One thing that I am always fond of are track nicknames. It seems to give a track a really great identity and often a reputation. Look at Darlington, which has two nicknames to describe the track and the racing. It’s known as the “Lady in Black” as at the end of the night, it’s bright white and red walls end up being black because of all the scrapes and tire rubs it receives in a 500-mile event. It’s also known as the track “Too Tough To Tame” because racing there is so hard, and so demanding on the drivers.
Charlotte has recently been named the “Beast of the Southeast” because of the difficulty some teams and drivers experience while racing there. Seems to be accurate as the drivers will usually get really loose coming to the start/finish line, almost as if they’re in a late model dirt car.
Daytona has often been called the “World’s Center of Speed” because of the historic qualities of both the big speedway and the beach track in NASCAR’s early days.
There’s the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono, the “Magic Mile” in New Hampshire, and the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” known as Bristol.
NASCAR this weekend went to Dover International Speedway, which has long been termed the “Monster Mile,” and has been for good reason. The one-mile, high-banked, concrete track in America’s first state has earned a reputation of being hard on equipment and hard on drivers.
Sunday’s race certainly showed that as just nine laps into the race, a 13-car melee in the second turn took out some of the top contenders. The way the track is set up makes it a “self-cleaning” surface, where anything that heads up to the wall or goes spinning will go down to the bottom, and if a car is in the wrong spot, that means they get swept up in the aftermath.
It’s been a common theme at Dover, which has seen it’s share of multi-car wrecks in years past, often reminding fans and teams of the big wrecks seen at Daytona and Talladega, but on a much smaller scale.
I think that’s why I like this track, because the action is as intense as Talladega or Daytona, but when you put all that action in a one-mile oval, things get even more complicated.
Sadly I must wait till September to see this track get some more action.
At the same time, I’ll definitely enjoy the action that I did see at Dover on Sunday, despite seeing someone a lot of people loathe go to victory lane.
But in the end, Dover’s mascot, “Miles the Monster,” had a healthy appetite in Sunday’s action.
RESULTS: 1-Johnson 2-Harvick 3-Kenseth 4-Earnhardt Jr. 5-Bowyer 6-Almirola 7-Truex Jr. 8-Logano 9-Kahne 10-Ambrose
NOTABLE FINISHES: 11-Biffle 13-Gordon 18-Hamlin 25-Stewart 26-Edwards 29-Kyle Busch
CAUTIONS: 7 for 32 laps. Lap 10-12 (#13, 14, 32, 33, 36, 38, 42, 78, 79, 83, 93, 98 accident-BS; RED FLAG-19 Mins, 54 Secs.), 112-116 (oil on track), 165-168 (#99 accident-T2), 227-231 (debris-FS), 341-344 (debris-T3), 347-352 (oil on track), 365-369 (oil on track).
LEAD CHANGES: 17 among 7 drivers. Martin POLE, Johnson 1-6, Martin 7-29, Johnson 30-60, Martin 61-70, Kenseth 71, Ragan 72-74, Martin 75-84, Johnson 85-210, Gordon 211-227, Johnson 228, Gordon 229-244, Johnson 245-293, Kenseth 294, Earnhardt Jr. 295, Hamlin 296-297, Gordon 298-324, Johnson 325-400.
TIME OF RACE: 3 Hrs, 15 Mins, 23 Secs.
AVERAGE SPEED: 122.835 MPH
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 2.550 Seconds
POINT STANDINGS: 1. Biffle, 486 points; 2. Kenseth, -1; 3. Earnhardt Jr, -10; 4. Hamlin, -22; 5. Johnson, -33; 6. Truex Jr, -45; 7. Harvick, -46; 8. Stewart, -79; 9. Kyle Busch, -80; 10. Bowyer, -81; 11. Keselowski, -86; 12. Edwards, -96