Next Race: Gander RV 400 The Place: Dover International Speedway The Date: Sunday, May 5 The Time: 2 p.m. ET TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 400 miles (400 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 120), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 240), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 400) 2018 Winner: Kevin Harvick Kyle Busch is at a record pace Kyle Busch is not only pacing the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in victories (three) this season, but his 10-consecutive top-10 finishes through the opening 10 races has only been accomplished by four other drivers – Lee Petty (1955), James Hylton (1972), Cale Yarborough (1974), Morgan Shepherd (1990) – and hasn’t been done in 29 years. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who celebrates his 34th birthday on Thursday, has 12 consecutive top-10 finishes going back to the end of the 2018 season. And this week’s Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) may well be a place for Busch to further pad his numbers. He has 12 total NASCAR national series victories at the famed one-miler, including three in the Monster Energy Series, five in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and four in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. He has 17 top-10 finishes and 12 top-five showings in 28 series starts, including a series-best four more runner-up finishes in the past four seasons in addition to his three wins. Only the track’s all-time best Jimmie Johnson has more top-fives (17) or top-10s (24). Busch, who drives the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, has led laps in six of the last eight races. He won the pole position in the Playoff race at Dover last Fall and won the 2017 Playoff race at the track, however he finished 35th after a drivetrain problem in this spring race at Dover last year. An 11th consecutive top-10 finish this week would tie a mark set in 1990 by Morgan Shepherd who began the season with 11 top 10s. Busch continues to lead the Monster Energy Series championship driver standings. He’s now 15-points up on Joey Logano and boasts the most stage wins (five) of the series. “I love that place,’’ Busch said of Dover’s Monster Mile. “It’s fun to race there and it’s a place I’m looking forward to going to with our Toyota Camry. I went there when I was 18 to race in the Xfinity Series for my first time. It will scare you the first time you race there. You carry so much speed at that racetrack and, for it to be a mile in length and for it to be concrete – concrete surfaces that we race on, anyway – are a little bit slick. “It’s definitely a rollercoaster ride and you need to treat it like it’s fun and not to be scared of the place, I think, because you can get so much out of that place. There are two ways about it – you can probably be really, really good there, or really, really bad there. Some days are going to be better than others, obviously, with how you can get your car set up compared to the competition.” Chasing Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott Chase Elliott’s dramatic victory at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday not only secured a Playoff berth for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ reigning Most Popular Driver, but it was a huge boost of early season confidence for the 23-year old from Georgia. Elliott returns to Dover International Speedway this week as the most recent winner at the Monster Mile. He scored a Playoff win here last October and has been nothing short of amazing in his young career at the track. He has five top-five finishes in six series races. His “worst” showing is 12th in this race last year. Watch for him to be upfront as his 4.3 average finish is best in the series as is his 8.24 average running position. The victory last Sunday was the fourth of Elliott’s four-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. He’s. seventh in the championship standings, only four points behind 2017 series champ Martin Truex Jr. “What kind of stands out to me, I just love Dover, because when you win Dover, you’ve done something,’’ Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson said, looking ahead after the Talladega win. “That’s a tough, fast track. There’s no place to hide. There’s no way you can get away with not being on the edge all day.’’ Truex loves coming home to Dover Martin Truex Jr. heads to Dover International Speedway feeling both comfortable and optimistic. The New Jersey native considers Dover as close to a “home track” as he has. And it has long been a sentimental favorite as well, considering it’s where Truex scored his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win in June of 2007. He added another trophy is 2016 and shows up this weekend already with a victory on the season – scoring his first career short track win at Richmond Raceway three weeks ago. Since a disappointing 35th-place showing in the season-opening Daytona 500, Truex has steadily made his way up the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. The new Joe Gibbs Racing team driver has a pair of runner-up showings (at Atlanta and Phoenix) in the No. 19 Toyota Camry and is currently sixth in the championship rankings, only nine points behind fifth place Brad Keselowski. Truex has five top-10s and four top-fives in the last six Dover races, leading 387 laps in that time. He hasn’t started farther back than the fourth row in the last eight races. He’s won at the track in the Xfinity Series too – scoring two of his 13 career wins there (in 2004 and 2005). He said he expects Sunday’s race to be more unpredictable than past versions. “Dover is going to be a tough race, I think,’’ Truex said. “The speeds are going to be really high. I’m sure it will be the fastest we’ve ever been around Dover and 400 laps there is tough no matter what. I think it’s going to be pretty crazy. “Hopefully we’ll be able to do some passing and hopefully the dirty air deal is not terrible. I think track position will be important, but the speeds are going to be tough. It’s going to be demanding. Bristol was pretty crazy. I thought it was just because of how hard you had to drive the car every lap. As fast as Dover is, I think feel wise, it’s probably the fastest place we go. So, it’s going to be an eye opener for some guys.” Harvick has some ground to make up Kevin Harvick grimaced answering reporters’ questions last weekend following an early and unexpected exit from the Talladega Superspeedway race. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver and perennial championship contender was collected in a wreck only 11 laps into last Sunday’s event and suffered a season worse 38th-place finish. But Harvick arrives at Dover International Speedway, the defending race winner of Sunday’s Gander RV 400 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and more than ready to correct his season trajectory. He led a series-best 487 laps in the two 2018 races on the Monster Mile, winning in the spring and finishing sixth during the Fall Playoff race. He has six top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 36 starts – earning five top-10s since joining SHR in 2014. In 2015, Harvick led an amazing 355 of the 400 laps to earn his first victory at Dover. During a five-race stretch from 2014-16, he led 810 laps at the track – 56% of his 1,442-career total. Harvick crashed out in both of this season’s superspeedway races (in the season-opening Daytona 500 and at Talladega) but is still ranked fourth in the championship thanks to top-10 finishes in seven of the other eight races. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang has four finishes of fourth-place this season. Dover is a vital venue for Jimmie Johnson Seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson returns to the site of his most recent victory – Dover International Speedway, where he is the sport’s all-time winningest driver with 11 victories. It’s that last one, in the spring of 2017, that is most noteworthy as the series returns to the tough one-mile concrete track this week. That was his last series win and marks the first time in his illustrious 83-victory, Hall of Fame-bound career that he has gone an entire season (2018) without a trophy. Technically, the 43-year old Californian hoisted one already this year as winner of the exhibition “The Clash” race at Daytona International Speedway to kick off Daytona Speedweeks. But Johnson is eager to return to his historic winning ways and with his history at Dover, this week may present an ideal opportunity. Johnson leads the competition with 24 top-10 and 17 top-five finishes in 34 starts at Dover. He has 11 wins, including this very first two visits to the track in 2002. He swept the 2009 season as well and won back-to-back in 2013-14 too – the only driver in the field to win back-to-back races at Dover. He boasts the series-best driver rating (114.4) heading into the weekend and the top average running position (8.835) among those with more than six starts at the track. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has a pair of top 10s in the three races since his win, including a ninth place in this race last year a third place in the 2017 Fall race. He’s led a series-best 3,105 laps total at Dover but is looking to lead his first since the 2017 season. Johnson is coming off a tough Talladega Superspeedway race, finishing 33rd, which dropped him from 13th to 16th in the series championship driver standings. Bowyer, Hamlin looking for first Dover win Stewart-Haas Racing driver Clint Bowyer and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin arrive in Dover, Delaware with a statistic they’d like to quickly alter. The two perennial championship contenders have made the most Dover starts (26) in this weekend’s field without a win. Half the current members of the Championship Top 16 are still looking for their victory at the Monster Mile, but none of the other active competitors have gone this long without a trophy. Bowyer, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, has 14 top-10 finishes at Dover, but only three top-five showings – his best finish, however, came in this race last year – runner-up to SHR teammate Kevin Harvick. Bowyer’s 13.3 average finish is fourth best among the top-16 ranked drivers and his 89.8 driver rating is eighth best. Bowyer has a pair of Xfinity Series wins at the track as well. Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, has won three poles at the track (second-most among active drivers), but his average finish of 17.385 is only 13th best in the field. His best showing (runner-up) came in last season’s Dover Playoff race. He has five top-10 finishes in the last six Dover races. Plus, he owns a pair of Xfinity trophies at Dover, winning back-to-back races in 2007-08. “Ever since I’ve been at SHR, we’ve seemed to have some really good cars at Dover,” Bowyer said. “We’ve been so close to taking home that Miles The Monster (a replica of the track’s 46-foot mascot) trophy. I hope we are just as good this weekend. If we are, then we have as good of a chance as anyone. You’ve got to fight this ‘monster’ every lap. I won a couple of Xfinity races there — haven’t won a Cup race — but love this racetrack.” Next Race: Allied Steel Buildings 200 The Place: Dover International Speedway The Date: Saturday, May 4 The Time: 1:30 p.m. ET TV: FS1, 1:00 p.m. ET Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 200 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200) 2018 Winner: Justin Allgaier Xfinity Series drivers’ last chance to win the Dash 4 Cash The NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash program has reached its fourth and final round. With it brings one last chance for Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Gray Gaulding to battle it out for the $100,00 bonus, and it all comes down to who finishes the highest at the high-speed, concrete, one-mile track – Dover International Speedway – for this weekend’s Allied Steel Buildings 200 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Earlier this year, Christopher Bell (Bristol), Cole Custer (Richmond) and last weekend’s winner Tyler Reddick (Talladega) all fattened their bank accounts by winning the Dash 4 Cash and pocketing the $100,000 bonus. Dash 4 Cash Driver’s Dover Stats Rundown: Tyler Reddick (No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) has made three starts at Dover International Speedway, posting one top five and an average finish of 15.0. Plus, he has completed 99.5% of his laps attempted and has also led 23 laps. Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) has made two series starts at Dover International Speedway posting one win (last fall), two top fives and an average finish of 2.5. He has completed 100% of his laps attempted at Dover and has led 110 laps. Chase Briscoe (No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi Ford) made his series track debut at Dover International Speedway last fall driving for Roush Fenway Racing; he started 13th but finished 19th. Gray Gaulding (No. 08 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet) made his series track debut at Dover International Speedway in 2017 driving for RSS Racing; he started 40th and finished 34th. Locked into the Playoffs, Reddick looks to Dover to keep the win streak rolling Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick must be floating on ‘Cloud 9’ following his dominating performance at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend en route to his first win of the season. Now the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings leader has locked himself into the Playoffs with his win and opened up his points lead to 32 points over second-place Christopher Bell and a massive 74 points over third-place Austin Cindric. Heading to Dover this weekend, Reddick is not only looking to keep the winning ways going, but he also has a chance at another big $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus; which he won last weekend. In nine starts this season, Reddick has put up two poles (Daytona, California), one win (Talladega), seven top fives and eight top 10s. Plus, he leads the series in average finish with a 4.9 and has led 199 laps this season. Kaz Grala returns to RCR’s No. 21 Boston, Massachusetts native Kaz Grala will be back in the Richard Childress Racing No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro with crew chief Justin Alexander this weekend at Dover International Speedway. This will be Grala’s third Xfinity start this season (all with RCR); in his previous two starts, he has posted an average finish of 16.0. Grala made his series debut at Dover last season driving for JGL Racing; he started 16th but was caught in an incident on Lap 76 that relegated him to a 37th-place finish. Zane Smith is back in JRM’s No. 8 Huntington Beach, California, native Zane Smith has been tapped to pilot the JR Motorsports No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro with crew chief Taylor Moyer this weekend at Dover International Speedway. Smith has made four starts this season for JRM, posting one top 10 and an average finish of 13.7. This weekend will be Smith’s series track debut at the Monster Mile. Riley Herbst jumps in JGR’s No. 18 Las Vegas, Nevada native Riley Herbst returns to Joe Gibbs Racing to strap into the No. 18 Toyota with crew chief Ben Beshore. Herbst made his series season debut a few weeks back at Richmond, where he started on the pole and finished ninth. This weekend will be Herbst’s series track debut at Dover. Next Race: JEGS 200 The Place: Dover International Speedway The Date: Friday, May 3 The Time: 5 p.m. ET TV: FS1, 4:30 p.m. ET Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 200 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200) 2018 Winner: Johnny Sauter Has Todd Gilliland got his groove back? This past weekend in Talladega was an exciting one for the Gilliland family. Former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland got to watch on with pride as his son Todd Gilliland captured his first ARCA Menards Series win since 2015. The victory was the confidence boost the young driver acknowledged he needed after a slow start in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. “This is really big for us,” the Sherrills Ford, North Carolina native Todd Gilliland said. “Obviously, my confidence has been down a little bit, but racing with these DGR-Crosley guys is definitely something special. Being able to come to the race track with such confidence in myself and everyone around me is huge. I think as soon as we can get that on the truck side, it’s definitely going to be a lot of wins coming.” This ARCA win and confidence boost came at the right time as Gilliland heads into Dover International Speedway this weekend for the Gander Trucks race the JEGS 200 on Friday at 5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Gilliland currently holds a one-point lead over Harrison Burton in the series Playoffs outlook. Gilliland made his Gander Trucks debut at Dover back in 2017 and managed to place 20th even with a suspension issue. He came back in 2018 improving upon the previous year’s finish by securing a top 10 spot (10th). Additionally, the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver has some NASCAR K&N Pro Series East experience at the concrete track, making two starts posting an average finish of 13.5 Under Pressure: Friesen might be feeling it The pressure is on, as NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series standings leader Stewart Friesen and second place Grant Enfinger are only separated by six points and will look to battle it out for the top spot in the championship standings this weekend at Dover International Speedway in the JEGS 200 on Friday, May 3 at 5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Enfinger grabbed the points lead following Atlanta and was able to hold the top points position up through Martinsville, then Stewart Friesen took his place with a solid fifth-place finish at Las Vegas and held the point ever since. Both Enfinger and Friesen are coming off strong finishes in Texas, with Enfinger placing fourth and Friesen second. As these drivers head into Dover International Speedway this weekend, Enfinger may have his opportunity to take back the top points position. His average finish at the Monster Mile is an 8.5. While Friesen may have his work cut out for him if wants to stay on top — the Halmar Friesen Racing driver’s average finish at the track is a 25.5 due to being in incidents in both of his starts at the one-mile track. Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at Dover The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Series races at Dover International Speedway are always ones to remember, especially when there have been so many notable trends throughout the years. From 2008 to 2014, Toyota won a string of seven races at Dover, until 2015, when Tyler Reddick snapped the wins streak in a Ford. Toyota responded in 2016 with a Matt Crafton win. However, it could be any OEM’s game this weekend. With defending event winner Johnny Sauter in the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford this season we could see Ford break Chevrolet’s two-year wins streak. We could also see Toyota make their comeback at this race since the manufacturer is the only one to have posted wins in 2019 with Austin Hill winning the Daytona opener and Kyle Busch winning each race since then. source – NASCAR communications
