NASCAR says three organizations have won at Dover International Speedway’s high-banked 1-mile concrete oval in the last 17 races. Last season one of those teams, Hendrick Motorsports, had all four of its drivers finish 1-2-3-4 in a dominating performance from the same team that set up Jimmie Johnson to win a track record 11 races.
When Alex Bowman led the Hendrick charge last season after runner-up teammate Kyle Larson led 263 of the 400 laps, it gave Hendrick 21 all-time wins among the 103 Dover Cup races run since the first event in 1969. The four current Hendrick drivers are listed at odds to win of 10-to-1 or lower at Caesars Sportsbooks with Larson the 4-to-1 favorite.
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However, we have the new car with wider tires and this weekend will be the first time on the concrete of the Monster Mile. Through 10 races this season, five different organizations have at least one win. Hendrick has four wins, Trackhouse Racing has two wins, Joe Gibbs Racing has two wins, Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing have one win each.
“It’s called the Monster Mile for a reason,” three-time Dover winner Kyle Busch said. “It’s almost like going around a circle in a rollercoaster. The drop-off you have going into the corners, the sustained load that you have, as well as the G-force of turning around that turn and going back in the other direction.”
I love that description by Busch, one of three active drivers with three Dover wins. It’s a shame they took one of the two races away from this unique layout with 24 degrees of banking. There’s nothing like it, but NASCAR needs more road courses and dirt races.
Busch is listed at 10-to-1 odds this week and seven Dover races have passed since he last won there in 2017. He leads all active drivers with 13 top-fives at Dover. And we also can’t forget his five Xfinity Series wins and four Truck Series wins. Busch is tied with Chase Elliott for the series lead with seven top-10s this season.
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- Date: Sunday, May 1, 2022
- TV-Time: FS1, 3:00 p.m. ET
- Venue: Dover Motor Speedway
- Location: Dover, Delaware
- Distance: 400 miles
- Laps: 400
Elliott is the lone Hendrick driver with no wins this season, but he has a 2018 win at Dover. In fact, his Dover resume is quite impressive. His third-place finish last season was his eighth top-five in 11 Cup starts there. That’s like Elliott road course stuff almost.
The parity of 2022 with the new cars is no more apparent than the fact that Elliott doesn’t have a win yet, neither does Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr, Joey Logano, or Kevin Harvick. That’s four former NASCAR Champions winless after 10 races.
Harvick makes his 42nd Cup start at Dover and leads all active drivers with 1,631 laps led while also accumulating 10 top-fives and three wins. He’s a big fan of the Monster Mile.
“Dover is just a unique animal of its own just because of the fact it has those elevation changes and it has a lot of speed,” Harvick said. “Dover is going to be one of the most difficult places we go to in order to just say, ‘OK, this is what we’ve got to do from a driving standpoint to really be up to speed.’ The corners are really long, you have a huge compression when you go down the hill and the car sets, then you get back on the throttle and it shoots you back up out of the hill. It’s a physically demanding racetrack and it’s a racetrack where you definitely get the biggest sensation of speed of anywhere we go because of the way it compresses you down into the banking and tosses you up out of it.”
Harvick is 15-to-1 to win at Caesars and someone to consider for a wager. It feels like not too long ago he led 223 of 311 laps at Dover in 2020 for his third win. Remember when they jammed two races into one weekend? I loved the COVID-19 initiative by NASCAR that season. I want more of it in the future. Hamlin won on Saturday, Harvick won on Sunday.
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Hamlin’s win was the first of his career at Dover after 29 starts. He’s not sure what to expect this weekend.
“It’s another week and another challenge being the first time we’re on a concrete track with this car,” Hamlin said. “It will be interesting to see how the tire does and how the track takes rubber or if it even takes rubber like we hope. It’s a long race Sunday, so we’ll have our hands full trying to stay on top of it, but hopefully we will see the groove widen out and give us options as we go through the day.”
Hamlin was ordered by NASCAR to immediately take sensitivity training following a tweet making fun of Kyle Larson who is of Japanese descent.
The thing I find stunning about Hamlin this season is that his only top-10 of the season came with his Richmond win where his team was rewarded with smart pitting. But Hamlin led only five laps that day. Outside of the two superspeedway races, Hamlin and his team have struggled this season. He didn't do well on the superspeedways either this season.
If the car doesn’t have a chance on speed alone, but a smart driver, clever crew chief, and great timing can see some other drivers pop up with a chance to win.
READ MORE HERE.....TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION ON VEGASINSIDER.COM
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