Live NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Richmond

The IndyCar star is moving to NASCAR full time next season and will run a limited Cup schedule in a car owned by Tony Stewart.He expects her to struggle at most of the tracks where she’ll race, making a Daytona debut even more attractive.“I think it would be a good start,” she said Thursday. “It would be nice if the Sprint Cup debut was at a track where I have the opportunity to finish well, especially given the idea that we’re going to go to tracks that are going to be challenging and probably ones that I’ll do the worst at, but I don’t know yet.”

Stewart, who was at an appearance with sponsor Office Depot in Richmond, Va., said in a phone interview that he has looked at having her run the sport’s biggest race of the season, but hasn’t decided yet if she will. He said he worked with Patrick in a two-car draft during a Nationwide Series race at Daytona in July, and said “she ran really, really well all day there.”

For the second time this season, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars will be racing on a Saturday night, under the lights. The series makes its first of two visits to Richmond International Raceway. The importance of this race goes further than just this weekend.Richmond is the sight of the final race of the regular season for the Sprint Cup Series, so a lot of drivers can use this first race as a test race for that all important event in September 

The last four races at this track have been won by the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Hamlin has taken the last two September races while Busch is the two time defending winner of this event.That instantly makes these two the favorites for this weekend. In 10 starts at Richmond, Hamlin has the two wins and a total of six top-10 finishes. Only once in those 10 starts has Hamlin finished worse than 15th.For as successful as Hamlin has been at Richmond, Busch has been even more productive. He has made 12 starts at the one-mile race track. He has scored two wins and has 10 top-10 finishes. More impressively, all 10 of Busch's top-10's at Richmond resulted in finishes inside the top 5.

While those two drivers should be considered the two heavy favorites, there are a few other drivers who could have strong runs this weekend.Jimmie Johnson is always a favorite regardless of what track the series stops at. Richmond however has been hit or miss for the five time defending series champion. In 18 starts, he has three wins, but just six top-10's in total.Don't let the numbers fool you, though, Johnson has to be considered one of the favorites, regardless of what his previous statistics would lead you to believe.Jeff Gordon has also found success at Richmond. He has scored two wins here and has finished in the top-10 in 23 out of his 36 career starts. Seven out of his last eight starts here have resulted in top-10 finishes, while the only other finish was still a respectable 12th place effort.

The other two strong favorites would be two Richard Childress Racing teammates, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.Harvick has had as much success at Richmond as anyone in recent years. For his career, he has won there once, with 13 top-10 finishes in 20 starts. Recent history has seen Harvick score 11 top-10 finishes in his last 12 starts. He is also the only driver with multiple wins this season.