Biggest NASCAR Storylines to Watch Ahead of Sprint Cup Series at Dover
We’re reaching the threshold for the number of winners we’ll see in 2015. Last year NASCAR had 13 winners through the first 26 races. At the end of Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600, won by Carl Edwards, the 2015 season saw its ninth winner.
Jimmie Johnson already has three wins and heads to one of his strongest tracks. He won his record ninth race at Dover in the spring of 2014, and it sustained a run of three wins over four tracks.
As NASCAR heads to Dover International Speedway—the Monster Mile—the window for Chasers will shrink by one race after Sunday’s conclusion. There are a number of winless drivers who have had success at Dover who could close the door that much more.
It’s that time of the week, so let’s jump on some storylines ahead of the Monster.
Can Team Penske Snap out of Its Funk?
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Team Penske, though both drivers are qualified for the Chase, has been in a relative slump the past few weeks.
It hasn’t won a race since Brad Keselowski won the Auto Club 400 during the West Coast swing. You have to hearken way back to the first race of the year—the Daytona 500—for the last time Joey Logano won. These two won 11 races in 2014.
Both drivers have been steady in 2015, but they haven’t been great of late. Logano has been all kinds of up-and-down the past five races. His last five results are 40th, fifth, 33rd, fifth and 13th.
As for Keselowski, his past five races look like this: 35th, 17th, 22nd, seventh and seventh.
Logano and Keselowski have combined for nine top fives, but they haven’t showed championship form in the past few weeks after starting off so well. That’s fine since it is only May, but they started out far better than they are now.
Keselowski averages a 13.2 finish at Dover with one win back in 2012. Logano has never won at Dover and has an average finish of 13.83.
This week will be a real test for Team Penske since Dover will be the third race in the Chase and the last course of the Challenger Round.
Will We See the Start of Something Big for Carl Edwards?
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Now that Carl Edwards has the new-teammate-pressure monkey off his back, what will this mean for him?
He won the Coke 600 in a brilliant bit of fuel strategy that allowed him to hold off Greg Biffle, his former teammate, and lock up a spot in the coveted Chase.
Edwards said in Reid Spencer’s NASCAR.com story:
"It's so cool to get this win—we've had such bad luck. And we were the slowest of the (JGR cars) tonight, but we had (crew chief) Darian (Grubb) on the box. He made the right call, he put us in a position to win, and it worked. ... This is truly a gift. I took advantage of it to win, and we'll get better.
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Should Edwards get better from here, he could be a sleeper pick to win the Sprint Cup. With all eyes on Johnson and Kevin Harvick, Edwards could heat up without the field at large taking notice. Harvick won last year's title for a new team.
Edwards could do the same.
Keselowski acknowledged back in February that he thought Edwards’ skills are second to no one.
With the pressure alleviated, Edwards may find it easier to compete knowing that he fits in with his new team as the third winner of the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.
Can Greg Biffle Sustain His Recent Momentum?
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Greg Biffle may finally be turning things around. It’s no secret that he hasn’t won a race since 2013 and that his cars have lacked horsepower with Roush Fenway Racing.
But after winning one of the Sprint Showdowns to get into the Sprint All-Star Race and then parlaying that effort to finish second in the Coke 600, gray skies are clearing up for the No. 16 car.
"I really, really wanted to win, and I tried so hard,” Biffle said in Jay Pennell’s FoxSports.com story. “You know, we just came up a little bit short. I feel really good about finishing second, I do, but just over here reminiscing about what it would be like if I would have won."
Biffle has won twice at Dover and enters a stretch of three tracks where he’s had some success. He made the Chase last season without winning a race, and if he’s to qualify this year he’ll need to win.
Now seems like that time for Biffle.
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Jeff Gordon's Done, Now What?
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Jeff Gordon is done after this year. Seriously.
Early in the year he avoided saying he was retiring, thus leaving the door open to compete every now and again in successive years. Think Michael Waltrip. Gordon, who is winless in 2015, won’t take his show on the road in 2016.
Gordon said in Jordan Bianchi’s SBNation.com story:
"I've known too many drivers that I respect and have raced with that said, ‘Okay, I'm retiring,' then they come back. That's why I didn't say this is my final year of ever competing at a single event. But it really, truly is. It really is. As I get further into the year, as things come together, I don't see myself doing any races.
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Good on him for calling it quits and not, presumably, Brett Favre-ing, but that’s in 2016. There’s still the matter of this year.
He’s won six times at Dover, and that could be the remedy he needs for his inconsistent season.
Jimmie Johnson Looks to Win One for the Other Thumb
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It’s easy to forget how dominant the No. 48 team is when his stint at Charlotte Motor Speedway inspired visions of a summer slump.
He finished 20th in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and 40th in the Coke 600. Maybe a change of scenery at the track where he’s won nine times is just what he needs to reassert his dominance atop the Chase standings. Amazingly, Johnson goes for a 10th win at the Monster Mile.
He said in Tom Jensen’s FoxSports.com story:
"I'd have to say Dover is probably one of the most technical tracks we go to. Setup is key. Communication between driver and crew chief is key. At Dover, you have such loading characteristics, as you're on the straightaway and kind of lunge off the corner, that you can draw some similarities between Dover and Charlotte. Dover isn't easy, but it just suits my driving style and I love it.
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Having nine wins suggests Dover is easy, but other drivers who are winless this year need it more than Johnson, and that could spell danger for the No. 48 team.
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