Wide Open Sports

It seems fitting that Iowa Speedway and Richmond Raceway are back-to-back on the schedule this year. They are both short tracks around 0.75 miles long with variable-banked corners. As previously mentioned in last week’s primer, Iowa was modeled after Richmond by track designer Rusty Wallace. That being said, there are also a few key differences between the two as highlighted by Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Bass Pro Shops car, on the latest episode of the Gluckcast with Jeff Gluck. Austin noted that although the braking for both tracks is similar, the arc through the corners of 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 are much different. He also noted that it is more difficult to run different lines and pass at Iowa due to its unevenly worn racing surface.

Austin Dillon has a literal checkered past at Richmond Raceway. He stirred controversy in the 2024 Cook Out 400 when he nearly simultaneously wrecked Joey Logano and hooked the right-rear quarter-panel of Denny Hamlin on the last lap of the race after a late caution erased Dillon’s sizeable three second lead. NASCAR responded by revoking Austin Dillon’s automatic playoff berth (a rule that has since been removed with the reintroduction of the Chase format in 2026) but allowed him to retain the win in record books. He followed up the disappointment of 2024 with another dominant showing in 2025, handily winning the race with a 2.5 second lead over second place Alex Bowman. He should be a key figure again in this weekend’s race at Richmond.

This weekend at Richmond will feature only two of the four national touring series with both the ARCA/Menards series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts series getting the weekend off. The O’Reilly Series will be off again next weekend, only returning on August 28th for the last points-paying race at Daytona before the Chase begins.

The Craftsman Truck series will race in the Black’s Tire 250 this evening, August 14th, at 6:30PM central time on FS1. This is the second to last race before the Truck series Chase begins. They will race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH next week to finish the regular season schedule. The heavy favorite for tonight’s race is Corey Heim, driver of the #5 Toyota for TRICON Garage. Heim won the 2025 Truck Series championship and also won last year’s race at this track. He will be chased by 2026 points leader Layne Riggs and Kaden Honeycutt, the driver who replaced Corey Heim in the #11 to begin 2026.

The NASCAR Cup series will race in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond beginning at 6:10PM central time on Saturday, August 15th with coverage on USA Network presented by NBC Sports. The favorites for this weekend are points leader Denny Hamlin, reigning Richmond winner Austin Dillon, last week’s winner at Iowa, Ty Gibbs, and Penske drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney- both of whom have been dominant at short tracks all season.