This Week in Auto Racing May 14 - 16

This Week in Auto Racing May 14 - 16
By The Sports Network

Dover, DE (Sports Network) - It will be a "monstrous" weekend for NASCAR, as all three of its national touring series will race at Dover International Speedway. Meanwhile, Formula One rolls in Monte Carlo for its most prestigious race of the season -- the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sprint Cup Series

Autism Speaks 400 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE

Despite knee surgery six weeks ago, Denny Hamlin has been one of the hottest drivers on the Sprint Cup Series. Hamlin has won three of the last six races, including last Saturday's event at Darlington.

His Darlington win moved him up to sixth in points (-164).

Hamlin sat 19th in points prior to his Martinsville victory on the last weekend in March.

"I think that it's very encouraging for me that we're winning right now under the circumstances," Hamlin said.

Hamlin's has nicely recovered from his surgical procedure. After winning at Darlington, he said his knee felt as good as it ever had.

Prior to the start of the season, Hamlin was regarded as Jimmie Johnson's biggest threat for the championship. It's certainly looking that way right now.

Can Hamlin pick up his fourth win of the season at Dover?

That might be a difficult task, based on his recent performances at "The Monster Mile." Hamlin has finished 36th or worse in four of the last five races there. He finished 22nd at Dover last September.

While Hamlin has been on a roll lately, Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, is in somewhat of a slump. Johnson has posted two DNF's in the last three races -- a 31st-place finish two weeks ago at Talladega and a 36th-place result at Darlington. He won three of the first five races this season.

"I think that it was well documented at the start of the year, we didn't have the dominant car, but we really took advantage of opportunity," said Johnson, who currently trails leader Kevin Harvick by 110 points. "Lately, we've been working hard to find new speed and some new stuff to make the No.48 car strong when it is the right time of the year."

Dover could be a turnaround for Johnson, as he recorded a season sweep there last year. If Johnson wins Sunday's race, he would become the fourth driver with three consecutive victories at Dover since the series started competing there in 1969. Jeff Gordon accomplished the feat at Dover from 1995-96. Rusty Wallace did it from 1993-94, and David Pearson did so from 1972-73.

Johnson leads all active drivers with five wins at Dover. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon is a four-time race winner there.

"Hold on tight; it's a white-knuckle experience at Dover," Gordon said. "It's very fast and a very high-banked track. The transitions are extreme there."

Gordon had another win slip away from him this season at Darlington. He also had opportunities to win late in the races at Las Vegas, Martinsville, Phoenix, Texas and Richmond. Gordon is hoping his current 40-race winless streak will come to an end at Dover.

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Autism Speaks 400.

Nationwide Series

Heluva Good! 200 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE

Jason Keller is on the brink of making Nationwide Series history this weekend at Dover. If Keller qualifies on time for Saturday's race, he will become the first driver in the series' 29-year history to reach 500 career starts.

Keller is in his first year with start-up team TriStar Motorsports. The team currently is outside the top-30 in owner points, and therefore not guaranteed a starting position. Keller has failed to qualify for three of the first 10 Nationwide races this season.

"It hasn't gotten any easier for sure," Keller said. "The competitor in me just wants to make good quality starts. I felt like we were doing that before Darlington. So I'm really concentrating on the competition side."

Keller made his series debut in April 1991 at Lanier Speedway in Gainesville, GA. Since then, he has accumulated 10 wins and 174 top-10 finishes. He finished a career-best second in points in 2000 and '02. Now, on the cusp of 500 starts, Keller can't help but get exited about his career milestone.

"It will be special for me," he added. "My beautiful wife Deb will be with me this weekend. She was at the first one and will be with me for 500."

Kenny Wallace is the next driver who could reach 500 Nationwide starts. Wallace comes to Dover with 463.

Brad Keselowski currently holds a 55-point lead over 2009 series champion Kyle Busch. Keselowski also is the defending race winner. Last year, he benefited from Busch's late-race mishap to capture the win.

Busch suffered a flat right-front tire when his teammate Joey Logano shoved him up the track after a restart with two laps to go. Keselowski, running third at the time, dove underneath Logano and passed him for the lead. He only led the final two laps for his first Nationwide win of the 2009 season. Keselowski won at Talladega and Richmond before finishing seventh last Friday at Darlington.

Three of Keselowski's eight career wins in the series have come on concrete- surfaced tracks (Dover and Nashville).

Forty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Heluva Good! 200.

Camping World Truck Series

Dover 200 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE

The Camping World Truck Series will run at Dover for the 11th time on Friday. There has yet to be a repeat winner at the one-mile track. Could we see another different winner there?

Kyle Busch and four-time and defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. are the only drivers who have won at Dover in the past. Busch won there in 2005, and Hornaday's win came in 2007.

Busch plans to run in all three NASCAR races this weekend at Dover. It's not uncommon for him to pull triple-duty. Dover will be the 33rd time in Busch's early career that he will compete in all three events on a weekend.

Four drivers -- Jason Leffler (2003), Chad Chaffin (2004), Scott Speed (2008) and Brian Scott (2009) -- scored their first career truck wins at Dover. Scott is not entered in this year's truck race, since he has graduated to the Nationwide Series.

Current points leader Timothy Peters recorded his first career top-10 finish at Dover in 2005.

"The first time I laid eyes on [the track], I really was intimidated," said Peters, who holds a 22-point advantage over Todd Bodine. "[Team owner] Bobby Hamilton really helped me out and got me up to speed really quick. It was a great first race at Dover and only my fourth NASCAR race ever."

After a sluggish start to the season, Hornaday continues to rebound in points. He has finished no worse than third in the last three races.

"I really think that we have finally begun to come together as a team," Hornaday said. "I think a lot of people forgot that we changed a lot of people over the off-season. I have a new crew chief with Doug George, and he only came on board with the No.33 in Atlanta (when we cut a tire). Since then, our set-ups have been really good, and we gave one away two weeks ago at Kansas."

Hornaday began the season with a 27th-place finish at Daytona and 34th at Atlanta. He has since climbed up to fourth in points (-97).

Rookie Austin Dillon, driver of the No.3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, will sport a special paint scheme in honor of the late-Dale Earnhardt at Dover. Earnhardt will be one of the five inaugural inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 23. He drove for Dillon's grandfather, Richard Childress, on the Cup Series for 17 seasons.

Thirty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Dover 200, one short of a full field.

FORMULA ONE

Monaco Grand Prix - Circuit de Monaco - Monte Carlo, Monaco

Since its first running in 1929, the Monaco Grand Prix has been considered as one of most prestigious and recognizable auto racing events in the world. Touted as "The Jewel in the Formula One Crown," a phrase coined by three-time race winner Jackie Stewart, the Monaco GP has garnered as much fame as the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

As the sixth round on this year's Formula One calendar, the Monaco GP is held on the streets in world-famous Monte Carlo. The 2.075-mile, 18-turn circuit winds its way through the narrow streets, starting with the first corner from Ste-Devote, then moves uphill to the steep hill of Beau Rivage and plunges back down to the Mirabeau Hotel before heading into the tunnel and chicane, located along the illustrious harbor side. It wraps up at the tricky Loews hairpin.

Monte Carlo is one of the most difficult circuits, where overtaking virtually is impossible. Therefore, track position for the Monaco GP is critical. Qualifying there is most important, with the pole sitter taking five of the last six races.

"It has been said a thousand times before that in Monaco a good qualifying position is half the race," Red Bull driver Mark Webber said. "Our car should work very well there, and I like to drive there, as it always shows a completely different facet of Formula One -- the luxury version of a race weekend."

Webber started on the pole and led all 66 laps to win last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. It was the 10th straight time the Spanish GP had been won from the pole.

The late-Ayrton Senna holds the record for most Monaco GP wins with six, including five consecutive victories from 1989-93.

Five active drivers - Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher - have won this event.

Schumacher has five victories in the Monaco GP (1994, '95, '97, '99 and 2001). Alonso claimed back-to-back wins at Monte Carlo from 2006-07. Trulli's only F1 victory came in the 2004 race. Hamilton won there in 2008, and Button is the defending race champion.

"I love the place, and I'm really looking forward to getting back there," Button said. "I think the result is extremely tough to call this year, because there are a lot of very competitive drivers in the field, so I'd like to think there's a good chance of a slightly unpredictable race this weekend."

Button, in his first year with McLaren, currently holds the lead in the world championship standings. He has accumulated 70 points so far this season, compared to 67 for Ferrari's Alonso and 60 for Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull.