Austin Hill dominated early Thursday night, but fell victim to the long run to end the race.  He ended up finishing a lap down in eighth.  That was more than enough to earn him the regular season championship and the 15 playoff points that come with it.  His margin ended up being 42 points over Brett Moffitt, who led late in the race before dropping to fourth.  Ben Rhodes finished third and moved up to third-place.  Zane Smith won stage one, but ended up a lap down in 11th.  That dropped him to fourth.

Sheldon Creed had a very quiet night Thursday.  He ended up finishing 13th, a lap down.  It didn't cost him any positions, but did cost some points.  Christian Eckes faded terribly in the closing laps and ended up 18th.  He still ended up in sixth, though.  Matt Crafton finished second and stayed in seventh.  Grant Enfinger stayed in eighth after claiming his third win of the year, but did gain ground on everyone else.

Tyler Ankrum used pit strategy to finish fifth in a truck that wasn't the greatest.  That allowed him to hold onto ninth.  Todd Gilliland grabbed the final spot in the playoffs despite finishing in a mediocre 17th.  Derek Kraus, the nearest driver below the cutoff, had a terrible night with a Toyota Tundra that was all over the splitter and not even close to the necessary pace.  He ended up 23rd, four laps down and ended up 13 points behind Gilliland.  It wasn't even that close most of the race.  Raphael Lessard got penalized a lap on pit road during the stage break after stage one and never recovered, finishing 26th, five laps down.  He is still in 12th.

Stewart Friesen finished a lap down in 10th and moved up to 13th.  That came at the expense of Tanner Gray, who finished 16th.  Johnny Sauter had a nightmarish night marked by an unscheduled stop in the first 10 laps, a truck that wouldn't turn and radio chatter that if aired on television would sound like an episode of The Jerry Springer Show from 1998.  A 27th-place finish, eight laps down leaves him in 15th, more than two full races out of the playoffs.  Ty Majeski did not race Thursday night, having been replaced by Trevor Bayne.  He is still 16th in points.

With the points reset in play, Creed will start the playoffs with 2026 points.  That gives him a four-point lead over Zane Smith and Austin Hill.  Enfinger is fourth, then Moffitt and Rhodes.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 645, 2) Brett Moffitt -42, 3) Ben Rhodes -58, 4) Zane Smith -59, 5) Sheldon Creed -106, 6) Christian Eckes -120, 7) Matt Crafton -126, 8) Grant Enfinger -132, 9) Tyler Ankrum -166, 10) Todd Gilliland -180, 11) Derek Kraus -193, 12) Raphael Lessard -257, 13) Stewart Friesen -268, 14) Tanner Gray -274, 15) Johnny Sauter -317, 16) Ty Majeski -346.

Note No. 1: Drivers in bold have locked into the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoffs.

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are not in the playoffs.

Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Sheldon Creed 2026, t-2) Zane Smith -4, t-2) Austin Hill -4, 4) Grant Enfinger -7, 5) Brett Moffitt -11, 6) Ben Rhodes -12, 7) Matt Crafton -17, 8) Christian Eckes -21, 9) Todd Gilliland -23, 10) Tyler Ankrum -24.

Best of the Rest (11-20): 11) Derek Kraus 452, 12) Raphael Lessard -64, 13) Stewart Friesen -75, 14) Tanner Gray -81, 15) Johnny Sauter -124, 16) Ty Majeski -153, 17) Austin Wayne Self -194, 18) Tate Fogelman -209, 19) Spencer Boyd -240, 20) Jordan Anderson -243.

Playoff Points: 1) Sheldon Creed 26, t-2) Zane Smith -4, t-2) Austin Hill -4, 4) Grant Enfinger -7, 5) Brett Moffitt -11, 6) Ben Rhodes -12, 7) Matt Crafton -17, 8) Christian Eckes -21, 9) Todd Gilliland -23, 10) Tyler Ankrum -24.

Stage Points: 1) Brett Moffitt 163, 2) Austin Hill -4, 3) Zane Smith -16, 4) Ben Rhodes -22, 5) Christian Eckes -25, 6) Sheldon Creed -31, 7) Matt Crafton -56, 8) Tyler Ankrum -62, 9) Todd Gilliland -65, 10) Grant Enfinger -80, 11) Derek Kraus -102, 12) Johnny Sauter -121, 13) Raphael Lessard -122, 14) Stewart Friesen -134, 15) Tanner Gray -144, t-t-16) Sam Mayer -147, t-16) Ty Majeski -147.

Note: If everyone were eligible for stage points, Ross Chastain would be 11th in points, while Kyle Busch would be 12th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 432, 2) Ben Rhodes -32, 3) Brett Moffitt -44, 4) Zane Smith -46, 5) Grant Enfinger -63, t-6) Sheldon Creed -78, t-6) Matt Crafton -78, 8) Derek Kraus -93, 9) Christian Eckes -100, 10) Tyler Ankrum -117, 11) Todd Gilliland -122, 12) Tanner Gray -142, t-13) Raphael Lessard -146, t-13) Stewart Friesen -146, 15) Johnny Sauter -197, 16) Ty Majeski -209.

Race Winners: Grant Enfinger (Daytona-1, Atlanta, Richmond), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Homestead, Texas), Chase Elliott (Charlotte), Brandon Jones (Pocono), Sheldon Creed (Kentucky, Daytona-2, Gateway), Austin Hill (Kansas-1), Matt Crafton (Kansas-2), Zane Smith (Michigan, Dover), Ben Rhodes (Darlington)

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

Yes, the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series raced last night in Richmond.  That broadcast was interesting in it's own right.  We'll be covering that 250-lap race next week.  But, by popular demand, we must look back to Darlington, where the trucks took on the 1.366-mile track for the first time in quite a while.

For this race, there were a couple of changes.  One, there was a full hour of pre-race coverage, which continued with Thursday night's coverage from Richmond.  That was somewhat unexpected, but nice to see.  Another change had Regan Smith take Jamie McMurray's place in the broadcast in a one-off (Kurt Busch will take his place for the remainder of the season).

Personally, I believe that Regan Smith is better as a booth analyst than a pit reporter.  He's worked in the booth a few times over the years and I find him to be insightful.  That really wasn't any different with the Truck race from Darlington Sunday.

While any on-air role on a race broadcast is going to be hectic, you're not going to do much in the way of set interviews during a race broadcast as an analyst.  Pre-race is another story.  Given the way that the current Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series booth operates, if a driver is being interviewed on the radio from the booth, there's a good sporting chance that Michael Waltrip will be conducting the interview (although that is not guaranteed).

As a pit reporter, you have to be far more off-the-cuff.  You have to really do your homework and get as much information as you possibly can.  Smith is still relatively new to the pit reporting game and his inexperience showed earlier this year during the FOX portion of the Cup/Xfinity season.  Unfortunately, limitations in the amount of people being allowed to be on-site meant that Smith couldn't have the support that he needed.

That said, Smith does do one-on-one interviews from time to time.  During NASCAR RaceDay - NGROTS Edition, the primary piece on the show was a sit-down interview that Smith conducted with the fiery Johnny Sauter.  Essentially, the tone here was that Sauter's back was up against the wall.  He knew what he needed to do in order to make the playoffs.  It was simply his job to accomplish that feat.  The only difference here as compared to during the past couple of races is that Sauter kept it clean.  In the truck, he's been cussing so much recently that he would give Steve Wilkos flashbacks.  As we know now, he didn't come close to getting that win.  I can only imagine how frustrated he is right now.

Sunday's Truck race was an interesting race to watch.  There was a good amount of racing for position and I felt that FOX Sports 1 did a decent job in bringing that action to viewers.

However, the production is still definitely feeling the pinch from the ongoing pandemic.  You couldn't figure out what happened to certain drivers.  For instance, Bryant Barnhill crashed early in the race.  There was no replay shown of this incident.  Apparently, his throttle hung.  Scary stuff.

Michael Waltrip screwed up rather blatantly on Lap 57 and declared that Todd Gilliland was David Ragan's son.  No, that isn't true.  He mixed up his Davids.  It does say a lot that Vince Welch and Kurt Busch busted Waltrip's chops for this during the ToyotaCare 250 broadcast last night.  That kind of thing stands out.

Speaking of Kurt Busch, he showed up on the broadcast briefly.  On Lap 84, he joined in via Skype from his motorcoach in the infield to talk a little bit about the race.  Not much in the way of analysis here, but it was clear that Busch was enjoying the action.

The end of the race was marked by Josh Reaume effectively getting dumped by Matt Crafton with a couple of laps to go, which brought out a late caution.  Sheldon Creed had the race won, but was forced to make an impossible decision.  He chose to pit.  Pitting itself cost him the win.  Getting a penalty on said stop made things far worse.  Obviously, he's not sweating it now.

Regardless, that set a Green-White-Checkered restart with Ben Rhodes and Derek Kraus fighting it out.  Given the limited resources available, it was very difficult for FOX Sports 1 to show everything here.  What we did see was Kraus giving it his all to score his first win.  We know now that he needed that win to make the playoffs since the team laid an egg last night.

It was a good finish to a very satisfying race.  I don't remember the circumstances that saw the Truck Series leave Darlington 10 years ago, but it is a good match.  I hope Darlington is on the Truck schedule for 2021.

Post-race coverage was fairly decent.  Viewers got five post-race interviews and a check of the point standings prior to leaving Darlington.

Overall, I did enjoy watching the race.  Those who showed up early for the Cook Out Southern 500 got to see a good race.  Ben Rhodes may have lucked into the victory to a certain extent, but he's been one of the four best drivers in the series all year.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to Virginia for the second race of the Round of 16.  Coverage of the Federated Auto Parts 400 starts with Countdown to Green at 7 p.m. immediately after the NTT IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio..  The green flag is scheduled to drop around 7:45 p.m. and can be heard on MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

Records and facts

Last year's Federated Auto Parts 400 was dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing, and specifically Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch.  Those drivers between themselves combined to lead 311 of 400 laps.

Truex was leading during a round of green-flag stops when he was spun out by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with 86 laps to go.  Despite the spin, Truex only dropped to third on his pit stop.  From there, he was able to run down Busch and take the lead with 26 laps to go, one of only three lead changes that took place under green all night.  From there, Truex pulled away to take the victory.  Busch was second, while Denny Hamlin completed a Joe Gibbs Racing one-two-three.  Brad Keselowski was fourth, while Ryan Newman was fifth.

All-time, Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Richmond with 13 career victories.  Of those 13, three came on the dirt while the other 10 came on the old, .542-mile paved oval prior to the track's 1988 renovation. Petty's count also includes seven in a row from 1970-73, a NASCAR record for this track.  Bobby Allison is second with seven wins while Rusty Wallace, Kyle Busch, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson have six apiece.  Wallace and Kyle Busch's wins have all come on the present three-quarters of a mile configuration.

Among active drivers, Kyle Busch is the winningest driver at Richmond with six triumphs. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson have three wins apiece while Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano have two each.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length: .750-mile D-shaped oval, 400 laps (300 miles)
Banking: 14 degrees

Frontstretch: 1,290 feet, banked 8 degrees

Backstretch: 860 feet, banked 5 degrees

Grandstand Seating: 59,000
Pit Road Speed: 40 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1946 (first Cup race in 1953)

Website: http://www.richmondraceway.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richmond.raceway

Twitter: http://twitter.com/RichmondRaceway

Say What?!

"I look forward to [Richmond]. It is a great race track. I love going there, and it puts on a great show. Obviously, last year, we had a lot of success there. Really, the past handful of seasons it has been a really good track for our team. I think anytime you go to a place that you have had recent success, especially in the Playoffs, it’s a bonus. I’m excited to go there. Hopefully, it would be nice to get a win. It’s been a while.

On his philospohy on short tracks:"I think it’s a little bit different for each one. I think at Richmond I just focus on the things that we’ve been able to work on to be better there. Just try to remember the things we have been working on, how to approach the driving part of it, as far as tire saving, how hard to push and what kind of balance you need throughout the race to be good at the end." - Martin Truex Jr.

"Richmond Raceway is one of the tracks the No. 3 team has circled as a definite place where we can gain maximum points and compete for a win. It will be crucial to our Playoff run. It’s funny because there was a time in my career when I did not run well at Richmond at all. It was a thorn in my side, but over the years that has changed. Richmond has become a much better place than it used to be for me. We have a couple of sixth-place finishes there, and had a fast car last September but ran into issues. I think the low downforce package has really helped our team at that track." - Austin Dillon

"[Richmond] will be interesting.  We haven’t been there this year, so we don’t know what to expect.

"The track fits the mold of the ones where we’ve shown strength.  Short tracks have been good for us, and flat tracks.  Hopefully we will hit the set-up and be close when the race starts.  It’s a little bit of a guess, but I think it will fall into our team’s strength." - Matt DiBenedetto