What Cup Series Drivers Said After Richmond

After Joey Logano crossed the line to win his second NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2026 season coming at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night, Aug. 16, Frontstretch caught up with some of the Cup Series field to capture some of the stories that occurred on the short track throughout the Virginian night.

For one, there were multiple standout performances by a couple Ford drivers that desperately needed them. Both Austin Cindric and Josh Berry ended their nights in the top 10 with the former finishing third.

For Berry, it’s his third consecutive top-10 result in a part of the year that he is trying to find a ride for 2027.

“Yeah, I mean it’s a decent night,” Berry told Frontstretch post-race. “I feel like we left a little bit out there. … I just got ate up by the cars that had tires and then we just kind of race went green. So, yeah, like I said, a little disappointed with that, but you know, nothing really went our way strategy wise. We’re kind of always fighting from behind all night, so everybody did a good job.

“Obviously these are a lot of good tracks for us and me, but you know, I want to say at least I can run good at some tracks, I guess what people will say. So, yeah, good stretch. Excited to get to Loudon.”

For Cindric, it was only his second top five of 2026, and it increased his narrow lead over the Chase cutline up to a whole 57 points.

“I have no idea what it is, but I mean I can see very few cars in front of me and a lot behind me, and that’s points in both stages in the top five, we’ve got to do that,” Cindric told media post-race. “We got to perform at this time of year and quite frankly we, we haven’t been the last several weeks, so it’s much needed and never too late to start. This was a race that we had high hopes for, and I’m glad we were able to execute.”

Another storyline that went late into the Saturday night and ended early Sunday morning was Kyle Larson‘s “Double” attempt at finishing both the Richmond Cup race and the Knoxville Nationals Sprint Car race he qualified on pole for in the same night.

Originally, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was not planning on making the start for the Knoxville race as the race’s start time conflicted with Richmond. However, after weather delayed the dirt race, Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels came up with a plan to get the Californian out to Iowa as soon as the checkered flag flew.

The plan worked out, as Larson finished a respectable sixth and not only made it to Knoxville in time for the start of the prestigious dirt race, but went on to even win it early at nearly 2 a.m. on Sunday.

“Look, for the bad runs that we’ve had lately that the finishing result really hasn’t been indicative of our speed and the team performance,” Daniels told Frontstretch. “It’s nice to certainly get on the other side of that and have a night where we just saw it through and able to come home with a top 10. The beginning of the race was tough, which we knew it was going to be. Kyle hung tough. We had some runs that we were really competitive. We had some runs that we weren’t as good and to bring home sixth again, very solid night for the Henderickcars.com team.

“We had certainly talked about [Knoxville] before the race in just what that potential possibility could be, and Kyle has a great team of people, both here at Hendrick and the guys that are on the ground there in Knoxville to be able to help react in a situation like this where, right after the race, we wanted to get him some food, some hydration, get him on the airplane and head to Knoxville.”

To see more reactions from drivers such as Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Shane van Gisbergen after Richmond, check out the Frontstretch YouTube page.