Elliott would love to find a way to be different at Richmond

<p>RICHMOND, Va. &mdash; Like many drivers in NASCAR’s top series, Chase Elliott had a hard time figuring out the best way to navigate the layout at Richmond Raceway when he first raced on the track. </p>
<p>Some think the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval drives like a mini superspeedway, and others enjoy the short-track feel it provides as a track shorter than a mile. </p>
<p>Elliott still isn’t sure what to make of the track that appears twice on the schedule in NASCAR’s premier series.</p>
<p>“The driving at Richmond is honestly very straight forward,” the reigning series champion said this week. "I think that’s what makes Richmond really hard is because it’s just not a super challenging place, I don’t think, for the drivers to run the proper line. </p>
<p>“But what makes it really hard there is to just be different. And everyone is doing the exact same thing. … You’re riding that really razor-thin edge much like you do at Martinsville, but it’s definitely a challenge. And I think the reason it’s a challenge is that everyone is just doing the same thing.”</p>
<p>Elliott finished fifth at Richmond last fall in the series’ only visit because of the pandemic, but was 15th and 13th in two starts in the 2019 season. </p>
<p>As the series wraps up a three-race stretch of short tracks, Elliott is hoping to improve on his 10th-place finish on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway and his second-place run last weekend at Martinsville. And he’s not concerned that he’s winless after eight races.</p>
<p>Martin Truex Jr. last week became the first repeat winner in the series this year.</p>
<p>“We all want to win, but I feel no different today than I did at the end of last year and the results were just fine then,” Elliott said. Elliott won the last two races in 2020 to win the championship. “… I know we can go out there and accomplish our goals.”</p>
<p>CHANGE OF HEART</p>
<p>Austin Dillon’s relationship with Richmond has done a complete about face.</p>
<p>"It was my least favorite," the Richard Childress Racing driver said Thursday. “I dreaded going there. I said I wished Richmond would just not be a track anymore."</p>
<p>"And somehow, over the years, I’ve made it into a good place for us.”</p>
<p>Dillon has finished sixth or better in three of his last four tries on the oval, including a fourth-place run last fall despite a penalty for speeding on pit road.</p>
<p>“Richmond is now like my favorite track in the world,” Dillon said. </p>
<p>He enters Sunday’s race 12th in points but with just one top-five finish. </p>
<p>ODDS AND ENDS</p>
<p>Martin Truex Jr., the winner last week at Martinsville and three weeks ago in the truck race on the dirt at Bristol, is <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/sports/navigation/10227.3/14466.3.">the 4-1 favorite,</a> with Denny Hamlin next at 11-2, according to sportsbook.fanduel.com. … Consistent but winless, Hamlin remains the points leader by 76 over Truex thanks to seven top-five finishes in eight races. Joey Logano is third, 77 points behind. … Truex won both races at Richmond in 2019. … Brad Keselowski dropped from fifth to ninth in the points race after he got caught up in a 14-car pileup that ended his day early at Martinsville. … Hamlin led 276 laps at Martinsville and tops all drivers with 487 through eight races. … Kyle Busch leads active drivers with six wins at Richmond.</p>
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