Chase Briscoe is 30/1 to win at Dover

 

CHASE BRISCOE Dover Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Würth 400 (Round 11 of 36) ● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 30 ● Location: Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway ● Layout: 1-mile, concrete oval ● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/400 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 120 laps / Stage 2: 130 laps / Final Stage: 150 laps ● TV/Radio: FS1 / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) look to add to their string of three consecutive top-five finishes after a fourth-place effort last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Briscoe’s season started off slowly, but the 28-year-old who is now in his third year of NASCAR Cup Series competition has secured top-15 results in six of the last seven races, with four of those finishes inside the top-10.   ● With 10 races complete in the 2023 season, Briscoe sits 15th in the driver standings, 88 points out of first.   ● Briscoe has two Cup Series starts at Dover with a best finish of 13th earned in last year’s event at the concrete mile oval. The No. 14 Mahindra Tractors team finished inside the top-15 in eight of 10 events on tracks measuring 1 mile or less during the 2022 season. The only time Briscoe finished outside the top-15 was when he spun on the last lap of the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway dirt race while challenging for the lead, and when his car caught on fire at Richmond (Va.) Raceway in August while running in the top-10.   ● In 2020, the dirt racer from Mitchell, Indiana, found his way to victory lane at the Monster Mile in the second race of a NASCAR Xfinity Series Saturday-Sunday doubleheader. Briscoe started last in the Sunday race after going to a backup racecar and proceeded to lead three times for a race-high 107 laps en route to his sixth win of the season. He won the race by a commanding 2.463-second margin over second-place Ross Chastain.   ● In total, Briscoe has five starts in the Xfinity Series at Dover, his win in 2020 among his three top-five finishes and four top-10s. He also made one NASCAR Truck Series start at Dover in June 2017, which resulted in a 12th-place finish after earning his first career NASCAR pole.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Your streak of top-five finishes continued at Talladega last weekend, and the team is showing a lot of consistency. How tough is it to keep up momentum at a track that is as physically demanding as Dover? “It can be tough. It all starts with qualifying and getting that position up front to start with. You need track position, you need a fast car and you need a driver who is going to be on it. You have to drive hard every lap, so it’s very physically demanding and is definitely not a place where you can just ride around and come out with a good finish.”   What makes Dover such a “monster” of a track? “It is very, very fast. The concrete surface always makes things interesting, and there are some areas of the track where it’s a little rough. You add in the G-forces you get with the steep banking and it gives you a place where you’ve almost got to do everything right or you’re done. You miss your line, you get lapped. Get a little too close to the wall and you’re being lapped or getting wrecked. If you come out of Dover with a win, you truly have earned it.”   You have a Miles the Monster trophy. Where does it rank in terms of the trophies you’ve earned? “The Dover trophy and win are near the top. The first race of the weekend on Saturday was not an easy one for us. We were so fast and we didn’t have the result to go with it. I think there was a little more determination when we got there on Sunday to redeem ourselves and, like I said, you aren’t just getting handed a trophy at Dover. The whole team put in a lot of effort to get us to victory lane that day. We had a lot of big wins in 2020, but that one ranks pretty high on the list.”

Kevin Harvick is 11/1 to win Wurth 400 at Dover

 

KEVIN HARVICK Dover Advance No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/Realtree Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Würth 400 (Round 11 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 30 ●  Location:  Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway ●  Layout:  1-mile, concrete oval ●  Laps/Miles:  400 laps/400 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 120 laps / Stage 2: 130 laps / Final Stage: 150 laps ●  TV/Radio:  FS1 / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/Realtree Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has an impressive streak of top-10 finishes at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Würth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race. Harvick hasn’t finished outside of the top-10 at Dover since a 17th-place result in October 2017. That’s a run of eight straight races, kicked off by a win in May 2018 and punctuated by another victory on Aug. 23, 2020. During this stretch, Harvick’s worst finish is ninth, earned last year.   ●  What was happening back in October 2017? We’ll tell you…     ●  The Las Vegas Golden Knights made their NHL debut in Dallas on Oct. 7, winning 2-1 over the Stars. The Golden Knights were the NHL’s 31st team.     ●  Catalonia voted for independence from Spain.     ●  Pixar’s animated film “Coco” premiered at the Morelia International Film Festival. The film ended up grossing more than $814 million worldwide.     ●  Nearly 3,000 files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released.     ●  Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Danica Patrick, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne and Paul Menard were all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.   ●  Harvick has three NASCAR Cup Series wins at Dover. In addition to the aforementioned victories in May 2018 and August 2020, Harvick won his first Dover race in October 2015. Harvick provided a prelude to that win by finishing second when the series raced at the 1-mile, concrete oval five months earlier for the FedEx 400.   ●  DYK? Harvick’s victory at Dover on Aug. 23, 2020 was Ford’s milestone 700th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory. Ford’s first victory came on June 25, 1950 when Shirtless Jimmy Florian upset the field at Dayton (Ohio) Speedway, beating the likes of NASCAR Hall of Famers Lee Petty and Curtis Turner. Overall, there have been 88 drivers who have won at least one Cup Series race in a Ford. NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, who won Ford’s first series championship in 1965, is the manufacturer’s all-time leader with 43 victories. Ford’s current win tally stands at 721 victories.   ●  Harvick will make his 43rd career NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover when he takes the green flag on Sunday. The only active driver with more Cup Series starts at Dover is Kurt Busch, who made his Cup Series debut at Dover on Sept. 24, 2000, giving him one more Dover start than Harvick. The all-time leader in Cup Series starts at Dover is Ricky Rudd with 56. Rudd made his Cup debut at Dover on May 16, 1976, and his last start at the track came on June 4, 2007, a span of 31 years.   ●  No active driver has led more laps at Dover than Harvick. His 1,666 laps led are 350 more laps than next best Kyle Busch. That difference is just 50 laps short of an entire race distance at Dover. After Harvick and Busch, only one other active driver has cracked the 1,000 laps-led mark at Dover – Martin Truex Jr., with 1,001 laps led. However, the all-time lap leader at Dover is seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson with a staggering 3,113 laps led.   ●  Dover’s nickname is the Monster Mile due to its propensity to chew up and spit out even the most seasoned veteran, yet Harvick has seemingly tamed the Monster. Beyond his three wins, 10 top-fives, 23 top-10s and 1,666 laps led, Harvick has only one DNF (Did Not Finish) at Dover – and it wasn’t even a crash. It was an engine failure in the 2006 Dover 400.   ●  Harvick has also racked up miles at Dover outside of the NASCAR Cup Series. The Bakersfield, California-native has made 17 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Dover, finishing among the top-10 10 times, with a best result of third – earned three times (June 2001, September 2006 and September 2013). Harvick has also made two NASCAR Truck Series starts at Dover, finishing among the top-five both times with a best result of third in June 2012.   ●  The 2023 season marks the 14th year of partnership between Harvick and Hunt Brothers Pizza. The nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry has sponsored Harvick for years in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Truck Series. Hunt Brothers Pizza joined Harvick fulltime in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2019 and has been a mainstay in NASCAR’s premier division ever since. With more than 9,000 locations across the country, Hunt Brothers Pizza is the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry. Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin crust pizzas available as a grab-and-go Hunk A Pizza®, perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle, or as a customizable whole pizza that is an exceptional value with All Toppings No Extra Charge®. Hunt Brothers Pizza is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and is family owned and operated. For additional information, visit www.HuntBrothersPizza.com or download the app.   ●  Said Harvick about his more than decade-long partnership with Hunt Brothers Pizza: “Our fans are pretty loyal to the brands that are on our cars. Many of my pictures come from the standees in the store. People take selfies next to them. There are a number of reasons you have sponsorships – you want that brand recognition, the brand integration. Hunt Brothers Pizza is a very family-oriented company and we’re a very family-oriented group. Those relationships you build through the years with brands that recognize and reflect what you believe in are few and far between. We’ve grown with the Hunt Brothers Pizza brand. They’ve grown with us and have been very loyal to us, and I think our fans are very loyal to Hunt Brothers Pizza. It’s fun to see that brand recognition and that understanding of loyalty and partnership. You realize how many Hunt Brothers Pizza stores there are as you drive to racetracks.”

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/Realtree Ford Mustang

You have three NASCAR Cup Series wins at Dover and 23 top-10s. Is there something specific about Dover that augments your driving style? “Dover is a racetrack that everything about it is unique. The concrete, itself, all the way around the racetrack, is unique. Dover is a racetrack where you can get away with being aggressive every single lap. You have to drive the car as hard as it will go every single lap, and that’s hard to do there because there are all the little bumps that come with the concrete, the change of elevation as you go in and off the corners, and all the banking in the corners – it’s just a really, really fast racetrack. It’s also a very physical racetrack just because of all the G’s and the bouncing and everything that comes with driving around Dover. It’s a racetrack where you have to have your hands gripping on the steering wheel and gritting your teeth all at the same time in order to go fast every single lap. When your car’s off, there’s just nowhere to hide there. You wind up going a lap down, probably two laps down, because you pit early and then the caution comes out. It’s a beast of a racetrack and there’s a reason they call it the Monster Mile because you can get yourself in trouble really quick.”   What is Dover like now after a year with the current car and different rules packages? “Dover is more familiar because there’s actually no shifting. But Dover is still just hammer-down, and car placement is the most important thing there, and knowing when to move your car around in order to get through traffic because it’s always been a difficult racetrack. If you’re stuck to one line, you can get yourself in big trouble at Dover. Usually, the fast line is on the bottom, but you have to be able to figure out how to move around the racetrack. But it’s more straightforward than a lot of the places we go because there’s no shifting, so it’s still got a lot of the characteristics of Dover, but with the big, wide tire and everything we have going on, it’s a lot of throttle.”   Is there something inherent about Dover that resonates with you and makes you so good there? “Dover is one of those racetracks where if we don’t win, we feel like we’ve let everybody down. It’s been a great racetrack for us and we’ve had some really dumb luck there with lug nuts and valve stems, but outside of those few races, it’s been a very successful racetrack for us. Dover is just one of those grind-it-out-type of races. The harder you can drive it and the more aggressive that you can be lap after lap after lap by being more aggressive and consistent, you can grind a lot of them into the ground there just because 400 laps around Dover, staying focused, and being able to grind away with your racecar that hard for that long is tough mentally and physically. It’s a fun race.”   How did you go from initially struggling at Dover to finding success at Dover, and what role did your crew chief, Rodney Childers, play in that? “When I came to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, there were a few tracks that we had circled, and Dover was definitely one of those racetracks where, I’m sure he looked at the results and thought, ‘Man, what in the world? This guy is scared to death of something or he can’t drive’ or whatever the problem was at Dover. But he sat down with me before we went to Dover for the very first time and was like, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re going to do. We are not going to run bad at Dover. Just forget everything that you’ve experienced before and we’re going to start over right here because it’s one of my favorite racetracks.’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, great, the racetrack that I would consider probably one of my top-three worst racetracks is one of his favorite racetracks.’ So immediately that put a lot of pressure on me to have to go out and try to do the best that we can, and really from day one at Stewart-Haas Racing, we have run well at Dover and it’s been one of our best racetracks. But that’s purely because of the focus and mental mindset that Rodney instilled from day one.”   Dover has a very unique trophy. It’s the track mascot, Miles the Monster, and he’s got the winning car held in the air. Is it one of the sport’s best trophies? “My kids love Miles. There are so many racetracks that have terrible trophies – the plastic trophies – I feel like they smash up and I’ll take them home and Keelan will be like, ‘Man, Dad, that’s a terrible trophy.’ That is not the case at Dover. They have a very unique trophy that is easily known as to what racetrack it came from and that’s what every racetrack needs.”

Alex Bowman to Miss 3-4 Weeks

 

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS STATEMENT

CONCORD, N.C. (April 26, 2023) – Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, will not compete in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Dover Motor Speedway due to a fractured vertebra. He is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. Bowman, who leads the Cup Series in average finish through 10 points-paying races in 2023, suffered the compression fracture in an accident Tuesday evening while competing in a sprint car event at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. The 30-year-old driver was treated locally last night and evaluated again this morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. Josh Berry, 32, will fill in during Bowman’s recovery. Earlier this season, he was the substitute for Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott in five Cup events with a best finish of second on April 2 at Richmond Raceway. The Hendersonville, Tennessee, native competes full-time for Hendrick Motorsports affiliate JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he has five career wins. “We’re relieved Alex is home, in good spirits and getting world-class treatment,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “Giving him ample time and the foremost resources to heal is our top priority. He’s having a tremendous season, and the No. 48 is at the top of its game. We know what Josh is capable of in the race car and that Blake (Harris, crew chief) and the team will continue operating at a high level until Alex is ready to return. He has our full, unequivocal support.” Hendrick Motorsports will request a medical waiver to allow Bowman to remain eligible for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Denny Hamlin is 8/1 to win at Dover

FedEx Racing Express Facts – Dover Motor Speedway

 

Denny Hamlin

#11 FedEx Office Toyota

Joe Gibbs Racing

 

Sunday Race Info

Race: Würth 400

Date/Time: Sunday, April 30 / 2 p.m. ET

Distance: 400 laps / 400 miles

Track Length: 1 mile

 

Express Notes

Press Kit: Download the 2023 FedEx Racing press materials at www.fedex.com/en-us/racing/press-kit, including bios for Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing leadership, program highlights and statistics.

Dover Notes: The FedEx Racing driver has one win (August 2020) in his career at Dover Motor Speedway. Hamlin has found success at Dover in recent years as 402 of his 678 laps led at the track have come in the past five trips to the Monster Mile. Last season, Hamlin started second, won stage one, and led 67 laps before a loose wheel dropped him to the rear of the field. After climbing back into contention, he was collected in an accident that ultimately relegated him to a 21st-place finish.

Talladega Recap: The No. 11 team earned their first pole award of the season last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway and Hamlin ended the day with a 17th-place finish. The result was not indicative of the performance Hamlin turned in as he battled amongst the leaders throughout the 500-mile event. Prior to the second attempt at an overtime finish, Hamlin was forced to pit for fuel and lost his track position. Despite avoiding a multi-car accident on the final lap, Hamlin finished the day in the 17th position.

Starting Up Front: Hamlin, NASCAR’s active leader for most pole awards, has claimed four poles at the one-mile concrete oval. For his career, he has eight front-row starting positions at Dover, including a second-place qualifying effort last season. Through a mix of actual qualifying efforts and the metric qualifying system used in 2020 and 2021, Hamlin has started on the front row in four of the past five races at the Monster Mile.

Hamlin Statistics

Track: Dover Motor Speedway

Races: 32

Wins: 1

Poles: 4

Top-5: 6

Top-10: 14

Laps Led: 678

Avg. Start: 9.8

Avg. Finish: 16.4

 

Hamlin Conversation – Dover

What are the challenges of racing at Dover?

“It’s a fast one-mile racetrack with high banking. Believe it or not, the setup correlation for Dover is more like a mile-and-a-half than it is a short track even though it’s only a mile. You can draw some conclusions on who will be good there based on the mile-and-half tracks we’ve ran. It’s a really tough track because if someone bobbles, we’ve seen huge crashes because it all funnels down to the bottom of the racetrack. It’s a track where you need to stay up front because if you get to about eighth place or so, man, it is tough to navigate restarts. If we can put it all together, I’m optimistic about our chances.”

 

FedEx Office Along for the Ride at Dover Motor Speedway: For this weekend’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, Hamlin’s FedEx Office Toyota Camry TRD will feature D081 on the b-post to recognize the District 81 D.C. South team for leading the President’s Club standings for the fiscal year-to-date.

 

FedEx Office – Closest to Dover Motor Speedway: 132 S. Main St., Newark, DE 19711, 302-368-5080

 

2023 FedEx Racing Team Results
DATE	EVENT	LOCATION	START	FINISH	LAPS	STATUS	LED	PTS	TREND
Feb. 19	Daytona 500	Daytona	18th	17th	212/212	Running	6	19th	▬
Feb. 26	Pala Casino 400	Fontana	13th	6th	200/200	Running	11	9th	▲
March 5	Pennzoil 400	Las Vegas	12th	11th	271/271	Running	10	6th	▲
March 12	United Rentals Work United 500	Phoenix	2nd	23rd	317/317	Running	0	12th	▼
March 19	Ambetter Health 400	Atlanta	14th	6th	260/260	Running	14	9th	▲
March 26	EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix	Austin	21st	16th	75/75	Running	0	14th	▼
April 2	Toyota Owners 400	Richmond	11th	20th	400/400	Running	71	12th	▲
April 9	Food City Dirt Race	Bristol	30th	22nd	250/250	Running	0	12th	▬
April 16	NOCO 400	Martinsville	11th	4th	400/400	Running	36	9th	▲
April 23	GEICO 500	Talladega	1st	17th	196/196	Running	7	9th	▬
Averages/Totals			13.3	14.2	100%		155