First Short-Track Race For New Car

Richmond hosts the third of four debut races for the NASCAR Nationwide Series new car this year, and the event also will be its first on a short track.

When series owners met with NASCAR’s competition executives last summer, the consensus was to race at tracks of varying length. The first race was July 1 at Daytona’s 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in a Chevrolet Impala. Brad Keselowski drove his Dodge Challenger to the win in Race No. 2 at Michigan’s 2-mile flatter, wider surface on Aug. 14.

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Keselowski, the driver standings leader, won at Richmond in the spring. Carl Edwards, who will drive a Ford Mustang, is the defending winner of this race.

After Richmond’s .75-mile oval, the new car has one more race this year, Oct. 15 on the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway. That will be the last new car race until 2011, when it will be introduced fulltime into the series.

There will be an extended practice day on Thursday from 9 a.m. – noon and 1-4 p.m., and a press conference at 12:30 p.m. in the RIR infield media center featuring NASCAR Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, Keselowski, two-time series champion and four-time RIR winner Kevin Harvick and Paul Menard, currently sixth in the driver standings. Following the afternoon session, there will be an autograph session featuring series drivers from 4:30-5:15 p.m. at the RIR Amphitheater, outside Turn 1. The extended practice sessions and autograph session are free; fans will need to secure a wristband for the autograph session. They will be distributed at 3 p.m. at Gate 40, the same entry for extended practice seating.