Race: Best Buy 400 Benefiting Student Clubs for Autism Speaks
Track: Dover International Speedway
Date: Sunday June 1, 2008
Time: 1:30 pm ET
Channel: FOX
This weekend’s race is at the notorious Monster Mile at Dover International Speedway, a one mile oval with 24 degree banking in the turns and 9 degree banking along the stretches. If there was any track that the Roush drivers dominated, it’s this one. Carl Edwards is the defending champion and is coming into the race with a pretty good record so far this year. He only has one win here, but Edwards makes consistent runs and is also in the top 10 when it comes down to crunch time. His teammates, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle also run great here. Kenseth has one win from the Spring of ’06 while Biffle has a win from the spring of ’05. It seems like the spring races are the good ones for these guys.
Other winners include Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Ryan Newman among others. Ryan Newman is a guy I’d keep my eyes on this weekend as well. He’s got a total of 4 poles and 3 wins. Newman has performed better this year than last and is trying to bring back his dominating pole performances of a few years back.
Evidently, I picked a heck of a year to begin naming drivers because of
all of these rule changes, but so far, not too bad. On that note, I’d have
to say that any of the three Roush drivers are looking good, although I’d
have to pull Edwards out of the bunch and say that he’s got the best shot.
Biffle is another one that will be close behind, but I wouldn’t be surprised
to see him in victory lane either. Newman is looking for a win after going
so long without, but I do not think that he can outrun these guys this weekend.
He’s getting better and better, but he’s still missing that little bit that
is going to put him over the top.
Gordon and Johnson are never bad bets, but Gordon has proven over the past few weekends that his cars are not up to par with even the rest of the Hendrick guys. Jimmie Johnson has the potential to be good anywhere, but his performance this year is far from the domination that he had last year.
Finally, I’d like to point out that Tony Stewart is hungry. He leads and leads and leads but can never catch a break. He’s got the cars and we all know he’s got the attitude to get his car into victory lane, but we’re going to have to wait and see if everything holds together for him for once until the end of the race.
All in all, I’d rank ’em as Edwards, Biffle, Stewart, and so on from there. I’m calling Roush drivers as your winners this weekend. Just as a refresher, your top twelve in points are:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Jeff Burton
3. Dale Earnhardt. Jr.
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Clint Bowyer
6. Carl Edwards
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Tony Stewart
9. Jimmie Johnson
10. Jeff Gordon
11. Greg Biffle
12. Kasey Kahne
This should be a pretty exciting weekend. Dover always makes tempers flares, almost like a Martinsville race. Stay tuned and wait for these guys to get rough on Sunday!
Talk about the Best Buy 400 and make your picks in our Nascar Forum.
