News Article

Danica Patrick’s debut in Dover highlights Sept. 24-26, 2010 race weekend storylines

July 14, 2010
Joe Heller

NASCAR Nationwide Series
Saturday, Sept. 25

Regardless of the hype surrounding the “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” championship this September, it may be difficult to keep your eyes off the bright green No. 7 running in the 200-mile NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick will make her first start at the Monster Mile in just her seventh career NASCAR start. No doubt a big challenge for any driver, let alone an open-wheel convert. 

Alack of seat time in a stock car means that she’ll be learning on the fly. Not just learning each track, but also her car and what she’s capable of doing behind the wheel. But Patrick feels that’s when she’ll learn the most about NASCAR racing.

“When you are testing, you are by yourself,” said Patrick, driver of the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet “[It] gives you a chance to not have to be looking in your mirror, doing all those kinds of things to see where people are and maneuvering around other cars. So it really does allow you the chance to be able to feel the car and feel changes and testing for me is really important at this point, because I'm so new.

“But it's really, when you get out there in the race is really when you learn the most. You're forced to learn. You're forced to get out there and go … So the racing is really where you learn. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to learn in front of everybody all year and the year after. But it's the best place to do it.”

She’ll come to Dover a week after flying back from the IndyCar Series race in Motegi, Japan, the second to last race of the 2010 season, and also site of her first career IndyCar victory. If she can repeat the feat that she accomplished in Japan back in 2008 before coming to Dover, there’s no doubt that it’ll be a much needed confidence booster for her as she attempts to tackle the Monster Mile.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
AAA 400, Sunday, Sept. 26

Jimmie Johnson became the first driver to ever win Dover’s September “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” race and the championship in the same season in 2009, and there’s no doubt that he’s a man on a mission to repeat the feat again this season. But standing in his way are a few equally hungry drivers in pursuit of the championship, and a few of them are equally as desperate to capture their first monster trophy at Dover.

Kevin Harvick

Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin are two that standout. Harvick has led the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings for the majority of the 2010 season, but has never won at Dover in any of the three national series that he races in. Harvick climbed from a 30th starting position to finish seventh in the May race.

Likewise, Hamlin has won several races this season, and while he owns two victories in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Dover, he has not won at the Monster Mile in NASCAR’s premier series. He finished fourth in Dover in May.

Another frontrunner this season who has yet to win on the high-banked, one-mile oval in Dover is Kurt Busch. Busch has looked strong on the 1.5-mile tracks this season, and has won at Atlanta, and both the All-Star race and 600-mile race in Charlotte.

He won the September 2000 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Dover and also made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Dover in that same weekend. He’ll look to have a more impressive finish this time around than the 19th he scored back in May.

The “Chase” field will be set following the night race in Richmond on Sept. 11. A week later the 10-race Chase gets underway in New Hampshire. Keep an eye on Harvick, Hamlin and Busch come September, but be sure to never count out the No. 48.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
Sunoco 150, Friday, Sept. 24

For the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, it all comes down to Dover. For the third time in four seasons, the East Series champion will be crowned following the Sunoco 150 on Friday, Sept. 24. 2009.

Defending champion Ryan Truex is looking to become the first back-to-back series champion since Andy Santerre in 2005. Truex, younger brother of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Martin, clinched the championship at the Monster Mile last September.

Ryan and Martin Truex with the East Series champion's trophy Photo by Getty Images

But if Truex and his Michael Waltrip Racing team are going to win another title, they’re going to have to fend off a fast Joe Gibbs Racing trio in order to get there.

Brett Moffitt, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Max Gresham have all visited Victory Lane thus far this season. Moffitt, the youngest race winner in series history following his win at Dover last September, also won this season at Martinsville. Wallace won the season opener at Greenville Pickens in March, while Gresham won the next two at South Boston and Iowa

All three will be in contention for the series championship, and the race win, when the exciting and always entertaining series visits Dover this September.  

Click here to purchase tickets for the Sept. 24-26, 2010 race weekend. Click here for the weekend schedule of events.