With last Saturday's drama under the lights at Darlington Raceway behind them, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race teams and fans now head to Dover, Del., for Sunday afternoon racing.
Last week’s action was hot even before the green flag flew, with overheated tempers that followed the Richmond race where Juan Pablo Montoya sent Ryan Newman into the wall. They talked and it’s widely believed Newman tossed a light punch Montoya’s way in, of all places, NASCAR’s office trailer.
The end of the Darlington race produced even more drama between drivers. Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick tangled, with both crashing. Harvick exited his car and proceeded in the direction of Busch’s car on pit road. Busch, with no reverse gear, used his car to shove Harvick’s in what he said was an attempt to get out of the area. Harvick tried to get at Busch in his car, failed, then stormed down pit road and into the garage, where he headed toward Busch’s hauler.
NASCAR officials and team members then intervened. Both drivers were fined and put on probation. The feud could erupt again this weekend at Dover.
Nobody predicted that Regan Smith, who in 103 previous career starts had not scored a top-five finish, would win Darlington (where he’d never previously led a single lap), but he did. Smith, 27 and from Cato, N.Y., was the second first-time winner of the 2011 season. The other was Trevor Bayne, who won the Daytona 500.
Dover is a high-banked (at 23 degrees it's nearly as steep as Bristol), 1-mile fast concrete oval located between Philadelphia and Washington, DC. It is one of the most demanding tracks because the steep banks, combined with high speed, generate strong G-force loads on the drivers. Transitions into the turns are abrupt, putting extraordinary pressure on right front tires and suspension components, which sometimes fail, sending drivers into the wall.
Three drivers — Jeff Gordon, AJ Almendinger and Denny Hamlin — tested tires for Goodyear at Dover in April. We saw last weekend that drivers who tire tested had an advantage in the race, and you can expect the same this weekend.
Dover’s pit road is one of the most difficult in all of NASCAR. It’s hard to enter at maximum speed while simultaneously obeying NASCAR’s rules. Last year, there were 15 pit-road speeding penalties at Dover. No driver has won a Sprint Cup race after being tagged for speeding since June 2007, when Carl Edwards did it at Michigan.
Dover’s pit boxes are very small. Compare them to Darlington's, where last week’s boxes were two feet wider and two feet longer. Drivers must pit within their assigned box or face significant penalties.
Jimmie Johnson has had better Dover results recently than anyone else. He has led the most laps in each of the past four races there, winning three of them. He led an amazing 62 percent of the laps in those races. Johnson has won six times at Dover, making it one of the five-time champion’s best tracks.
Another to consider a threat for the checkered flag is the oldest driver running all of the races this year, 52-year-old Mark Martin, who has called Dover one of his favorite tracks. In 49 starts (more than anyone else entered for Sunday’s event), Martin has won four times, finished second seven times and third twice for an amazing 26 percent top-three finishes.
And there’s Kyle Busch, who has won six Dover races in 31 starts across NASCAR’s top three divisions. He won last spring’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide races.
The Camping World Truck Series runs on Friday night at Dover. The event will be covered by SPEED, which is owned by FOX, and will air beginning with the preview show beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Some of the same folks who bring you NASCAR on FOX’s coverage of Sprint Cup racing are involved in that broadcast.
FOX will have more than 50 people at Dover working to bring you broad and entertaining coverage of Sunday’s race. There will be nine in-car cameras, four pit reporters, Jeff Hammond’s cut-away car and its cut-away components, Chris Myers in the Hollywood Hotel, a blimp and a super slow-motion camera as well as cameras all over the racetrack and in the pits. You’ll see everything that goes on at Dover on Sunday afternoon’s FOX broadcast.
The weekend kicks off on Thursday with Artie Kempner’s golf tournament to benefit the fight against Autism. Kempner is NASCAR on FOX’s director. Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, J.J. Yeley, David Gilliland, Casey Mears, Michael Waltrip, Reed Sorenson and Tommy Baldwin will join the NASCAR on FOX announce team along with several SPEED TV personalities at the tournament. Artie’s tournament is in its 10th year and has raised over $3 million to help combat autism.
