Dover 400 Tickets
Dover International Speedway, Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment, and over 600 companies around the country recently participated in the inaugural NASCAR Day, a one-day celebration of the NASCAR spirit. Held on Friday, August 20, NASCAR Day was a chance for fans across the country to show their support for the sport they love and help a great cause.
The Victory Junction Gang Camp, established this year in North Carolina to provide fun and memorable camping experiences for chronic or terminally ill children, was the designated charity of NASCAR Day 2004.
The Dover International Speedway ticket office sold 182 pins, for a $910 contribution to the Victory Junction Gang Camp. For a $5 donation, each person received a commemorative lapel pin. Employees of Dover International Speedway and Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment were permitted to wear jeans and their favorite NASCAR gear to work on Friday. Many thanks to all participants!
When you come to Dover International Speedway in 2004 for the two Nextel Cup race weekends (June 4-6 and September 24-26), you might want to impress your friends and neighbors with your knowledge of racing at The Monster Mile. Oh, sure, you could tell them that Richard Petty won the first race at Dover in 1969, or that Petty and Bobby Allison have the most career victories at Dover with seven wins each. But if you really want to impress them, tell them how Ryan Newman might become only the fourth racer ever to win three straight races at Dover.
Then bring up The Dover Sweep.
The one-mile concrete track known as The Monster Mile got that title for good reason. It is a track that is tough on tires and tougher on drivers. When the race was 500 miles, it was an exhausting experience for drivers and their teams. At 400 miles, racers still exit their cars looking worn out and in need of a long night’s sleep. So given that any race at Dover International Speedway is such a demanding test for racers, it is somewhat surprising that The Dover Sweep (where a Nextel Cup racer wins both events in the same year), is not as unusual as you might think.
Ryan Newman won both of the Dover races in 2003, Jimmie Johnson swept the two races in 2002, and Tony Stewart claimed both MBNA races in 2000. That’s three of the last four years in which Nextel Cup racers have made Dover their home away from home. Prior to that, The Dover Sweep started in 1973 when David Pearson pulled it off, followed by Bobby Allison in 1983, Bill Elliott in 1988, Dale Earnhardt in 1989, Rusty Wallace in 1994 and Jeff Gordon in 1996.
When the likes of Newman, Johnson, Stewart, Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. return to Dover in 2004 for two more exciting race weekends, will race fans expect another sweep? Given the results in recent years, why not?
The MBNA America 400 on June 6 could give Newman, who won more races in 2003 than any other Nextel Cup racer, a chance to make it three-straight victories at the Monster Mile. That feat has been quite a bit tougher to pull off, as only Pearson (1972-73), Wallace (1993-94) and Gordon (1995-96) have won three-straight at Dover. Newman seems like a strong candidate, as he and crew chief Matt Borland have the ability to combine power and good mileage to stay at or near the front of the pack.
So how does a race team pull off a Dover Sweep? Borland and Newman offer up some clues.
We definitely like winning both races at Dover,” says Borland. “It means a lot when you can win there twice in one year. It means you must have hit on something pretty important and dominant over the rest of the teams. I’d say winning the second one is a lot more fun and satisfying than winning the first. It means you’ve really accomplished something to do it twice in a year. “
Usually, you try to rely on a lot of what you did in the first race to the second one,” Borland adds. “ If you feel like you won the first won because you had a really good, dominant car, you tend to use that same approach for the next one. You might tweak on it a little bit, but you don’t make wholesale changes.”
Newman echoes his crew chief’s thoughts, saying, “To me, the game plan for the second race is the same as the first one. Even if you don’t win the first, but have a really good car you probably won’t change much, but of course we always go to a track to win and aren’t going to be happy unless we do.”
The first Dover race was a great feat for the ALLTEL team because we overcame the loss of power steering, said Newman. “I had a really fast car and was able to win, I just needed to stay focused and I did and went to Victory Lane. The second race we had to overcome a hard fight with Jeremy Mayfield at the end, but also going two laps down when a tire blew. NASCARs new lap rule played into our favor to get us back on the lead lap, but it was the strategy and a real good car that won the race that day.”
Both races weren’t just handed to us,” Newman concluded. “To me, one win doesn’t stand out anymore than the other. Having a good car and a good team allows you to have what it takes to sweep at any track. There’s no one thing that really stands out about Dover, other than having a good balance at that track. My personal perspective is went to Dover to win and we won.”
In fact, a quick peek at recent racing at Dover International Speedway shows that even when racers haven’t pulled off The Dover Sweep, many have come close. For example, Ricky Rudd followed his June win in 1997 with a sixth-place run in September. In 1998 Dale Jarrett followed his June win with a seventh-place finish in September. Bobby Labonte finished fifth in September of 1999 after winning the June race. Of course, Mark Martin was creating a September Sweep at Dover through those years, winning each September race from 1997-99. Finally, Jeff Gordon followed his win in June of 2001 with a fourth-place run in September.
Why is it that Dover International Speedway lends itself to the sweep?
For one, it takes a driver who is comfortable with the 24-degree banking in the turns and the nuances of the concrete surface. Tony Stewart, for example, likes to keep his car pinned to the lowest part of the track through the turns and that strategy has helped him run in the Top 10 in virtually every Dover race he’s run.
Also, a driver and a team need confidence in tackling The Monster Mile, and even young guns like Newman and Johnson, have displayed the sort of cockiness and swagger that helps them get the better of the track, and not the other way around. A driver like Jeff Gordon, racing in front of fans from DuPont down from Wilmington, Delaware, has even more motivation to run well at Dover. But Gordon also seems to have developed an understanding of the Monster Mile and what it takes to win on the concrete surface.
The Dover Sweep. Not as unusual as one might think, but a feat nonetheless. When Newman, Johnson, Stewart and Gordon return for the MBNA America 400 on June 6, they may not be thinking about the sweep, but if any one of them comes away with a victory, it will certainly be foremost in their thoughts when September rolls around.