NASCAR Richmond 2016: Preview, lineup, starting grid for Federated Auto Parts 400

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Four playoff berths are left to claim in the final regular season race.

Ideally, the deciding event of the 26-race regular season would be full of intrigue centering on which drivers are championship-eligible when the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins next week. For those not already qualified for NASCAR"s playoffs, Richmond International Raceway is a final opportunity to punch their Chase ticket, either by outright winning or by scoring a sufficient amount of points to move high enough in the standings to grab a wild card spot.

The desperation to win or finish well is supposed to create drama that culminates in a memorable night in which drivers race aggressively, and often anything can and does happen. There"s been Jeremy Mayfield coming through in a must-win situation in 2004, Kyle Busch inexplicably missing the cut in 2012, and the controversial jerry-rigged 2013 event where multiple teams conspired to fix the finishing order to assure advancement.

Much to NASCAR"s chagrin, however, not every regular season finale can play out as hoped. Such an exciting scenario seems unlikely to unfold Saturday night in the Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN).

Twelves drivers have secured one of the 16 Chase berths available via victories in the prior 25 regular season races. Another, Chris Buescher -- who won the Aug. 1 weather-shortened Pocono race -- can make it 13 as long as he doesn"t lose more than 11 points to David Ragan and drop outside the top 30 in the standings, which would make him ineligible.

Provided Richmond doesn"t produce a new winner and Buescher doesn"t stumble, three slots will then be earned off points. But with Chase Elliott (39 points ahead of the cutoff) and Austin Dillon (+31) in sound shape, both must only avoid a disastrous result to get in.

"We wish we were already locked in by now, but we have put ourselves in a positive position going," Dillon said. "We need to run good, need to finish strong and that will take care of itself if we have a good strong finish."

That leaves Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman vying for the last position, though Newman"s chances took a substantial hit with a 15-point penalty NASCAR levied against his team on Wednesday. Instead of being a manageable seven points behind McMurray, Newman is now 22 points in arrears. Overcoming a gap like that probably requires McMurray to encounter an issue of some kind.

McMurray enters Richmond riding a streak of three top-10 finishes in the past four races. He was positioned for another such result in last week"s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but a missing lug nut necessitated an extra pit stop late and he finished 15th.

"As an organization, it"s been really good," McMurray said. "And the next 10 races, if we can get in, it"s going to be pretty awesome because our cars have peaked at the right time."

Of course, if Newman wins, he"d automatically qualify at the expense of McMurray, despite how well McMurray may be running. The same applies if someone else were to replicate Mayfield"s 2004 victory.

"We"ve been trying to win now for three years, so there"s no better time than [Saturday] night," Newman said.

However, the chance of a new winner emerging appears remote, with the four best candidates to pull off a surprise all possessing serious shortcomings. Newman hasn"t won a race since 2013, and owns just one top-five finish all season; former Richmond winners Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer are each mired in bad slumps; and rookie Ryan Blaney is hindered by the inconsistency that first-year drivers typically experience.

And if you"re thinking maybe a team could use some combination of weather and strategy to its advantage (like Buescher did at Pocono), that too appears far-flung. The weekend forecast isn"t calling for rain, fuel-mileage races rarely occur at Richmond, and the three-quarter mile track isn"t like a restrictor-plate event at Daytona or Talladega where the lesser teams compete on a more even plane.

Still, the possibility exists that the unexpected could happen and someone new could find themselves in victory lane.

"I think they are as good as they"ve been in a while," said Kahne on his chances of snapping a two-year winless streak. "... It"s going to be a tough race, but I think we have a car capable of contending and racing in the top five throughout the night."

FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400 STARTING LINEUP

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Position	Driver	Make	Speed
1	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	122.344
2	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	122.288
3	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	122.244
4	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	122.189
5	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	122.144
6	Martin Truex, Jr.	Toyota	122.045
7	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	122.045
8	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	121.638
9	Kyle Busch	Toyota	121.457
10	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	120.951
11	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	120.827
12	Joey Logano	Ford	120.579
13	Carl Edwards	Toyota	122.272
14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	122.249
15	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	122.045
16	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	122.017
17	Brad Keselowski	Ford	121.924
18	Trevor Bayne	Ford	121.770
19	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	121.556
20	Ryan Blaney	Ford	121.529
21	David Ragan	Toyota	121.310
22	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	Ford	120.654
23	Aric Almirola	Ford	120.401
24	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	120.321
25	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	122.299
26	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	122.294
27	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	122.288
28	Greg Biffle	Ford	122.266
29	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	122.161
30	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	122.078
31	Chris Buescher	Ford	121.957
32	Landon Cassill	Ford	121.935
33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	121.781
34	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	121.775
35	Brian Scott	Ford	121.540
36	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	121.250
37	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	121.245
38	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	120.924
39	Dylan Lupton	Toyota	120.208
40	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Ford	120.182

NASCAR Darlington 2016 results: Full finishing order for Bojangles" Southern 500

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Kevin Harvick’s repeated stumbles on pit road allowed Martin Truex Jr. to take advantage and win his second race of the season.

With a dominant Kevin Harvick repeatedly slowed in the pits, Martin Truex Jr. capitalized to win Sunday night"s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Clearly possessing the fastest car, Harvick led a race-high 214 laps and was seemingly set to win his second Darlington race in three years and third of the season. But three slow pit stops over the final 100 laps cost the Stewart-Haas Racing driver a total of 17 positions, including one stop that saw Harvick fall from the lead to 12th.

Harvick"s issues opened the door for Truex to take advantage, and he did by leading 27 of the remaining 28 laps and building up enough of gap that Harvick couldn"t erase. The win was Truex"s second of the season and first in the Southern 500, regarded as one of NASCAR"s four biggest events.

"It"s just amazing to win a race like this," Truex said. "The Southern 500 is just one of the ones everybody wants to win. ... To finally get it done and bring home the victory and go to victory lane here, it was a pretty amazing feeling.

"Just can"t believe we won here at Darlington. It"s awesome."

Harvick finished second, with Kyle Larson third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Joey Logano fifth. Completing the top 10 were Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski and rookie Chase Elliott.

Afterward Harvick, who leads the Sprint Cup standings, called out his pit crew that has been mistake-prone throughout the season.

"It just seems like it"s just week after week after week," Harvick said. "You have a couple good weeks here and there and every once in a while you just put together a day, but they just can"t put together a whole day on pit road right now."

While Harvick lamented what could have been, Truex celebrated winning multiple races in a season for the first time in his 11-year career. His other 2016 win came in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, another crown jewel race along with the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 (Indianapolis).

Although the opening 95 laps were run caution-free, Darlington"s reputation for chewing up cars and fraying drivers" nerves didn"t disappoint. Of the 10 cautions, only one yellow flag was prompted for something other than a crash or spin.

Among the incidents was Tony Stewart appearing to intentionally spin rookie Brian Scott after Scott inadvertently blocked the three-time Sprint Cup champion. The incident saw Stewart swerve into Scott"s rear quarter-panel, turning him into the inside wall.

Scott believed Stewart crashed him, while Stewart said Scott wrecked himself. NASCAR didn"t penalize Stewart, but did summon him and his crew chief to meet with officials post-race. Stewart later dropped out of the race due to engine failure, finishing 35th.

"Apparently he got mad at me," Scott said. "I have a lot of respect for Tony. He has always raced me really clean. I am not sure what he thought was going on there. I am not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up there, I wasn"t. I was trying to let him go. I even pointed him to the inside. Maybe he thought I was giving him the finger or something."

SOUTHERN 500 RESULTS

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Finish	Start	Driver	Make	Laps	Status	Led
1	8	Martin Truex, Jr.	Toyota	367	Running	28
2	1	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	367	Running	214
3	16	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	367	Running	45
4	7	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	367	Running	13
5	5	Joey Logano	Ford	367	Running	0
6	10	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	367	Running	10
7	18	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
8	14	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	367	Running	9
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	367	Running	47
10	11	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
11	6	Kyle Busch	Toyota	367	Running	1
12	12	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
13	20	Ryan Blaney	Ford	367	Running	0
14	15	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
15	13	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
16	24	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	367	Running	0
17	31	Chris Buescher	Ford	367	Running	0
18	22	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	Ford	367	Running	0
19	3	Carl Edwards	Toyota	366	Running	0
20	33	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	366	Running	0
21	32	David Ragan	Toyota	366	Running	0
22	27	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	365	Running	0
23	21	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	365	Running	0
24	25	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	365	Running	0
25	28	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	365	Running	0
26	35	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	364	Running	0
27	30	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	364	Running	0
28	37	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	362	Running	0
29	40	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	361	Running	0
30	29	Landon Cassill	Ford	361	Running	0
31	39	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	358	Running	0
32	26	Aric Almirola	Ford	346	Crash	0
33	9	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	328	Running	0
34	4	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	326	Crash	0
35	17	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	317	Engine	0
36	23	Greg Biffle	Ford	295	Crash	0
37	36	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	250	Electrical	0
38	38	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Ford	247	Crash	0
39	34	Brian Scott	Ford	199	Crash	0
40	19	Trevor Bayne	Ford	161	Engine	0

Kyle Larson’s Michigan win jumbles NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup outlook

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There is now one less playoff spot open to drivers who haven’t won a race this season.

Tony Stewart didn"t have a particularly good performance during Sunday"s Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway, falling a lap behind near the midway portion and finishing a nondescript 21st.

Nonetheless, the result was still good enough to secure Stewart a spot in NASCAR"s playoffs, the Chase for the Sprint Cup, with two regular season races remaining. As long as the three-time series champion attempts the next two events -- Sept. 4 at Darlington Raceway and Sept. 10 at Richmond International Raceway -- he"ll be one of 16 drivers who qualify.

Stewart, who won at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June, wasn"t alone in solidifying his position on Sunday, as Pure Michigan 400 winner Kyle Larson did the same. In his 99th career start, the third-year driver for Chip Ganassi Racing earned his first victory, and as such went from being outside the cutoff to securely in.

But while Stewart and Larson can relax, the playoff fortunes of several others become even more unsettled. Larson"s win bumped the winless Ryan Newman out of the Chase, as he now trails Jamie McMurray by 15 points.

Huge day for us. We"re in the Chase!! So much hard work has been put into this by everyone at the shop. So proud of everyone involved!!!

— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) August 29, 2016

Drivers earn Chase berths by winning during the 26-race regular season and finishing ranked 30th or better in the standings. If there are less than 16 winners, the remaining playoff spots are awarded to those who rank highest in points.

Larson is the 13th different winner this season, leaving three slots open to drivers to get into the Chase via points, though this number could still decrease depending on the outcomes at Darlington and Richmond. Provisionally the drivers currently in are: Chase Elliott (+27 points ahead of Newman), Austin Dillon (+21) and McMurray (+15).

Of the 13 different winners only Chris Buescher has yet to lock himself into the Chase. The rookie is just seven points ahead of 31st ranked David Ragan, and over the next two races could conceivably fall below the top 30 threshold NASCAR requires.

If Buescher, who pulled off a shocking victory in the rain-shortened Aug. 1 Pocono Raceway, were to falter, it would open another spot for a non-winner. On Sunday, Buescher lost six points to Ragan due to a sickly engine that relegated him to a 35th-place finish.

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