Friday night saw the Xfinity Series have at it at Richmond Raceway for 250 laps in the first of two races on the D-shaped oval.  This was likely the better of the two races.

Once again, you had a split broadcast booth setup.  The first race of the weekend had Rick Allen on play-by-play with Steve Letarte and Brad Daugherty.  Interestingly enough, Goo Goo Clusters, a composition candy produced in Nashville, came into play when Daugherty referenced Tommy Ellis.  

Ellis led flag-to-flag to win on the old Richmond Fairgrounds Speedway back in 1984.  Daugherty then referenced Ellis' sponsorship from Goo Goo.  While it is true that Ellis was sponsored by Goo Goo, that didn't start until 1989, which just so happened to be the year Daugherty showed up in the then-Busch Grand National Series as a car owner for his buddy Robert Pressley (an old picture of the two together showed up later on).  These days, you can order Goo Goo Clusters online from their website and get seemingly whatever the heck you desire.  I've only had one previously and it was pretty tasty.

Pre-race coverage was relatively thin.  Due to potential rain, opening ceremonies were moved up to 6:45 p.m.  As a result, there was only time for a brief interview with Noah Gragson before the race got underway.

Early on, this was a race for Kaulig Racing.  Ross Chastain started from the pole, but it was Justin Haley who had the fastest car.  He charged up from 10th and took the lead on lap 39.  Viewers got to see a good amount of racing for position.  It was an exciting race to watch.  Not as much as the Truck race Thursday night that seemingly no one watched, but pretty dang good.

Friday night also saw the return of the Visor Cam to broadcasts for the first time since Phoenix in March.  Chastain wore it Friday night.  I was actually surprised to see it come back this year.  I don't know how that's supposed to work since no one other than the drivers are really supposed to be touching their helmets these days.  I suppose the 3D-printed visor can simply clip onto the helmet without the need for much in the way of tools.

The shots from Chastain's Visor Cam were exactly what we've come to expect.  A sweet view from the driver, showing what Chastain had to contend with Friday night.  I don't know if you're going to see it on NBC Sports' INDYCAR broadcasts going forward, but that's for reasons that don't have to do with COVID-19.  I'm not sure about this, but I feel like the view might be obscured due to the introduction of the aeroscreen.  That said, I"m not positive on that.  I suppose we'll see at the Harvest Grand Prix next month.

Unlike Cup and the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, there really hasn't been that tight of a race at the playoff cutoff.  For the last month or so, it's been between Brandon Brown and Jeremy Clements.  Brown has effectively matched Clements over that time.  That said, Brown is getting a bit more coverage in the weeks leading up to the playoffs as we watch to see if he can lock himself in.  At this point, Brown will probably lock himself in no sooner than the end of stage two Friday night.  If he scores stage points at all, he'll lock in at that point.

That said, Brown had rather substantial contact with Riley Herbst with a little less than 100 laps to go.  Not sure if there was anything to that, but the two did have more contact Saturday afternoon that led to Herbst backing into the wall in turn 1.

Post-race coverage was of decent quantity.  Viewers got a half-dozen post-race interviews and a check of the all-important points before NBCSN left Richmond.

I did enjoy watching this race.  The on-track action was pretty good and there were multiple drivers that were in contention and could have won the race.  This was the more enjoyable of the two events.  While Justin Allgaier did win both races, he didn't really dominate this one.

Daugherty is getting more reps in the broadcast booth now on NBCSN than he ever really did at ESPN.  As you may remember, Daugherty was in the Pit Studio at ESPN.  He'd chime in from time to time, but I can only recall a few times that he was in the booth, one of which being the "Backseat Drivers" broadcast of the CarFax 250 at Michigan in 2009.  With additional reps, Daugherty is becoming more comfortable as a race broadcast analyst.  It gives him a rare versatility as he's a rare analyst that can work on multiple sports (remember, he used to be an analyst for NCAA Basketball).

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