Crossed flags coming up. Dover International Speedway and Sunday’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks mark race No. 13 and the mid-point of the regular season. A year ago, nine of the top-10 ranked drivers leaving “The Monster Mile” wound up punching their tickets into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™.Jimmie Johnson, the current standings leader, won last spring’s Dover race – his record-matching seventh. One more win breaks a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Richard Petty.
Brad Keselowski’s victory in Dover’s fall race was a springboard to his 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. The champ’s wheels are wobbling a bit after his 36th-place Coca-Cola 600 finish, Keselowski’s first DNF since the 2012 Daytona 500. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Key Penske personnel, including the No. 2 Ford’s crew chief Paul Wolfe, will return from their parts infraction suspensions at Dover.
Could this be the end of Richard Childress Racing’s near two-decade championship drought? Kevin Harvick won Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 was the second of the season for the No. 29 RCR Chevrolet. Both Harvick and teammate Paul Menard rank among the current top 10 in points.
Three former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions – Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart – hold Chase Wild Card eligibility among the top 20 but each has yet to find either victory or consistency in 2013.
The Denny Hamlin Wild Card Watch rolls on with the Virginian – fourth at Charlotte – reducing his top 20 deficit to 53 points.
Another race track. Another record in sight. Kyle Busch became Charlotte Motor Speedway’s all-time NASCAR Nationwide Series winner last weekend. Winner of six of the year’s nine races, Busch can accomplish the same feat in Saturday’s 5 Hour Energy 200 at Dover where he shares the three-victory record with Todd Bodine and Carl Edwards.
JR Motorsports’ Regan Smith continues to head NASCAR Nationwide Series standings by 28 points over former leader Sam Hornish Jr. Smith, however, has yet to finish among the top 15 at Dover.
Two drivers – leader Matt Crafton and reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion James Buescher – reach career milestones in Friday’s Lucas Oil 200. Crafton will start his 300th consecutive race while fifth-ranked Buescher marks start No. 100.
Rookie and first-time winners dot the NCWTS record book at Dover where there have been 12 different winners in the track’s 13 races. Kyle Busch is the series’ only two-time winner.