NASCAR DFS: Federated Auto Parts 400 Track Breakdown

Race two in the playoffs is here with the second trip to Richmond for this Saturday's Federated Auto parts 400. After racing only once here last year due to Covid, The Action Track, as it’s known, is back to being a two race a year facility and this race will be at night under the lights.

Like the race in April, this one is also 400 laps in scheduled distance which means that a lot of dominator points will be up for grabs in laps led and fastest laps. However, like we were talking about on the Podcast, which you should really take a listen to this week as it’s my favorite pod we’ve done this year, the position differential upside might be tricky to sort out given how many cars traditionally finish laps down here. Keep that in mind as it looks like a solid PD upside slate with all the issues everyone had last week, but if only about 15 drivers finish on the lead lap by race’s end, it caps the PD upside drivers have.

Tire Notes:

The Xfinity and Cup teams will be using the same tires they used here in April and it is also the same combination of tires that they’ve raced on at Phoenix, New Hampshire, and Gateway since the beginning of 2020 which means teams should have a good idea about wear and how they’ll lay down rubber. This will be important in late-race strategy as well as getting track position for the comp caution and the end of stages.

Strategy Notes:

This week a lot of the pod talked about strategy here so in this section let’s chat a bit about how the playoff standings may affect how drivers race on Saturday knowing what’s coming up in the elimination race next weekend. Richmond is perhaps the calmest short track on the schedule compared to the beating and banging that happens at Bristol and Martinsville typically. Speaking of Bristol, it’s the elimination race next weekend and so anyone going in below the cut line will likely need a win, or certainly some help, to make the Round of 12 and that puts the onus on them to improve their standings this week as best they can. That being said, that means that a few playoff drivers will need to make strategy calls late in stages to get as many points as possible throughout the race and it may throw off the late-race tire strategy if they get off schedule from everyone else. I’m not saying to necessarily avoid or fade these drivers, but it is something to be aware of that they may be pushing the envelope a bit this week to make up ground.

Facts To Know:

• An average of 1.6 drivers a race have led 100 or more laps over the last five races here
• Nearly eight drivers a race on average have managed six or more spots of PD a race in the last five races.
• Three winners of the last five races have come from P5 to P9 while the other two have started P11 and P24 (Bowman this Spring).
• The package this week will be the 750-horsepower low downforce setup which has been run in nine oval races this year including last weekend at Darlington.
• Just 30-percent of the top-10 finishers in the last five races here have started P12 or worse which is one of the lower numbers of any track.
• Five drivers have finished in the top-10 at least four times in the last five races here.
• There are eight drivers with an average finish of 10.0 or better in that same span.
• Six drivers in the field this week have an average Driver Rating of 100 or above recently at Richmond as well.
• JGR drivers have a combined 11 top-five finishes in 17 total races here in the last three years. Compared to just three top-fives in 19 races for Hendrick.

The table below shows the number of drivers to reach each stat-type over the last five races similar races with Race 1 being the most recent.

For the tables below:

* The DFS Scoring Table: Race 1 is the most recent race in the sample size with Race 5 being the earliest. We are using the Last 5 Richmond races for the data.