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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Quote Of The day: 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Kahne sitting out Milwaukee and Pikes Peak Chase field is thinning FitzBradshaw promotes Refner to crew chief Kelly Sutton is driven to inspire Final 600 ratings are up Edwards scores truck pole Developer announces plan for domed NASCAR track in Connecticut Stewart shows softer side with fans Tina Gordon and ThorSport part ways Rookie Riggs trying to make his mark Pay scale isn't all it appears Drivers to watch at Dover What a Lousy Way to Treat the President and the Armed Forces Cup Scene readers speak out
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Happy Birthday Terry and Jerry Windell, Michael Dokken, Barry Dodson Dover International Speedway is one of the most demanding tracks on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. Ryan Newman beat the high-banked concrete oval twice last year. Both times he overcame adversity to do it.
Newman goes into this weekend confident he can end an 18-race drought with a victory Sunday in the MBNA America 400. "The bottom line is we've proven we can get around the racetrack and we can win here," Newman said. "Now, the determining factor is we've got to go back and repeat." Last June, Newman was forced for half the 400-mile race to muscle his 3,400-pound Dodge around the narrow track without power steering. In the fall race, Newman lost two laps because of a flat tire. He got one back because of NASCAR's then-brand-new rule awarding a lap to the highest-scored car off the lead lap at each caution period, and returned to contention by staying on the track when a subsequent yellow flag came out. Two caution periods that slowed the field for 12 laps also enabled him to save gas and go the final 106 without a stop. "It takes a little bit of everything and not just good, but great situations, whether it's pit stops that are strategies or whatever else to get that win," Newman said. The speed that has led to an astounding 21 poles and nine victories in less than three full seasons on the circuit is put to good use here. "Cars are able to pass instead of beating on each other," Newman said. "That is a good recipe for good racing." Newman was expected to be one of a handful of drivers battling for the top spot in the standings. But he's ninth after a third straight poor start to a season. "We've got no excuse," he said. A strong performance Sunday could point him in the right direction though. "I've adapted to Dover pretty well," he said. "I understand what it takes to get around. It's a track that's usually plenty racy. There are a couple of grooves you can work with. It's fast. It's physically demanding and mentally demanding to hit your marks. It has been a strange season so far, Newman conceded: "Some of it is coincidence, some of it is a couple of teams hitting things right. Jimmie Johnson's got two wins, Matt Kenseth two wins plus the all-star race. Junior's got two wins. So a lot of guys have hit it right a couple of times. "We've proven we can get around the racetrack and we can win. Now we've got to repeat. We've got no excuse. We've been the fastest car on Friday, and we've been the best car on Sunday. "Sometimes you have to work real hard, and sometimes things come easy. More often than not you have to work real hard." "We've been close a couple of times but we haven't made it to Victory Lane yet." Newman's toughest opponent might be Jimmie Johnson, coming off a pole-race sweep last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Johnson crashed last spring at Dover, and finished eighth to Newman in the fall after sweeping the races here in 2002. Johnson could easily take the points lead with his third victory of the season or a competitive run. He comes in just five points behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Newman is 298 back after 12 of 36 races. And Johnson knows testing at tracks that do not have Nextel Cup races can be very helpful. With virtually all teams allotted only nine tests each year on Nextel Cup tracks, outside venues get plenty of use. But Johnson insists there is no way to simulate Dover International Speedway. "Dover is so unique," he said of the layout they call The Monster Mile. "There isn't another track on the circuit that is remotely close to what you have at Dover. "A lot of people go to Kentucky and these other tracks, but you can't take anything from there and apply it to Dover." The would seem to give Johnson an edge over most of the field Sunday in the MBNA America 400. He won twice on the high-banked concrete oval in 2002, and hopes to ride the momentum of a pole-race sweep last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway to his third victory of the year and the series points lead.
Although Dover qualifies as the world's fastest mile oval, speed is not the most important factor, Johnson insists. "When you find the right setup with the race car and the driver has the right rhythm for it ... you can fine tune and hone in on it," he said. A team that could use some tuning after last weekend is the Richard Childress' crew, who haven't exactly set the racing world on fire so far this season. Last weekend at Charlotte, Robby Gordon ran into trouble at both ends of his Indy-Charlotte "double." Johnny Sauter spun out and crashed and Kevin Harvick was never really a factor. Harvick's run last summer at Dover was an impressive one, his best ever on Dover International Speedway's concrete one-mile since taking the ride in 2001. Perhaps it was a rain-aided third-place start that helped, but he led 133 laps and wound up finishing fourth. "Dover is one of my worst tracks when it comes to consistency," Harvick said. "We either run really well or we stink. Last year was a perfect example. In the spring we ran as hard as we could but didn't get anything going and finished four laps down. Then in September, we had our best day in a Cup car, ran up front, led some laps, and finished in the top-five for the first time.
"Every lap you come close because you are coming up out of a hole and the straightaway is up on a hill, so it just kind of throws you up into the wall. There is not enough room for error. It's one of those places where you have to get up off the corner right every time, and if you miss your mark even a little bit, you are going to have a flat right side." Crew chiefs might like the concrete because it's consistent throughout a race, but drivers complain about a washboard effect. "It's like riding your bike down the sidewalk," Harvick said. "In fact, when you first get on the track it feels like you are driving down the sidewalk. The rubber fills up the cracks eventually, but it's not much fun those first couple of laps. "The track's got a different feel. You are up on top of the racetrack more than you feel like you are when you are on pavement. It's a different type of feel. I don't know how to explain it." Jeff Burton put it this way: "For a driver, Dover is one of the most demanding tracks on the circuit. Tire wear is really important, as well as qualifying well, so you don't go a lap down early." Burton and crew chief Bob Osborne, who took over in March, have yet to mesh. "The team is still not where we want to be," Osborne said. "Since I've started we have made some improvements, and with each day the communication between Jeff, the team and myself gets better. I think we are headed in the right direction, it just takes time. We still need faster cars, and that's what we are working on." Rookie Kasey Kahne certainly hasn't had to ask for faster cars. He had one of the fastest at Charlotte last Sunday, until he ran into Bobby Labonte in the final miles. Labonte was not pleased, because he also had a good stretch run going. "Dover will be interesting," Labonte said of the weekend ahead. "We've struggled there a little bit recently, although we got a third-place last spring." What will be interesting to see is if anyone can set themselves up for a Dover "sweep". Sweeps at Dover have been accomplished in the last decade by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace, who set the track qualifying record of 159.954 mph in 1999. Dale Earnhardt Junior, with a series-leading three victories this season, also has won at Dover. A good showing is important to Wallace, 13th in the points, 407 behind Earnhardt. Only the top 10 in the standings and any drivers within 400 points of the lead get to contest the championship over the final 10 events. Johnson wouldn't speculate on who might be favored to win the fall title chase that begins Sept. 19 in New Hampshire. The top driver will enter that race with a five-point lead and the 10th-place competitor will begin 50 back. "I don't think you can say that until eight of the 10 races are gone," Johnson explained. "You look at guys like Ryan Newman, who is down in points. "You know he is going to be tough and all he needs to do is make the cut. You know he is going to be strong at the end of the season"
"The last two seasons our summers have been our strong point," Newman said optimistically. "We start off really bad and then get really, really good in the summer and kind of average out the last 10 races or so. We're going to do our best to even that out."
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