Richmond Raceway 2025 NASCAR Track Profile

[Editor’s note: The following article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 Racing Annual magazine. Order your copy online today, or buy one at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Richmond Raceway has been cut back to just one date for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, losing its spring date. It’s only the second time the track will have one race in a season since 1958 (COVID-19 cost the track one date in 2020).

The .75-mile short track is known as a driver’s racetrack, with an aged racing surface that provides for extreme tire wear. It means those who take care of their Goodyears the best usually end up near the front. NASCAR added a new wrinkle in the August, 2024 race, providing both soft- and hard-tire options. It gave crew chiefs a choice between tires that carried different speeds and aged differently, variety that’s expected to return in 2025.

The Action Track was back in 2024, with two controversial finishes making waves. In March, Denny Hamlin may have gotten away with jumping the final restart to win, besting Martin Truex Jr., who had dominated that day.

The crazier finish was in August, when Austin Dillon knocked Joey Logano out of the lead, then right-hooked Hamlin into the wall to win for the first time in two years. NASCAR allowed Dillon to keep the win but did not count it toward playoff eligibility.

Richmond has had a healthy mix of winners recently: five different victors from five different teams among all three manufacturers in the past five races.

Kyle Busch has the most Richmond wins of active drivers with six, but he hasn’t won here since 2018. Hamlin has five, and two have come in the past six tries. In fact, Hamlin has finished top 2 in six of the last eight Richmond events; his 2,367 career laps led is fourth-most all-time.

Richmond Raceway track info

Site: Richmond, Virginia

Laps: 0.75-mile D-shaped oval

Banking/Turns: 14 degrees

Banking/Frontstretch: 8 degrees

Banking/Backstretch: 2 degrees

2025 Date: Aug. 16

Distance: 400 laps, 300 miles

2024 winners

March: Denny Hamlin

August: Austin Dillon

Scouting report

Richmond is an enigma. It was once the most action-packed track on the schedule, but that was two-generation-of-cars ago. Some racers think the pavement is too old and would benefit from a repave. Others think NASCAR should go back to using the sealer that was last used over a decade ago. But what Richmond still does well is produce a technical chess match between crew chiefs, with two or three different tire strategies unfolding throughout the race. It’s compelling even if it’s a different kind of action than what was seen prior.