Much remains to be settled in Saturday’s BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and the championship leaders bring a mixed bag of experience and success to the race.
There are only three former Dover winners in the fulltime field. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ryan Truex led a dominating 124 of the 200 laps to earn an impressive 4.8-second win over Josh Berry last year – starting what would be a Truex sweep of the weekend with his older brother Martin winning the NASCAR Cup Series race a day later.
It’s not only a sentimental highlight for Truex, but a certifiable career highlight. He has four top-10 finishes in seven starts at the track – including the win and a pole position. His 9.1 average finish is tops among all series tracks for the 32-year old New Jersey native who considers Dover as his “home track.”
“Last year was one of the greatest days of my life and I’ll forever be grateful to Joe Gibbs Racing for helping me earn that moment,” said Truex, who will be driving the No. 20 JGR Toyota Saturday. “Considering Dover is also a home track for me, I’m filled with nostalgia, excitement and a ton of optimism towards what we can do on Saturday.”
Reigning series champion and current title contender Cole Custer won the 2019 Dover race and JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier has a pair of wins (2018 and 2020) highlighting a really impressive resume at the concrete mile.
Of course, there are other competitors highly motivated to join this short list too.
Xfinity Series driver standings leader Chandler Smith is coming off a rough 25th-place finish at Talladega last week – his worst showing of the season. But he still holds a 14-point edge over Custer atop the standings. Smith, driver of the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, has two starts on the Dover mile, has never led a lap and his best finish is 13th-place last year.
Not only does Custer have that former win, he’s got six top-10 finishes in seven starts. The driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford has led 237 laps, including 155 of the 200-lap event in a fourth-place finish in 2019.
Austin Hill, a tough-luck victim of Talladega’s hard racing, has only a pair of Xfinity Series starts at Dover, with a best of fourth place last year. The driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet is right among the top trio, only 16 points behind Smith.
Hill’s RCR teammate, the 19-year old Californian Jesse Love claimed his first series win last week at Talladega. He’ll have an educational experience at Dover, making his first start of any kind at the famously challenging track. He’s proven himself up for the challenge, however. He’s ranked fourth in the championship and boasts the most stage wins (four) in the series.
Perhaps the one to watch this weekend is Allgaier, who is more than ready to put some rough luck behind him in 2024. The veteran driver of the JR Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet has amazing statistics at Dover. He’s led a race best 514 laps, including laps out front in eight of the last nine races.
This week marks the final leg of the four-race Dash 4 Cash incentive. Love, Riley Herbst, Anthony Alfredo and Ryan Sieg will compete for that last $100,000 check from Xfinity – the highest finisher among them on Saturday claiming the money. Sieg won the bonus last week in Talladega in what ultimately turned into a dramatic and exciting late race two-car duel between him and A.J. Allmendinger.
A 20-minute practice followed by a qualifying session begins at 3:05 p.m. on Friday and will be televised on FS1. Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman won the pole position last year. Only once in the last 17 races – Kyle Larson in 2017 – has the polesitter gone on to victory at Dover.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
