DODGE AT DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has five wins at Dover: Richard Petty (2), Ryan Newman (3).
• Petty gave Dodge its first Dover victory at the 1974 Delaware 500. He led 491 of the 500 laps.
• Dodge has earned 12 pole positions at Dover. The first by Bobby Isaac (129.538 mph) in 1970 and most recent by Ryan Newman (152.925 mph) at the spring event in 2007.
• Kurt Busch finished fifth in both races at The Monster Mile last year.
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent win came at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led 252 of 400 laps en route to victory in the Coca-Cola 600.
• Dodge has claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Dover: Ryan Newman, 9/26/2004, MBNA 400, 119.067 avg. speed.
DODGE IN THE CHASE: DOVER
• 2004: Dodge earned its first Chase victory as Ryan Newman led 325 laps en route to victory. Dodge started 1-2 with Chase contender Jeremy Mayfield earning the pole and Newman starting second. Mayfield finished seventh.
• 2005: The three Chase-eligible Dodges of Jeremy Mayfield, Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace finished in the top-seven with Wallace leading the way in third.
• 2006: Kasey Kahne was only Chase-eligible Dodge driver. He finished 38th after being involved in an early-race mishap.
• 2007: Kurt Busch was the Dodge representative in the Chase. He qualified fourth and finished 29th.
• 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
• 2009: Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne were the Dodge representatives among the elite 12. Busch finished fifth and Kahne eighth in the second race of the 2009 Chase.
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Dover will always be such an extraordinary track for me that holds such significance as far as my career goes. If you would have told me years ago that we’d be coming back into Dover after all these races without a win, I would have said, ‘Man, you’ve gotta be kidding me.’ We’ve had so much success at Bristol, the other high‐banked concrete track, you’d think we’d been able to win on the bigger one‐mile oval.”
Kurt Busch – No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
KURT BUSCH – INSIDE THE CHASE NUMBERS
• Competing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the fifth time: 2004 – Champion, 2005 – 10th, 2007 – Seventh and 2009 – fourth.
• Busch currently sits sixth in Chase to the Sprint Cup championship standings, 86 points behind the leader.
• Through 27 races this season, Busch has two wins along with eight top-five and 15 top-10 finishes.
• Has competed in 60 Chase races since 2004, 41 of those have been in a Dodge Charger, with 15 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes.
• Busch seeks his first Sprint Cup win at Dover. His best finish of fourth came in September 2006.
• Busch started 12th and finished 19th at Dover earlier this year.
• In 20 races at Dover, Busch has led 325 laps with four top-five and six top-10 finishes. He has an average starting position of 11.2 at The Monster Mile with an average finish of 19.65.
• At the 10 tracks hosting a Chase event, Busch has 156 starts with nine wins along with 38 top-five and 70 top-10 finishes.
KURT BUSCH – CHASE TRACKER
Track Qualified Finish Pos. Behind +/-
Loudon 12th 13th 6 -86 -1
DID YOU KNOW?
• Three drivers have driven Dodge to a championship in NASCAR’s premier series: David Pearson – 1966, Bobby Isaac – 1970 and Richard Petty in 1972, 1974 and 1975.
ENGINEERING TALK
“Last week, the Chase started at Loudon, a one-mile flat track. This week, the 12 drivers have the challenge of Dover, another one-mile track. No problem, right? Nothing could be farther from the truth. The flat, tight, slow corners of Loudon give way this week to the high-banked, wide-open and very- fast corners of Dover where drivers talk about how the car “lands” on entry to Turn 1 and Turn 3. The engineering challenge this week is to maintain the incredibly high straightaway speeds through the high-banked corners at the Monster Mile.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“I’ve said all along that these next two races – this weekend’s race at Dover and the following week at Kansas – look to be our huge challenges during the Chase. Based off what we saw there in the spring race, Dover may just be the biggest hurdle that our Miller Lite Dodge Team faces.
“It’s all about consistency during the entire 10‐race stretch; logging those top‐fives and top‐10s. That’s definitely our goal heading into Dover this weekend. We need to come out of there on Sunday with another notch added to one of those columns.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
“Goodyear changed the tires around a little bit for this weekend, so hopefully we will get a better idea of where we need to be on Friday. I really like Dover; it’s a fun track. It feels like one of the fastest tracks on the circuit and it’s definitely one of the most physical places we run at as well.
Usually when someone wrecks at Dover, they get loose coming off the corner and slide up towards the wall. When the car slows down, they come back down the track. Everyone tries to guess where the car will go and inevitably more cars get involved in the accident. It can be like a domino effect. It’s a lot like a speedway race because there aren’t too many places to hide when trouble happens in front of you.”
Sam Hornish Jr. No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
“I really think I am getting more and more confident on the Cup side. That’s probably the most important thing that having a year in Cup has given me. I feel like I can go out the first lap in practice and drive my car a lot harder than I used to. Everything just seems like it has become slower for me and that gives me a better feel for everything.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Dodge Charger
