RACE: Camping World RV 400
PLACE: Dover International Speedway
DATE: Sunday, September, 22, 2008
TIME: 1:00 pm.
TELEVISION: WMAR, Channel 2, ABC
WEATHER: Partly Cloudy, 79F
The Sprint Cup Series moves on to Dover, Delaware for the second race in the 2008 “Chase for the Championship” where the high-banked, high-speed concrete track provides for the kind of racing that can be absolutely chaotic for drivers’ hopes and dreams. The main goal first and foremost at Dover is to finish the race and not be part of the scrapheap. All the other fine points of racing come next. Take a look at your favorite drivers in the Chase. Chances are good a couple of them will be far, far behind Monday. That’s what happens when machines and men try to tame the “Monster.”
Dover has been a mixed mess for the chase contenders. In eight starts, for instance, Carl Edwards, has one win and an average finish of 8.3. No other driver has an average finish in the top ten. Denny Hamlin has faced the cruelest fortune in five starts with an average finish of 21st. Perhaps the real record for futility though goes to Kevin Harvick who has fifteen starts at the Monster Mile with an average finish of 19.3.
For more on the fate of the chase contenders, please see the following link from NASCAR.com. http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/features/09/18/cup.by.the.numbers.dover/index.html
Few tracks offer more variables to achieve success than the race track in Delaware. Pit row is narrow, the stalls are short. #42 and #43 in the field must share a pit. The high banks facilitate fast racing but cars that hit the wall drift down the track to the bottom allowing more exposure to collect more on-coming race cars. The driver’s fate is subject much more to the action of other drivers than practically any other track spare Bristol.
It’s great racaing from the fan’s perspective, but so many times a driver gets off to a great start only to get caught up in the chaos created by the one mile trash compactor. Dover is also a darned tough track on machinery as well.
Bring it on. Cheer for your favorite driver. Be prepared that by the end of the afternoon on Sunday, the Sprint Cup Chase will be a trip home from the “land of broken dreams” for a handful of the contestants. If the Chase is a process of elimination, the Monster Mile at Dover is a true eliminator. Count on that.
Dover has been a mixed mess for the chase contenders. In eight starts, for instance, Carl Edwards, has one win and an average finish of 8.3. No other driver has an average finish in the top ten. Denny Hamlin has faced the cruelest fortune in five starts with an average finish of 21st. Perhaps the real record for futility though goes to Kevin Harvick who has fifteen starts at the Monster Mile with an average finish of 19.3.
For more on the fate of the chase contenders, please see the following link from NASCAR.com. http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/features/09/18/cup.by.the.numbers.dover/index.html
Few tracks offer more variables to achieve success than the race track in Delaware. Pit row is narrow, the stalls are short. #42 and #43 in the field must share a pit. The high banks facilitate fast racing but cars that hit the wall drift down the track to the bottom allowing more exposure to collect more on-coming race cars. The driver’s fate is subject much more to the action of other drivers than practically any other track spare Bristol.
It’s great racaing from the fan’s perspective, but so many times a driver gets off to a great start only to get caught up in the chaos created by the one mile trash compactor. Dover is also a darned tough track on machinery as well.
Bring it on. Cheer for your favorite driver. Be prepared that by the end of the afternoon on Sunday, the Sprint Cup Chase will be a trip home from the “land of broken dreams” for a handful of the contestants. If the Chase is a process of elimination, the Monster Mile at Dover is a true eliminator. Count on that.
One additional note, rumbles continue that Bruton Smith is tendering offers to buy the Dover track, presumably to move at least one date to his venue in Kentucky. How can this be? Dover has a huge capacity of 147,000 and serves three major markets: Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Further, it's in easy range for a day trip from New York City and Tidewater, Virginia. Last spring's race was not a sellout, but still there were more fannnies in seats than at just about any other track available regardless. NASCAR's home in the Mid-Atlantic is Dover, Delaware. Maryland blew its opportunity to gain its spot on the cicuit early in the decade with that expansion going to Chicago.
MESSAGE TO NASCAR & MR. SMITH: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT MOVING OUR TRACK!!!
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