Get ready for something completely different ...
Dover International Speedway isn’t very comparable to any other racetrack the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits. Sure, you might be able to use some things you learned at Bristol since it is also a concrete track, and you might use some things you learned at Atlanta or Texas because Dover is high banked. That said, Dover tends to be an animal of its own.
You know, as much as I had earlier thought going to the spoiler on these cars wouldn’t be a game changer, the reality is it has. It has changed our game a little bit.
Obviously it appears that Joe Gibbs Racing has got their arms around the car and the spoiler. In the six races with the spoiler, Joe Gibbs Racing has won four of those events. It’s obvious that right now this new spoiler favors the folks in the Gibbs camp.
On the flip side of things, Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 bunch has had problems as of late. Sure, if the Texas race had been a little bit longer, Johnson was going to beat Denny Hamlin, but he didn’t. Johnson and Co. weren’t very good at Darlington. They weren’t very good at Richmond. Is that a coincidence? I don’t know that. Crew chief Chad Knaus would probably challenge me if I said the No. 48 has lost a little something with that rear spoiler. In all honesty though, the results speak for themselves.
Now the good news for the Lowe’s team is that Dover has always been a very good race track for them. They’ve won five races there including winning both races in 2009. So this weekend it might be a really good measuring stick of where the No. 48 stacks up when it comes to this rear spoiler.
Don’t discount this team. Don’t forget they have won four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. Also don’t forget they have won championships with the old car, a year where the season had the old and new car and then naturally the last two years with the new car. So never take your eye off that No. 48 car. They will get this spoiler thing figured out.
We’ve all seen how they race and win in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. There is absolutely no reason to think they won’t do the same thing when the Chase starts in mid-September.
