Race number two of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship moves on to the Dover International Raceway, aka “The Monster Mile”, for Sunday’s running of the AAA 400. Some of the teams in the 43 car field may actually need AAA insurance by the time this day is over. The “Monster Mile”, and its one mile concrete oval, can reach out and grab a race car by the back bumper at any moment. It’s also famous for the occasional “big one”, the type of multi car wreck usually associated with restrictor plate racing. Even the trophy for the race winner has an intimidating aura about it.
The Chase Breakdown
Going into the Dover race series points leader Mark Martin, who will be making his 750th career start this Sunday, remains the top seed for the Chase but is only 35 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson. This will likely become highly significant because both drivers have outstanding numbers at this race track.
Martin, gunning for that first NASCAR championship that has eluded him all of these years, has four wins at Dover and leads the track stats with the most top five finishes, 21, as well as the most top tens, 29.
Johnson, looking for that historic fourth consecutive NASCAR championship, is also a previous Dover winner. Johnson and company are naturals when it comes to figuring out Chase scenarios. They have a streak of 27 consecutive top five finishes in Chase events. Doing some math that computes to 67 percent of all Chase finishes being in the top five.
Also not to be overlooked is the presence of Denny Hamlin who ranks third in the Chase standings also 35 points behind Martin. The lone hope of Joe Gibbs Racing in the championship picture, this team is on a hot streak of top five finishes and truly seems to be in a championship mode.
The same can be said about Juan Pablo Montoya: fifth in the standings and 55 points from the top this week. The fact is team is even in the Chase at all is still amazing. Montoya showed a lot of strength last Sunday in the New Hampshire race and led the most laps prior to his third place finish. But he also showed a lot of frustration after the race and made a rather eyebrow raising remark when he claimed Mark Martin “screwed him” during the final restart of the race.
It was apparent the conclusion of the New Hampshire race was still on Montoya’s mind last Tuesday when he participated in a scheduled NASCAR teleconference. When asked if he had spoken with Martin this week Montoya replied “I really haven’t talked to Mark at all. I think he ran an awesome race and did what he had to do to win the race. I wasn’t the happiest guy, I did some interviews this morning and I said that. It’s fun when you do it to someone else, but it’s not fun when they do it to you. But that’s part of it. For the Chase we have to bring our A game and we did. There’s no holding back, we have to go every week. Some weeks are going to be better than others, but it’s still time to go.”
The remainder of the 12 man Chase line up has Kurt Busch in fifth and 65 points away from the top. He is followed by Tony Stewart-74, Ryan Newman-79, Brian Vickers-90, Greg Biffle-92, Jeff Gordon-102, Carl Edwards-113 and Kasey Kahne at -161.
These drivers may notice a trail of wet footprints on the ground behind them which means their Chase hopes could be treading a little water. This is the group that will bear watching at Dover on Sunday because they are the ones who will need to step up their A game the most.
The Race Breakdown
The AAA 400 is exactly 400 laps, and 400 miles, around the Dover International Raceway’s one mile oval.
The race has 44 entries vying for a starting berth in the 43 car field. Nine of those entries are on the “go or go home” list meaning they are not guaranteed a starting berth because they are outside of NASCAR’s top 35 in owner’s points. That means they must earn their starting berths based on their qualifying speed. If by chance Friday’s scheduled qualifying gets rained out, then driver Scott Wimmer, representing Morgan McClure racing, will be the one who has to pack up and go home early.
It’s not expected that Mother Nature will rain on the qualifying but there the potential for her creating havoc with the race. The National Weather Service forecast, for the Dover-Delaware area, calls for partly cloudy conditions, with day time highs in the upper 60’s, on Friday and Saturday. However the forecast also calls for a 40 percent chance of rain on race day. That could mean a rain shortened event on Sunday or watching a conclusion on Monday morning.
The defending race champion from last year is Greg Biffle who started from the fifth starting position. Jimmie Johnson won the first 2009 Dover race, held this past June, from the 8th starting spot.
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