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Dover's "monster mile" makes for wild racing at the best of times...and this year it features the CoT. (LAT photo) » More Photos
This week, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series travels to Dover International Raceway for the Autism Speaks 400 presented by Visa, race No. 13 of the 36 on the season and one that is intriguing on a number of different levels.
First off, the so-called "Monster Mile" has earned its nickname for good reasons. The combination of steep, 24-degree banking in the corners, 9-degree banking on the straights and a concrete racing surface makes for a track that tends to be extremely difficult on the cars and the drivers.
Think of Dover as Bristol on steroids, with longer straightaways and an expected pole speed in the 160+ miles per hour range. It will test the limits of each driver's talent and ability to be patient, you can count on it. And with temperatures expected to be in the mid-80s with steamy humidity on Sunday, you will see tempers fray, cars wreck and lots of intensity on the track, both the good kind – hard driving – and the bad kind – hot-headedness.
Exacerbating these tendencies will be the fact that Sunday's race will be a Car of Tomorrow race and that the scheduled COT test at Dover earlier this month was cancelled. Given that the main weakness of the COT is its inability to turn through the center of the corners and given that the nature of crashes at Dover is for driver to hit the outside of the Turn 2 wall at and ricochet
Also worthy of mention is that the Dover race will mark the midpoint of NASCAR's regular season, halfway to the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup. Pressure is increasing on teams to perform and already the Silly Season rumblings have begun. It's only going to get worse from here on out.
Even though it didn't last, Kenseth was pleased by the promising performance of his Roush Ford at Dover. (LAT photo) MORE NASCAR PHOTOS » More Photos
On Sunday, there could be a car in victory lane that doesn't belong to Rick Hendrick, the team owner who's been victorious in nine of the last 10 points races this season. The last five races at Dover, however, have produced five different winner with four different teams: Jeff Burton (Richard Childress Racing), Matt Kenseth (Roush Fenway Racing), Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports), Greg Biffle (Roush) and Ryan Newman (Penske Racing). It would not be a shocker if any of those five drivers repeated again on Sunday.
Nor would it be a surprise if Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart or either of the Busch brothers won here. The race is that wide open, one where there really isn't a clear-cut favorite, especially with the COT factored in. Clichéd though it may sound, it's really anybody's race, so anything and everything could happen.
That said, here are my five picks to look for on Sunday:
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