NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who can outlast 400 laps around Dover Motor Speedway?
Sunday will see 37 drivers pound concrete for 400 miles around the Monster Mile. As the regular season quickly winds down, Dover provides a unique opportunity for a new face in victory lane. The First State is no stranger to seeing a few twists and turns define Miles the Monster’s terror. Here are a few drivers poised for a big day ahead in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400.
Denny Hamlin
Dover’s defending winner, 2024 saw Denny Hamlin seal the deal after leading 136 laps and beating Kyle Larson to the checkers. This marked Hamlin’s second time taking home Miles the Monster in the last six races. Hamlin explains that he was not always too fond of the Dover concrete, but has grown to love it in recent seasons.
“We’ve been really strong at Dover for the last, all the Next Gen races,” Hamlin said. “All of them, I thought that we’ve been first or second on speed and that’s the first one that we actually executed well. We didn’t win any of the others, but it’s just one where we finally executed like a good day. I remember Larson you know kind of coming on strong there towards the end. I was trying to play defense trying not to make a mistake, trying not to give out too much time in one corner to him. Yeah, I think it was one of the six or seven times I beat him.”
“[Dover] takes a different feel, for sure. The car’s a little bit different there. It feels more rigid at concrete tracks; you can feel the air pressure in the tires quite a bit more. It’s just a little bit different feel, that’s all I can kind of explain it. Dover is a very unique, shaped track anyway. It doesn’t look very unique from like an aerial view, but you drive it very unorthodox to which you would in normal oval. It’s just a fun track. I used to absolutely hate that racetrack for the first 12 years of my career, maybe more. Since then, I studied the greats – Jimmie Johnson that performed extremely well there. My style is a little bit different and have found some success (there).”
Including his pair of wins here, Hamlin has over 500 laps led in five of the last six Dover races. This same stretch includes five top-10s for the 11, proving that he has figured out the concrete. Hamlin is now in a four-way tie as 2025’s winningest driver. Dover could see him extend into a league of his own with a fourth checkered flag. Similar intermediate races have seen almost 500 laps led for this Toyota so far in 2024, along with two of his wins. Hamlin enters Dover tied as an odds-on co-favorite, chasing a second-straight concrete triumph.
Kyle Larson
In hot pursuit of Hamlin over last year’s closing laps was Kyle Larson. Amazingly, Young Money only has one career Dover win from his Chip Ganassi days in 2019. That day saw the California driver vault himself onto the Playoffs Round of 8 after 154 laps led in Delaware. Struck out of victory lane in his four Dover starts since then, three of them were top-10 days including two runner-ups. Despite only one Dover trophy in his case, Larson owns a series-best 8.2 average finish here.
“Our (No.) 5 team always seems to be fast at Dover,” Larson said. “I like that it has multiple grooves, and you can move around to find speed. Our team could really use a good solid weekend to get back on track.”
The Kyle Larson that’s seemingly been missing since Memorial Day weekend showed glimmers of hope last week. Sonoma saw the 5 lead a few laps before being passed by SVG and running into late trouble. Should Larson stay clean for all 400 miles, he may be one step higher this year at Dover.
Chase Briscoe
It became evident very quickly in Sonoma that almost nobody had anything for SVG. That is except for maybe runner-up Chase Briscoe, who was able to hang with the No. 88 on a few restarts and close out a strong day as best in class. With this result, Briscoe set a new career-high for top-fives in a season with seven. He now heads to a track where the Bass Pro Shops 19 Toyota is almost always a contender. Martin Truex Jr. delivered this team a pair of Monster trophies, Briscoe hopes to add onto this Dover legacy.
Briscoe’s best Dover finish was 13th in 2022; all but guarantee him to better this result and be a top-10 threat on Sunday. Sonoma was Briscoe’s first top-10 since his breakthrough Pocono win last month. The Bass Pro Shops team may continue a hot summer stretch rolling into a track they’ve conquered before at Dover.
Alex Bowman
Dover has quietly been one of Alex Bowman’s best statistical tracks in recent years. The 2021 winner here, Bowman also boasts five more top-10s here (four of them being top-fives) since 2019. Eighth in this race a year ago, Bowman is beaming with confidence coming back to one of his favorite tracks.
“Honestly, I like road courses, but I am happy about returning to an oval,” Bowman said. “Dover has always been a place that fits my driving style. It’s fast, it’s technical, and it demands a lot from both the driver and the car. The transitions off the corners are intense, and the concrete surface makes it unlike anywhere else we go. That 2021 win is still one of my favorite moments with this team.”
Planted firmly on the Playoff bubble battle, Bowman is in must-win mode and knows that Dover is a prime opportunity race. The 48’s been very stout here in recent memory, riding a four-race Dover top-10 streak. If anywhere is to be Bowman’s breakthrough win of 2025, Dover may just see its winningest number find victory lane again.
Chase Elliott
Twice a winner at Dover, Chase Elliott is another man who’s seemingly always a threat here. Victorious in the first Next Gen race here three years ago, Elliott’s seen three top-fives in his last four Dover trips. Now a Playoff lock after his home track triumph in Atlanta a few weeks ago, Elliott wants to keep the good times rolling into Dover.
“We want more,” Elliott said. “We want more wins. More of all of it. We want it all. For us, it’s just about continuing to bring the pace that we’ve brought over the last month and a half or so. I’ve been really pleased with just where we’re at and the things we’re talking about and the things we’re working on and the things we’re doing – a lot of really good stuff right now.”
Elliott’s season of late has appeared to turn a corner, the 9 owns top-fives in four of the last five weeks. Dover is always a strong track for all of Hendrick Motorsports. Expect Elliott to be right in line with his teammates in chasing down another Monster trophy.
Kyle Busch
Another man with sustained Dover success is Kyle Busch. A three-time Monster Mile winner, Rowdy also won the pole and converted that to a fourth-place run last year. Busch is hoping to build off this recent momentum here and possibly contend again.
“Looking ahead to Dover Motor Speedway this weekend with our Cheddar’s Camaro,” Busch said. “I feel like we had a good car there last year. We had some issues on pit lane that set us back a couple of times, but we were still able to come out of there with a decent finish. We want to try to do that again this time, as you said, a little cleaner.”
Busch has slowly and methodically made inroads on the top-16 in points over recent weeks. Now 18th in the standings and only down by 37 points, recent blue collar days have paid off dividends for the No. 8. Busch aims for his third-straight top-10 after back-to-back banner road course runs.
Only six races are left to secure one of four remaining Playoff berths. Dover is normally a very non-chaotic race on the schedule, but a last-minute twist has been added in for 2025. Goodyear is debuting a new tire compound that’s never even been tested before. Miles the Monster may just be in for a feast with the many unknowns that lie ahead. The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 goes green Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Logan Riely/Getty Images
