The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs rolls into week/race two Saturday night with regular-season champion and series race wins leader Kyle Larson on the pole for the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders at Richmond Raceway.
“Richmond was really the only bad race from start-to-finish we’ve had this year,” Larson said “I know we’ll be better this time around because we learned a lot. Alex [Bowman] won there and we have their notes, but we learned a lot even from how we ran in the spring.”
Denny Hamlin, after finally claiming his first win of the season in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway the previous weekend, starts on the front row, alongside Larson, Saturday in his home state of Virginia.
“We certainly hope that we continue that momentum,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got some great tracks really for these next few weeks that really suit our history and my history there. We just hope to continue that momentum and hope to build as many playoff points as we can for the next round and the following round. We were able to get back the difference between first and second in the points in the regular season here in the first week. Just really excited for our team to be able to win the first playoff race and to add the Darlington Southern 500 on top of that was a great bonus, but I really feel like our team has been strong all year. We just finally had things break our way this weekend.”
The 16 playoff drivers start in the top-16 positions of the Richmond starting grid, with Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch in row two in the third and fourth positions. Kevin Harvick will start fifth.
The second half of the top-10 starters at Richmond include Team Penske trio Joey Logano, Brad Keseowski and Ryan Blaney in close proximity in the sixth through eighth starting spots.
Aric Almirola and Christopher Bell start in row five in the ninth and 10th positions.
The most recent Richmond race winner, Alex Bowman, and six-time Richmond winner Kyle Busch are outside the top-10 on Saturday’s starting grid after struggles at Darlington. Bowman starts 12th at Richmond, while Busch lines up 15th, second to last among the playoff drivers.
“Going back to Richmond is something to look forward to this week,” Bowman said. “Richmond is a track where our #48 team feels really strong at, and we are bringing the same car from earlier this year when we ended up in victory lane. After last week, we need to rebound and capitalize on a good night on Saturday. There’s not a lot of comfort going forward the next two weeks, but we are going to two places we know we can be strong at and have good runs.”
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400 SALUTE TO FIRST RESPONDERS STARTING LINEUP
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