For anyone who has never attended a NASCAR weekend at any of the circuit’s tracks, go. It’s a great time and a must see. Here’s a few bloggable highlights from the weekend at Dover International Speedway.
Friday
10:30 a.m. — The Gasman purchases tickets to the Craftsman Truck Series race that evening and later gaffled the scalper for extremely cheap Sunday Sprint Cup tickets. The scalper was obviously disheartened by the lack of fans in town yet. He’s right. Surging gas prices did indeed leave the Monster Mile with a ton of open seats all weekend.
1:30 p.m. — The new Miles the Monster Monument (check last posting) that rests behind the front stretch of the one-mile, high-banked oval is really, well, a monster. Piercing the sky six stories high, the monument is an enormous replica of the trophy that race winners receive. And for those old-school fans, plaques surround the base with former Dover winner’s names. It’s a nice finishing touch in the speedway’s project to create a more fan-friendly track.
Truck Race, lap 96 — Kyle Busch, not a fan favorite, hears the boos from the thousands in attendance after smoke billows out of his No. 51 Toyota. The Las Vegas native led every lap at the time, and Busch finished 27th.
Saturday
12:15 p.m. — The buffet inside Dover Downs Hotel and Casino has some tasty and phenomenal food. But it also offers more than most restaurants can. The seating inside is on the base of the track and it’s a great atmosphere for the final Sprint Cup practice.
12:17 p.m. — Rain begins to fall, hard, halting practice and putting the Nationwide Series event in question. So much for the previous paragraph.
Later that day — Denny Hamlin wins the rain-delayed Nationwide event to give Joe Gibbs Racing its seventh series win this season. Hamlin’s teammate Joey Lagano, who was making his NASCAR debut, finished sixth. Not bad.
Sunday
1:45 p.m. — Fans sitting in section 120 of Turn 3 continue to heckle Kyle Busch during pre-race driver introductions. Relentless as can be, they also booed Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Dale Earnhardt Jr. even got some boos.
Lap 17 — A five-car crash, which involved Hamlin, Junior, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne, coming out of Turn 2 makes it feel like a good race is ahead. Not the case. It was boring with ungodly green-flag runs throughout. Well, that was except for the supposed debris caution for a gum wrapper on the track. Yes, a gum wrapper.
Lap 126 — A drunken fan sitting a row up crashes to the ground and continues to lay there for a half hour. Wow.
Lap 128 — Drunk fan No. 1’s relative must be sitting a few rows down and to the right. Standing and fist pumping relentlessly, no one could figure out who he was rooting for. Again, wow.
Lap 400 — Kyle Busch flies to the victory, ending perhaps the most boring race in quite some time at Dover. The green-flag runs combined with only six drivers finishing on the lead lap made for a mundane afternoon. It did. Perhaps the Car of Tomorrow isn’t the answer for NASCAR. Check Wednesday’s posting for more on that.
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