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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Monster Pressure This Weekend
Dover will be the last chance for drivers to race their way into the Sprint All-Star Race prior to May 22...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted May 12, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Bob Osborne (Left) and Carl Edwards (Right) will get in the Sprint All-Star Race with a win at Dover. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The names are familiar to NASCAR fans: Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Carl Edwards. Each has a long list of accomplishments in NASCAR, yet right now, each is on the outside looking in when it comes to the Sprint All-Star Race, which will be televised live from Charlotte Motor Speedway on SPEED May 22 at 7 p.m.

Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway will be the last chance for those drivers and about 20 others to qualify for the Sprint All-Star Race by winning a NASCR Sprint Cup points race. If they can’t get it done this weekend, their only hopes are to either finish first or second in the Sprint Showdown, the May 22 all-star preliminary race at CMS, or be voted in by fans.

So the pressure will be on this weekend, even more so than usual.

Still, the above five drivers have good shots at winning at Dover. Biffle has two Cup victories there, while Burton and Edwards have one each, and Bowyer has won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race here. Last fall, Montoya scored a career-best fourth at Dover. So all of them will be loaded for bear on Sunday.

“I will be disappointed if we are not in contention for the win this weekend at Dover,” said Biffle. “We led several laps there last spring and we have two wins there. Our pit crew is at the top of their game week in and week out. I was at the shop this week going over our notes from Dover with Greg (Erwin, crew chief) so we would be ready to hit the ground running as soon as we unload. Dover is a great racetrack, the racing is good and as a driver, it’s a fun place to race. We need a good finish there to get back on track after a disappointing weekend in Darlington.”

But winning on Sunday will be anything but easy.

Dover is one of the most challenging tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit, a one-mile, concrete oval with 24 degree banking in the corners. Those characteristics have earned nicknames like “The Monster Mile” and “Bristol on steroids.” Particularly tricky at Dover is the narrow exit of Turn 2, which tends to breed crashes that clog the backstretch and snare a lot of cars in the process.

“Dover is a tough track,” said Bob Osborne, Edwards’ crew chief at Roush Fenway Racing. “It’s really unique and different from any other track that we go to. I think it's probably one of the more physically demanding tracks on a driver.”

Despite the challenges, it’s a track the drivers seem to like.

“We've had our ups and downs at Dover, but we are always running in the top five there,” said Bowyer. “If you run in the top five, anything can happen in these races; we've seen it happen before. But if you run in the top five long enough, you're going to get your win. I feel like Dover is a track where we're due for a win in a Cup car. We've won twice there in a Nationwide car and hopefully we can get the job done.”

But make no mistake about it, for the drivers outside the All-Star race looking in — and everyone else — there is little margin for error this weekend at Dover.

“I don't care who you are or what you say, but if Dover doesn't intimidate you a little bit, you're lying,” said Burton. “It's a fast race track, a lot of speed, a lot of big heavy concrete walls. That place is well-named the Monster Mile. It's hard, hard race track to get hooked up on. You have to be exceptionally aggressive. But if you cross the line, you get in trouble. It's an incredible race track. It's a huge challenge, but I really like going there."

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Week • The Stars Come Out. The Gloves Come Off. • Saturday, May 22nd at 7 pm ET
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