Dover Betting Preview: 2016 AAA 400

Kevin Harvick was stellar at Dover last season.

LAS VEGAS -- We've blazed through almost every type of track there is over the first 11 races of the Sprint Cup season, with the exception of a road course and a one-mile high banked concrete oval, so let's check off that concrete track this week, a race at Dover that comes a few weeks earlier than it did last season.

Sunday's AAA 400 will be the first race of the season in the northeast after the series has run multiple times in the west, mid-west and south.

The main story coming into the race is no one being hotter in the series than Kyle Busch. The Las Vegas native just won his series leading third race of the season Saturday, his first ever at Kansas Speedway, which was also his series leading ninth top-five finish in 11 races.

After watching the first 11 races last season sitting in his rocking chair at home due to breaking a leg in the season opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona, he grew up real fast as a driver. He understood that the series was moving along just fine without him. Coupled with experiencing the birth of his first child at the same time, he's learned to not be so 'Rowdy" anymore and that adjusted temperament helped him win the first Sprint Cup title of his career and he's been on cruise control ever since.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that he also drives for Joe Gibbs Racing which is producing great cars for not only for Busch, but also Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth while providing equipment for Martin Truex Jr. Edwards' five top-fives is tied with Kevin Harvick for second most in the series and his two wins are tied with Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski for second most. Kenseth, who has had awful luck this season despite great cars, finally got his first top-five of the season at Kansas.

While the JGR drivers all figure to perform well on Dover's 'Monster Mile', the undisputed King of Dover and favorite to win is Johnson.

Last May, Johnson won for a track-record 10th time at Dover which made him the fifth driver in Cup history to win 10 times at a single track joining Richard Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt. In 28 starts, he has 15 top-five finishes, a ninth-place average finish and a series-best 2,999 laps led. At all phases of his career, Dover has been a consistent winner for him. He's currently on a run of winning three of the past five there.

Although Johnson is best at Dover, there was one driver that was better than him last season. Harvick finished second behind Johnson last May and then won in the fall during the Chase where he led 355 of the 400 laps. It was his first win in 30 starts on the track.

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