Richmond Notes & Facts Friday poles

 Heavy rain hits Richmond, floods garage: Heavy rain and lightning scrapped the final half-hour of NASCAR Nationwide Series practice Thursday afternoon at Richmond International Raceway, but the mid-afternoon downpour caused more lasting issues for race teams. The Nationwide Series official hauler and about a dozen other team transporters were flooded by several inches of standing water, even an hour after rain had subsided at the .75-mile track. The race teams placed their cars on jackstands to avoid submersion, but the rainwater was deep enough to cover the tops of the scales in the NASCAR inspection area. Crewmembers walked from their haulers in the garage area in bare feet and rolled-up pants legs after the gully-washer. Nationwide teams were approximately 50 minutes into a final 90-minute practice session when lightning in the area forced NASCAR officials to order spotters down from their rooftop perch, putting a hold on on-track activity. About 10 minutes later, the skies opened with torrential rain to wash out the remainder of the session. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, recently renamed the Junie Donlavey Garage in honor of the Richmond native and longtime team owner, was not affected by the heavy rain. But the third-turn vehicle tunnel was flooded with 6-8 inches of water, according to a track maintenance worker

 Nationwide expands sponsorship of the #88 Chevy: Nationwide has expanded its three-year relationship with Hendrick Motorsports to become the majority sponsor of driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #88 Chevy team beginning with the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Nationwide, which in May announced it will join Hendrick Motorsports as a corporate partner, will increase its primary sponsorship of Earnhardt to 21 Sprint Cup events, including the Daytona 500, for each of the next three seasons. The revised agreement provides Nationwide with nine additional primary races in 2015 and eight additional primary races in both 2016 and 2017.
"We're thrilled to be deepening our partnership with the Hendrick Motorsports team," said Matt Jauchius, chief marketing officer at Nationwide. "We look forward to seeing Nationwide on the #88 for NASCAR's biggest races over the next three seasons." Nationwide is making an early debut as Earnhardt's primary sponsor during this weekend's Sprint Cup event in Richmond, Virginia, where it is previewing the 2015 #88 Nationwide Chevy paint scheme.
"That Nationwide has already elected to grow the sponsorship sends a clear message about the opportunities they see and how well our teams are working together," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "It's quickly become a strong relationship, and we're committed to building on that foundation and delivering results in every facet of the program."
"I know the people at Nationwide extremely well and truly appreciate how invested they are in our team and our sport," said Earnhardt, whose family has been insured by Nationwide for more than 35 years and who has been featured in its national advertising since 2009. "It's extremely gratifying that they recognize so much value in the partnership and want to do more. Having this kind of support and seeing so many positive things happening around the team feels really good

 Harvick to run special Budweiser scheme at RIR: Kevin Harvick's #4 Budweiser Chevy will feature a special look for Saturday night's race at Richmond. The car's paint scheme reflects the primary packaging for Budweiser's new reclosable aluminum bottles that debuted this week. The new red bottle is a modern interpretation of the classic Budweiser label that features the iconic Budweiser creed and Anheuser-Busch medallion

 CorvetteParts.net Looks Ahead to Richmond with Go FAS Racing: When driver Travis Kvapil takes the green flag at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond, CorvetteParts.net will once again emblazon the side of Go FAS Racing's Ford Fusion. Owners Tom and TJ Keen of Keen Parts will be featuring the CorvetteParts.net brand for this race and are looking forward to a weekend of great racing. Kvapil states "I'm really looking forward to racing at Richmond this weekend. I'm excited to get back to racing at a track which is a great blend of short track and intermediate type track. Ultimately, it comes down to a good handling car; one that turns through the middle of the corner and has good forward drive on the throttle. That's a hard combination to find, but we'll work on the 32 car throughout practices and do our best to find a good balance

 Patrick, second best finish by female driver in Cup: #10-Danica Patrick's sixth-place finish is the highest finish by a female at Atlanta. The previous record was Janet Guthrie's 10th-place finish on March 19, 1978. Only a fifth-place result by Sara Christian in a Sprint Cup race on Oct. 2, 1949 at Heidelberg (Pa.) Raceway tops Patrick's finish. Christian also finished sixth at Langhorne (Pa.) Speedway on Sept. 11, 1949 and Guthrie finished sixth at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Aug. 28, 1977. Though she ended up one spot behind Christian's record, Patrick notched her third top-10 of the year as she finished seventh in May at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City and eighth in July at Daytona. If she scores one more top-10 in 2014, she will tie Guthrie, who had four in 1977