Pistone: Dover Sprint Cup preview - Dover race preview

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As the winds of controversy swirl around Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch this weekend at Dover, Jimmie Johnson and company are simply going about their business.
Once again Johnson comes into “The Monster Mile” as a weekend favorite on following the usual steady as she goes course that has served the No. 48 team well through its remarkable run of five straight Sprint Cup Series championships.

And while Harvick and Busch snipe at each other all Johnson can do is set back and smile as he sets his sights on a possible fifth win in the last six Dover outings.
“At times, yes,” Johnson said when asked if he sees the possible distraction a feud like the one Harvick and Busch are in can cause. “I remember being here in the Chase and watching the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the No. 29 (Harvick) going at it. At that point in time, yes.
“But now, the championship implications haven’t crossed my mind because it’s so far from now; things seem to get rectified in 2 to 3 weeks. So I haven’t thought of it in that perspective. It was exciting seeing discussions about it in major newspapers and the social media world; it’s been everywhere. So you hate to see somebody potentially injured and the stuff on pit road is really the sore spot of all of it. But it was exciting. It gave us all a lot to talk about. If something like that happens in the Chase, It certainly will affect those two drivers there, but we’re too far away from it now."
Now don’t misunderstand Johnson. While he’s glad that he’s not the one in the middle of this latest tiff he understands the value of having such rivalries and what they mean to the overall exposure of the sport.
"Yeah, it’s so funny; we’re all around the sport enough to know that and, in your position covering the sport, that it’s real easy one week to say oh well, it’s too vanilla out there; it’s too boring and these guys don’t rough each other up and back in the day this or that would happen,” he said in Friday’s media session at Dover.
“And then damn if we don’t go to the next race and all that happens and now you’ve got to write the opposite of that. So I think we’re all confused. What do we really want? Does anybody know? It changes every week. And if you read the articles and follow the path, we’re all confused in my opinion. At the end of the day, our sport is stronger than it’s ever been. We have more lead changes, more race winners, and I guess any press is good press."
There’s a good chance the press will be covering another Johnson victory come Sunday afternoon considering his stellar track record at Dover. He has six career wins and number seven would put him in the lofty company of Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as the only three drivers to have seven wins at the Delaware track.

“It reminds me a little bit of my off-road days and controlling the vehicle through a vertical motion coming into the corner, up over the hill and trying to land,” he said explaining his approach and subsequent successes at the track. “And also control the lateral forces that we see in the car. So that dynamic I enjoy. I really like this track. Our race wins and finishes kind of back that up. So, I’m looking forward to another great weekend and I would love to hopefully get a win and get some more points.”

Dover International Speedway
Track Size: One Mile
Race Length: 400 miles
Banking/Straightaways: 9 degrees
Banking/Corners: 24 degrees


Qualifying/Race Data
2010 pole winner: Martin Truex Jr. (157.315 mph, 22.884 seconds)
2010 race winner: Kyle Busch (128.790 mph, 05-16-10)
Track qualifying record: Jeremy Mayfield (161.522 mph, 22.288 seconds, 06-04-04)
Track race record: Mark Martin (132.719 mph, 09-21-97)


Race Facts
There have been 82 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Dover International Speedway since the track opened in 1969.
There was one race in 1969 and 1970. There have been two-a-year since 1971.
Richard Petty won the track’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
There have been 35 different pole winners, led by David Pearson (six).

David Pearson won the first pole in July 1969.

Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman lead all active drivers, each with four poles.
32 different drivers have posted victories led by Bobby Allison and Richard Petty, each with seven.
Jimmie Johnson leads all active drivers, with six victories.

Hendrick Motorsports has a series-high 12 wins.
50 races at Dover have been won from a top-five starting position; 17 races have been won from a starting position outside the top 10.
13 drivers have won from the pole. The last to do so was Jimmie Johnson, in last season’s September race.
The furthest back in the field a race winner started was 37th, by Kyle Petty in 1995.
Several active drivers had their first start at Dover, including three past champions: David Ragan (finished 42nd in 2006), Kurt Busch (18th in 2000), Matt Kenseth (sixth in 1998) and Bobby Labonte (34th in 1991).

In addition, Matt Kenseth (2002) and Michael Waltrip (1991) earned their first pole at Dover. Martin Truex Jr. won his first race there (2007).

Who’s Hot at Dover
Jimmie Johnson – Can join Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as a seven time Dover winner for a trip to victory lane on Sunday afternoon. Johnson has won three of the last four races at Dover and brings a sparkling 7.9 average finish over the last five years with him to “The Monster Mile.”

Carl Edwards – Still on top the Sprint Cup Series point standings after posting another runner-up finish a week ago in Darlington to surprise winner Regan Smith. Has not finished outside the Top 10 at Dover since the 2006 season a string that includes a 2007 victory.
Kyle Busch  – In the middle of controversy with his feud still going strong with Kevin Harvick but that should not slow down his momentum at Dover. The defending race winner who also finished sixth in last fall’s trip to Dover will try for another NASCAR three-peat weekend with wins in the truck and Nationwide Series as well.
Who’s Not
David Ragan – Has not experienced as much success as the rest of his Roush Fenway Racing teammates at Dover over the years and despite the organization’s stellar record at the track, Ragan has a lofty 23.6 average finish in nine career starts.
Juan Pablo Montoya – Only one Top 10 finish in eight career starts is one reason why Montoya’s average finish is a whopping 21.9 at Dover.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Dover has not been kind to Junior in recent years and the Hendrick Motorsports driver has an average finish of 20th in his last ten starts. He finished 30th and 23rd in two Dover outings last season.

Notebook
The official opening of Dover International Speedway, then called Dover Downs International Speedway, was in 1969.
The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on July 6, 1969.
The first two races at Dover were 300 miles. The race length was changed to 500 miles in 1971.
The track surface was changed to concrete in 1995.
The race length was changed to 400 miles beginning with the second race in 1997.
The track name was changed to Dover International Speedway in 2002.

There have been 82 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Delaware, all at Dover International Speedway.

Eight drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Delaware
extracted from cbssports.com