A NASCAR tripleheader is on tap this weekend at Dover International Speedway.
The Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will all converge on the concrete “Monster Mile” for three days of action.
Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (Entry List) is the 11th race of the 2018 Cup Series season with six drivers making it to Victory Lane so far this year. Joey Logano was the latest winner after his GEICO 500 victory last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Jimmie Johnson will be under the spotlight this weekend at Dover thanks to his incredible track record at the one-mile oval. He is an 11-time winner (Past Dover Winners) and is tops in six of the eight statistical loop data categories since 2005 including: driving rating, average running position (7.716), laps led (2,710 since 2005, 3,105 overall), laps run in the top-15 (8,935 laps or 85.8 percent), fastest laps run (1,369) and green flag speed (145.215 mph).
Johnson hasn’t scored a Cup win since his victory in last year’s spring Dover race.
“Its bumpy – and there are bumps in turns one and three.” Johnson explained of the track surface. “So, if your car isn’t bottoming out and your splitter isn’t hitting, you are usually ok and it’s just part of the ride at Dover. “I love Dover, wish we raced there more than twice a year, it’s a great race for this Lowe’s for Pros team and I absolutely cannot wait to get there.”
While Johnson’s Dover performance is historic, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott has also been impressive albeit in a much smaller sample size. Elliott has made four career Dover Cup starts with an average finish of 3.3 (Driver Averages).
“I have been fortunate to have some good runs at Dover over the past couple of years,” Elliott said. “Obviously, haven’t won a race there, but it’s been a solid track. Hopefully, it will continue to be solid for us and me. But there are definitely other tracks that have been more of a struggle.”
Defending Cup champ Martin Truex Jr. is a two-time winner at what the New Jersey native considers both his home track as well as a favorite.
“I just like the racetrack a lot,” Truex said. “The first time I went there I fell in love with the place. Enjoy the challenge of it – it is so different than anywhere else we go. I feel if you like it you have an advantage. It’s been good to me over the years and I enjoy going there. The banking, the concrete, the surface and the way you land in the corners there — it’s just crazy.”
Truex echoes what most drivers believe about Dover and the degree of difficulty getting around the track for 400 miles.
“Dover is the racetrack where you feel the sensation of speed more than anything,” said Kevin Harvick. “It’s a place where you drop off into the corner and slam into a lot of banking and then, as you come out of the corner, it’s kind of like jumping out of a hole and up onto the straightaway. It’s a really fun place to race. You feel that sensation of speed and you can be really aggressive.”
The weekend starts on Friday with the Camping World Truck Series returning to action after an extended break. Dover has been an intriguing stop on the Truck Series schedule over the years.
From 2008 to 2014, Toyota was the victorious manufacturer at Dover. That was until 2015, when Tyler Reddick in a Ford took the win. Toyota came back for one year in 2016 with a Matt Crafton win but Johnny Sauter’s win last year in the No. 21 Chevrolet made that a quick in-and-out for Toyota. If Sauter can pull off another victory in the JEGS 200 (Entry List), the Chevrolet will have won two in a row at Dover, something that has never happened for the manufacturer in this series at Dover.
Saturday the Xfinity Series takes center stage for the OneMain Financial 200 (Entry List), the final Dash 4 Cash race of the season. Four drivers qualified at Talladega for a chance to compete for the $100,000 bonus – JR Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones and RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg. Sieg was named as the fourth qualifier after Spencer Gallagher was disqualified for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy (Read More) after his Talladega win.
