NASCAR at Richmond: Is Kyle Larson due for a win? Plus TV info, betting odds, more

Will NASCAR fans be treated to another Kyle Larson-Denny Hamlin entanglement this weekend?

It’s certainly possible.

The NASCAR Cup Series will race at Richmond Raceway for a second time this season Sunday. Fans can catch the race on USA Network (TV affiliate of NBC), MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The green flag is scheduled for just past 3 p.m., and the total purse for the weekend is $7,565,800.

And why might this one come down to Larson and Hamlin?

Because they’re both quite good here.

First, let’s talk Hamlin: The driver of the No. 11 Toyota has won here four times before, including once in 2022. That’s second-most among active drivers behind Kyle Busch (with six wins). Richmond Raceway is the Virginia native’s hometown racetrack — and its arrival on the schedule comes right after Hamlin’s second win of the season and just as Joe Gibbs Racing is heating up.

Now Larson: The driver of the No. 5 Chevy has two Cup points wins on the year as well as this year’s All-Star Race title. In fact, he took a trip down Victory Lane the last time the Cup Series visited Richmond.

But ask the Hendrick Motorsports driver if he should have more than those wins on the year, and he’d probably reluctantly nod. And who could blame him?

One of those woulda-coulda moments came last weekend at Pocono, where Hamlin raced Larson hard on a late restart, pushing him up the track and out of the outside groove. The drivers and friends off-track had differing opinions on how the end went down — Hamlin explaining why he was right, Larson explaining why Hamlin was wrong. (“I’m pissed,” Larson said post-race. “And I feel like I should be pissed.”)

Suffice to say a faceoff among the series’ best, in a place where both are exceptionally good, could come to a head this weekend.

Three other story lines before Sunday’s Cup race

What else is going on? Here are three other story lines ahead of Sunday’s race.

▪ Playoff field starting to take shape. There are only five races to go in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, and the battle for playoff positioning is at a boil. Eleven of 16 playoff spots are accounted for thanks to driver victories — and realistically there are eight winless drivers competing for those final five spots on points. That includes Kevin Harvick (who sits eighth in points), Brad Keselowski (12th), Chris Buescher (13th), Bubba Wallace (15th) and Michael McDowell (16th) — as well as AJ Allmendinger (17 points behind McDowell), Daniel Suárez (23 points behind) and Ty Gibbs (28 points behind).

▪ If that all sounds messy, it’s because it is. But that doesn’t even include the group of drivers who could still win a race this season and jumble up the playoff picture further. Chase Elliott notched a Top-10 finish last week and has a Championship 4 caliber team — even if he’s not having a Championship 4 caliber season. Same thing goes for Elliott’s HMS teammate, Alex Bowman, and 2022 Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric.

▪ Betting favorites feature usual suspects. Sportsbooks opened with red-hot Martin Truex Jr. as the favorite at 9-2 odds. That was followed by Larson at 5-1 and Hamlin at 13-2. Harvick won at Richmond’s summer race last year — the second of a back-to-back effort that thrusted him into the contender conversation — and sits at 15-2 odds.

How to watch Cook Out 400 at Richmond

• Race: Cook Out 400

• Place: Richmond Raceway

• Date: Sunday, July 30

• Time: 3 p.m.

• Purse: $7,565,800

• TV: USA, 2:30 p.m.

• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

• Distance: 300 miles (400 laps)

• Stages: Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 230), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 400)