Blake Koch at Richmond Raceway… Blake Koch has 12 previous starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) at Richmond Raceway. He earned a track-best finish of eighth in April 2016 after starting 16th. His track-best start (fifth) came in this race last year as he went on to finish 15th. Earlier this season, Koch qualified 14th and went on to finish 11th, avoiding a carnage-filled ending to the event.
Sounding Off – Blake Koch… “Richmond has typically been a good track for us. I love short tracks and Richmond has some unique characteristics that makes it really fun. We have the opportunity to continue to solidify our spot in the playoffs this weekend as long as we are smart. The ending of the April race was kind of chaotic so we will do our best to stay out of harm’s way and leave with a solid finish.”
Close to Home… Kaulig Racing crew chief and general manager, Chris Rice, calls RIR his home track. Rice grew up in South Boston, Va., just over 100 miles from Richmond. His mom, Cathy, runs South Boston Speedway, a racetrack in Rice’s hometown, and also sits on the NASCAR Appeals Board. When Rice was five years old, his dad, Allan, and uncle started their own race team. Rice immediately started working on the pit crew for his family’s team and worked his way up through the NASCAR ranks.
2017 Season… Koch is currently eighth in the NXS Championship driver standings after 24 races. He has recorded one pole position, six top-10 starts, three top-10 finishes and 11 top-15 finishes. The Kaulig Racing driver has led 32 laps so far in 2017. Last week at Darlington Raceway, Koch started 18th and fought a loose-handling No. 11 machine before earning a track-best finish of 11th. He is currently 44 points above the cut line in the NXS playoff standings.
Meet Blake…Koch will meet with fans and sign autographs at the LeafFilter Gutter Protection display at Richmond Raceway on Friday, September 8th at 5:30 p.m ET.
He will answer fan questions at the Chevy display at Richmond Raceway on Friday, September 8th at 5:45 p.m ET.
Blake Koch NXS Career… Koch makes his 205th NXS start this weekend at Richmond Raceway. To date, Koch has a career-best NXS starting position of first at Talladega Superspeedway (May 2017), and a career-best NXS finish of seventh at Road America (August 2017).
Tune-In… The 250-lap Virginia529 College Savings 250 from Richmond Raceway will be televised live Friday, September 8th , 2017 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and will be broadcasted live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel 90.
Keeping up with Kaulig Racing… To receive up-to-date information on the No. 11 NXS team, follow @KauligRacing on Twitter as well as on the Kaulig Racing™ Facebook page, www.facebook.com/kauligracing, and the team’s website, www.kauligracing.com.
