DOVER, Del. — Three teams dominated races at Dover Motor Speedway over last 18 NASCAR Cup Series races at the one-mile concrete oval.
Hendrick Motorsports has nine wins during that time period that dates back to 2013, while Joe Gibbs Racing has five victories and Stewart-Haas Racing has conquered The Monster Mile on four occasions.
The most recent winner at Dover Motor Speedway was Hendrick Motorsports, when Chase Elliott triumphed last season. It was the organization’s, NASCAR Cup Series-leading 22nd victory among seven different drivers at Dover.
Jimmie Johnson won 11 times at Dover, while Jeff Gordon scored five victories there. Chase Elliott (two), Geoff Bodine (one), Ken Schrader (one), Ricky Rudd (one) and Alex Bowman (one) also scored for Hendrick Motorsports at Dover. With nine total Dover victories, five of JGR’s victories have come during these 18 races. Denny Hamlin was the most recent winner for the team in 2020.
The third organization to jump in on the wins at Dover Motor Speedway from 2013-2021 was Stewart-Haas Racing with four victories among two drivers — Tony Stewart (2013) and Kevin Harvick (2015, 2018, 2020).
“Dover is a race track that everything about it is unique,” said Harvick. “The concrete, itself, all the way around the race track, is unique. Dover is a racetrack where you can get away with being aggressive every single lap. You have to drive the car as hard as it will go every single lap, and that’s hard to do there because there are all the little bumps that come with the concrete, the change of elevation as you go in and off the corners, and all the banking in the corners — it’s just a really, really fast race track.
“It’s also a very physical race track just because of all the G’s and the bouncing and everything that comes with driving around Dover,” Harvick added. “It’s a race track where you have to have your hands gripping on the steering wheel and gritting your teeth all at the same time in order to go fast every single lap.
“When your car’s off, there’s just nowhere to hide there. You wind up going a lap down, probably two laps down, because you pit early and then the caution comes out. It’s a beast of a race track and there’s a reason they call it the Monster Mile because you can get yourself in trouble really quick.”
Six Organizations
This season, seven different drivers from six different organizations have won at least one race over the first 10 events.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron and Richard Childress Racing pilot Kyle Busch have two victories each. Hendrick has four victories, while RCR has two. JTG Daugherty Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Team Penske each have one win on the year.
Elliott Eyes Repeat
Mired back in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings after being sidelined earlier this season due to a broken leg, last year’s Dover winner Chase Elliott is seeking his first victory of the season. This year and last year for Elliott have been vastly different.
In 2022, the Dawsonville, Georgia native was atop the point standings heading to Dover and rolled into the one-mile track fast off the hauler. He qualified fourth and led 73 laps en route to his first of five wins last season.
Taming the concrete mile at Dover has come naturally for Elliott though, in 12 series starts at the Monster Mile, he has collected one pole, two wins (2018 and 2022) and nine top-five finishes. He has led 394 laps at Dover and has an average finish of 9.750 — one of just two active drivers with an average finish inside the top-10 along with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson (6.929).
Many Leaders
The NASCAR Cup Series season has produced an average of 11.3 lap leaders per race through the first 10 races of the year; which is the eighth-most in the 52 years of the Modern Era (1972-2023). Up +8.7% from 2022.
In total, 33 different drivers have led laps in the first 10 races; led by Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson with 468 laps led (18.13% of the total 2,581 laps run this season). The season has produced and average of 23.2 lead changes per race through the first 10 races of the season – the 10th-most in the Modern Era (1972-2023), and up +1.8% from last season’s 22.8 average lead changes.
There have been 232 lead changes in the first 10 events, that’s up four lead changes from last season’s 228 through 10 races.
New Hampshire Test
Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott participated in a Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this week ahead of the Crayon 301 on July 16.
“For me, I’ve always felt like having a test at a racetrack has been extremely beneficial,” Bell said. Getting laps at Loudon is certainly beneficial for when we come back here in July, and I think all three of us should be pretty successful when we come back for the race.”
“With New Hampshire being such a great track for me, having won races here and winning the lottery to get to test here, it was certainly a track for us to bring our A-game,” Keselowski said. “We’re certainly making a lot of progress today, and looking forward to hopefully finding a little bit more tomorrow to be ready for the big race here in a few months.”
Hitting The Dirt
In addition to driving the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet this weekend, Chastain will race the No. 41 dirt late model for Niece Motorsports at Georgetown Speedway on Friday.
“I wanted to explore dirt racing a little bit,” said Chastain. “I don’t feel like I’m as good at dirt racing as I would like to be when we go to Bristol. I don’t think running a dirt late model is going to help me a ton in the Cup car, but I don’t even know what I’m looking at when I look at a dirt track. If I can sprinkle in some dirt races and I have the blessing from Justin (Marks) then I’m going to take advantage of that.”
Keyword: NASCAR Notes: Elliott Eyes Repeat Win At Dover