, leading 235 of the 400 laps, and easily held off teammate Denny Hamlin.  A different story for Busch this year.  He’s off to a slow start with just four top-10 finishes in eight starts and ranks 13th on the points list.  

Petty was a six-time winner of this race and had 13 victories at Richmond, the most of any driver.  

Tony Stewart has had amazing success at Richmond.  Since 1999, Stewart has three Sprint Cup wins including two back to back, four seconds and 17 top-10 finishes in 26 races.  

Richmond International Raceway is one of the oldest tracks in Nascar and has been hosting Cup races since 1953. Formerly a half-mile oval, it was renovated into one of the most modern speedways on the tour.

Earlier this week some drivers were at the newly repaved Pocono Speedway and put in some of the fastest laps ever at that track.  Kasey Kahne was consistently putting in laps 2 mph over his track qualifying record of 172 and a half mph set back in 2004.  Straightaway speeds were well above 210. 

 Also this week Forbes Magazine put out its list of the Top 10 most influential sports stars.  And for the second year in a row – Jimmie Johnson was number one.  He was the only NASCAR driver in the Top 10.