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RICHMOND, Va. -- For Penske Racing, what's the best antidote for one of the worst NASCAR weekends in the team's history? It could be a trip to Richmond International Raceway. That's where Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski swept both Sprint Cup Series races in 2014, with Keselowski crushing the field in the fall race, leading 383 of the 400 laps in one of the most dominant performances of the season. Team Penske could use a morale boost after the embarrassment of last week's events at Bristol Motor Speedway. Keselowski spun out just 20 laps into the Bristol race, collecting Logano and knocking them down to 35th- and 40th-place finishes. They bounced back strongly at Richmond in qualifying for Saturday night's Toyota Owners 400, with Logano claiming pole position and Keselowski set to line up seventh after pacing the first practice session. "We have a fast Shell-Pennzoil Ford and thought we had a shot at the pole," said Logano after notching his third Cup Series pole of the season. "After the first couple runs it wasn't very good, and we were sitting 11th so we didn't have much to lose and we swung for the fence. "That may be the most surprising pole I've ever gotten," he added. "The last adjustment got her turning, and off she went! The guys did a good job getting this thing faster." Not surprisingly, the four drivers who participated in an April 7 Goodyear tire test at Richmond (Keselowski, AJ Allmendinger, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin) were near the top of the time sheets. Hamlin qualified on the outside of the front row, with Allmendinger right behind him in fourth. Tire issues were a key storyline at the spring 2014 Richmond race, and with rain potentially cleaning the track of rubber prior to the Cup Series race on Saturday night, tire wear could be a crucial factor in the 400-lap race. Goodyear hopes a new right-side tire construction solves the problems suffered last spring. "Our goal for the Richmond test was to confirm a race recommendation targeted for a grip improvement from the fall 2014 race," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of racing. "Even though we were very happy with the way the 2014 tire laid rubber down on the racetrack and with the wear characteristics of the package, input from teams was that a bit more grip was in order. From the results of the test, we feel the new tire combination will deliver that." The new tires may offer more grip, but they are also expected to lose much of that grip over the course of a full race stint. Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson said the drop-off could be as much as 2-2.5 seconds a lap. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Matt Kenseth, who lost the spring 2014 race to Logano after a series of late restarts, enjoys the element of tire management. "If there is a lot of tire fall-off, I think that's something all the drivers will welcome and look forward to," said the Joe Gibbs Racing star. "It's a lot more fun. "This is one of those places that you have to be decent on a short run because you can make some passes on restarts and that type of thing, but you can certainly make a lot of moves at the end of the run if you're handling better." Kenseth is a former Richmond winner (the fall 2002 race), but he admitted that it's a track that still baffles him. "This is one of those tracks that for me is very, very hard to predict," he said. "Even after practice is over and qualifying is over, it's still hard for me to predict. It's a tough one really until you get into the race.  "Whenever I'm pretty confident I know what the track is going to do, it seems like my car goes the other way." Kyle Busch is the modern master of Richmond, with four consecutive wins in the spring race from 2009 to '12, but Busch is not participating this weekend as he recovers from a broken leg and foot suffered earlier this year at Daytona International Speedway. Jimmie Johnson, Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and local favorite Hamlin are all three-time Richmond winners. Johnson showed Friday that even the best drivers and teams can be stymied by Richmond. After running well in practice and in a qualifying simulation, the six-time Cup Series champion was 36th when it counted. "I'm really puzzled and I'm scratching my head," Johnson said. Stewart won the spring race in 2001 and '02 to follow up his victory as a Cup Series rookie in the fall of 1999. The three-time Sprint Cup Series champion is coming off his best race of the 2015 season (sixth place at Bristol) and is heading to his favorite track. "It's not one of my favorite tracks, it is literally the favorite track of mine on the circuit," Stewart remarked. "It seems like there's a lot of congestion at the other short tracks we run, but at Richmond, it just seems like that three-quarter-mile shape, and how wide the groove gets there, allows for good racing. "As much as you're racing everybody else, you have to race the racetrack," he continued. "It's a place where if you can get the balance right it makes it an extremely fun day. You never really get anybody who gets their car perfect. Even the guy that gets the lead still isn't happy with his car." Just ask Logano. After breaking through for a Cup win at Richmond last spring, he's doubling up this weekend by running the Xfinity Series race in an effort to get more track time. "There are some things I want to try personally as a driver to see if it pays off on long runs or short runs and things like that," he said. "We won here last spring and had a decent run in the fall and I feel like we are close. But the tire is different since then and there is another step we have to find here." The pole for Saturday's race shows that he's off to a solid start.
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