Richmond Raceway Pre-Race Ceremonies

Presented by Virginia 811 to Create Memorable Moments for Go Bowling 250 & Federated Auto Parts 400 on Sept. 20-21 

Richmond Raceway (Richmond) continues to evolve the fan experience during Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by Virginia 811 while continuing the tradition of honoring our country. Fans will once again have an impressive lineup for the Go Bowling 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff race on Friday, Sept. 20, and the Federated Auto Parts 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race on Saturday, Sept. 21.

“Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by Virginia 811 is our opportunity to show appreciation for our country while delivering an interactive experience for our fans,” said Richmond President Dennis Bickmeier. “The NASCAR Playoff Race Weekend will once again include military elements and introduce talented individuals from across the region. We look forward to welcoming our loyal fans and participants to Richmond this weekend.”

The 4th Fighter Wing out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C., will pilot four F-15E Strike Eagles across the sky to launch Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by Virginia 811 prior to the Federated Auto Parts 400. Fans will see this special moment in person on Saturday night at approximately 6:38 p.m. to start Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by Virginia 811 prior to the Monster Energy Series Playoff race.

Retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel D.C. Washington will perform the National Anthem prior to the start of the Federated Auto Parts 400. Washington is well-known among sports fans in the Washington, D.C. region for his performances at numerous venues. This will be the second time that Washington has an active role in Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by Virginia 811 as he performed God Bless America this past April for the TOYOTA OWNERS 400.

Additional elements of pre-race ceremonies for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 include the FasTrax skydiving team, God Bless America performed by Josh Gallagher, and the Pledge of Allegiance by Boy Scout Troop and Cub Scout Pack 521 from Cool Spring Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, Va. The Color Guard will be presented by the Fort Lee Join Armed Forces Color Guard Team led by Sergeant First Class William Ennis and the invocation will be given by Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel Smith.

Shannon O’Keefe, 2019 PWBA Tour Champion, will be in attendance as well as Honorary Starter Jim Zhang, Chairman & CEO of Friction One, and Grand Marshal Rusty Bishop, CEO of Federated Auto Parts. Representatives from Virginia 811, Who’s Your Driver, Henrico County, and Virginia Tourism Corporation will also be in the VIP handshake line.

PAW Patrol’s Chase and Marshall from the top-rated preschool series PAW Patrol, produced by Spin Master Entertainment on Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, will make their way through the FanGrounds, Richmond’s modernized infield, to engage with young fans and NASCAR drivers as part of Pre-Race Ceremonies presented by va811.com.

🔈🆙 for @SLEEPWALKERSRVA!

They’ll be playing on the midway stage at 4 pm (come see them) then they’ll be hanging with us for the #GoBowling250. Stay tuned... #LiveMuisc + @NASCAR 🤘 pic.twitter.com/CKnjiVMtsS

— Richmond Raceway (@RichmondRaceway) September 20, 2019

On Friday, Sept. 20, fans will see Lyndsey Highlander perform the National Anthem during pre-race ceremonies for the Go Bowling 250. The Virginia State University Army ROTC Honor Guard will present our nation’s colors. The invocation will be given by Pastor Joe Ellison, Jr., Chaplain for Sports Athletics at Virginia Union University.

Shannon O’Keefe, 2019 PWBA Tour Champion and PWBA Tour Player of the Year, will be the Honorary Starter and Dasha Kovalova, semi-finalist in the PWBA Tour Championship, will be the Grand Marshal. Rick Pevarski, Executive Director of Virginia 811, will also address the crowd.

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🏁 🏆 Last Five Posts 🏆 🏁

1. Rest In Peace Mike Stafanik
2. Scott Warfield on #NASCAR Expanding into Betting
3. Pre-Race Ceremonies to Elevate Fan Experience
4. Last Weekend #NASCAR Winner’s Quotes#Winners - Martin Truex Jr.; Tyler Reddick; Austin Hill; Ty Gibbs
5. “Show Us How You Roll" Richmond Campers

Scott Warfield on #NASCAR Expanding into Betting

I love NASCAR and I love gambling . . . . seems like my time has arrived!!!

In May of 2018, The United States Supreme Court agreed to allow New Jersey's bid for sports betting at its casinos and racetrack. That effectively ending prohibition (PASPA**) on a $100 billion industry and striking down restrictions on wagering outside of Nevada.

What does that mean for NASCAR Fans? Interested in a Kyle Larson-Denny Hamlin-Chase Elliott trifecta; a bet in which the person betting forecasts the first three finishers in a race in the correct order. Sounds like it might happen in the near future according to series managing director of gaming Scott Warfield. It has been his job to make this happen.

Question: Heading in the postseason-opener in Las Vegas, how does NASCAR plan to leverage legal sports betting to improve engagement?

Scott Warfield's Answer:

I might back up just a second and give you a kind of how we got to today.

So, obviously last year with PASPA being struck down in May, we kind of took it to [the series-owning France] family and said, 'Here's what's happening. What's your take?' And excitingly enough, I think they saw it pretty early on as a great opportunity for engagement.

So they kind of gave us the full-steam-ahead with the understanding that we would have everything from an integrity standpoint squared away.

So the first thing we did, probably late summer, early fall last year was we signed our integrity deal with Sportradar and they came in and did a bunch of fraud-detection monitoring education sessions with the teams and the tracks and the drivers.

All being independent stakeholders, it was important that everyone kind of understood that integrity component. They helped us look at different bet types and kind of what would be considered safe versus challenging out of the gate. So that was helpful.

And, really, I think that component was so key because I think we're able to go back and say, ‘Look, we're going to have one of the most comprehensive integrity programs in all of motor sports if not sports in general.’

So with the integrity and Sportradar deal behind us, we shifted to finding a data partner and went through a pretty exhaustive search, ultimately ended up announcing that Genius Sports was going to be our exclusive data provider in the gaming space.

Over time, they will be taking our live data and producing a high-quality live, what we're calling an in-race betting process, that will go out to all the sportsbooks and operators around the world. Kind of in parallel that, a big piece of what our strategy has been the content piece and understanding that we don't have 40-plus years of rich history around bettors betting on NASCAR.

So how do you start to educate and make aware not only our fan base, but that casual sports bettor what the opportunities are currently and what they could be in the future?

We've been in earnest developing kind of a phased approach with this data product and are hopeful and looking forward to phase one of that in Vegas, that we'll look at a couple of markets, take for instance, a race winner and how do you make that live, in-play or in-race during the playoffs, then over time, adding in more markets.

I think the approach we've taken alongside Genius was let's phase this in as opposed to dropping 40 or 50 markets out of the gate on a betting discipline that may or may not be ready for that.

Seen a lot of books this year. This one at the @TheLINQ has to be right up near the top of the list with the addition of rentable fan caves for small groups. Would love to see this setup on a @NASCAR raceday. pic.twitter.com/PN0G8WIMVn

— Scott Warfield (@warfieldscott) September 18, 2019

Question: Will fans and potential bettors should see more NASCAR offerings as the playoffs progress?

Scott Warfield's Answer: 

I think that's a fair way to put it.

I think Genius' hope is looking to roll out in September around the Vegas race and starting playoffs, taking that race-winner market and making it in-play. Do you do that around the stage winners, making that throughout the first and second stages? Do you do that with qualifying?

And then as we start to look, maybe halfway through the playoffs, into a phase two, you start talking about things like adding team of the race winner or [manufacturer] of the race winner. You could see a driver matchups, group winners, top-three finish, top 10 finish exact the trifectas.

There's a long litany opportunities and we've been on a listening tour with all of the major operators on what do they see as, as good opportunity, especially early on to whet the appetite of that casual, bettor whet the appetite of the core fan that would get them engaged, because our whole goal of this discipline is engagement. And if we can get our core fans to watch an extra 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, that's going to be massive for us.

If we can get that core fan to engage with this product -- we've seen it happen in other disciplines -- they are going to be the ambassador or the evangelist for it. We think that will lead to casual fan saying, 'Hey, it's May, it's Sunday. I don't really have anything to bet on. How do I get into this?'

**What is PASPA?

PASPA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and went into effect in January 1993. Nevada – the only state at the time the bill became law that had widespread state-sponsored sports bettors – and three other states with more limited betting (Oregon, Delaware and Montana) were grandfathered in.

PASPA didn’t outlaw sports betting because that was already illegal. Rather, PASPA banned states – outside those given exemptions – from regulating (and taxing) sports betting.

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🏁 🏆 Last Five Posts 🏆 🏁

1. Richmond Raceway Kicks Off The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs
2. Pre-Race Ceremonies to Elevate Fan Experience
3. Last Weekend #NASCAR Winner’s Quotes#Winners - Martin Truex Jr.; Tyler Reddick; Austin Hill; Ty Gibbs
4. “Show Us How You Roll" Richmond Campers
5. Rest In Peace Mike Stafanik

Richmond Raceway Kicks Off The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs

It’s that time of year – Playoffs baby!

• Next Race: Go Bowling 250
• The Place: Richmond Raceway
• The Date: Friday, September 20
• The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
• TV: NBCSN, 7 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 187.5 miles (250 Laps);
• Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 75),
• Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 150),
• Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)
• 2018 Race Winner: Christopher Bell

Tyler Reddick (#2 'TAME the BEAST' NASCAR Xfinity Series Chevrolet)

For the fourth consecutive year (2016-2019) the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will be the stage for this season’s 12 best drivers to battle it out over the next seven races in an elimination-style format to decide the series champion. The Round of 12 will be contested at Richmond Raceway, the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL and Dover International Speedway – with only eight drivers advancing to the next round.

Since the inaugural year of the postseason in 2016, the NASCAR Xfinity Series has seen three different champions hoist the trophy at season’s end –

• Daniel Suarez (2016)
• William Byron (2017)
• Tyler Reddick (2018).

Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick is the first returning champion to compete in the following season’s Playoffs under this format and could become the first driver to win back-to-back titles in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Playoff era (2016-2019) and the seventh all-time joining Sam Ard (1983-84), Larry Pearson (1986-87), Randy LaJoie (1996-1997), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-99), Martin Truex Jr. (2004-05) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2011-12).

.@NASCAR's @TylerReddick debuts @kseofficial-themed car: https://t.co/ow4z3qFzRR

— Loudwire (@Loudwire) September 18, 2019

In 2016 and 2017, Kentucky Speedway hosted the first race of the Xfinity Playoffs, but for the second straight year Richmond Raceway will kick off the postseason in this weekend’s Go Bowling 250 on Friday, September 20 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“The Playoffs are finally here, and we can’t wait to turn up the wick and go get them this weekend at Richmond,” said JR Motorsport’s driver Michael Annett.

Heading into the first round of the Playoffs, wins are still the No. 1 goal for each driver because victory guarantees the driver’s spot in the next round. Starting the Playoffs off with a win can be quite fortuitous - Elliott Sadler (Kentucky, 2016) and Christopher Bell (Richmond, 2018) - each went on to make the Championship 4 after winning the Playoff opener. Only once in the past three Playoffs has the first race of the postseason been won by a non-championship contender – Tyler Reddick’s win at Kentucky in 2017.

This season’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs are made up of 12 different drivers from eight different organizations. Eight of the 12-driver Playoff field this season are returning Xfinity Playoff contenders, while four drivers – all Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders – Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley and John H. Nemechek are making their first postseason appearances.

Three organizations have qualified multiple drivers for the 2019 Playoffs – JR Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. Below is this season’s Playoff field broken down by organization:

2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series Driver Playoff Field

• JR Motorsports – Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Noah Gragson
• Joe Gibbs Racing – Christopher Bell, Brandon Jones
• Stewart-Haas Racing – Cole Custer, Chase Briscoe
• Richard Childress Racing – Tyler Reddick
• Team Penske – Austin Cindric
• Kaulig Racing – Justin Haley
• RSS Racing – Ryan Sieg
• GMS Racing – John H. Nemechek

🏁 🏆 Last Five Posts 🏆 🏁

1. Pre-Race Ceremonies to Elevate Fan Experience
2. Last Weekend #NASCAR Winner’s Quotes#Winners - Martin Truex Jr.; Tyler Reddick; Austin Hill; Ty Gibbs
3. “Show Us How You Roll" Richmond Campers
4. Rest In Peace Mike Stafanik
5. 16-Player Field Set for PWBA Tour ChampionshipAt Richmond Raceway on September 16-18