NASCAR: 5 Lessons Learned From The Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond

Teams Need To Know When To Take a Risk

Tires seemed to be a major issue at Richmond. There were more than 10 cautions for Saturday night’s race and a majority of them came from drivers spinning out because of a tire going down.

As the race started to come to an end, there were certain drivers who could only make the Chase by winning a race. The only way they would win the race though, would be if they took a gamble and tried to get off of the same pit pattern as the lead cars.

They needed to pit when the leaders stayed out, and hope for the right amount of cautions to put them out in front by the time the race ended.

Teams who didn’t take a risk stayed with the leaders and didn’t move up the standings. It’s hard to imagine why teams like the 47 and 6 groups didn’t try to change up their strategy with all the cautions happening at Richmond, and they had nothing to really lose by getting off schedule with the lead cars.

Kasey Kahne and the 5 team took a risk with one of their late race pit stops at Richmond and it almost paid off for them. Kahne finished sixth and had a shot at winning the race at the end, he was  in a much better position than he would have been thanks to his risky pit stop.

Than there is Chris Buescher, who would pit during a stretch of green flag racing when he thought he had a tire going down. Buescher needed a solid finish to hold his spot in the top 30, and didn’t want to take the risk of a tire going down and potentially ending his night early.

It was a good thing Buescher and the 34 team didn’t take a risk though, as after he went to pit road and got new tires, his old set did have a flat. They played it safe, and now Chris Buescher is going to be in the post season.

Hopefully Richmond will serve as a constant reminder of how important it is for drivers and teams to figure out when or when not to take a risk to try and make it through the Chase.

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