The Dover Experience
September 30, 2005
By Lou Demian
Dover marked the 5th Nextel Cup race we attended in 4 years. While planning our race destination early in the year, Dover was the track we decided on. It wasn’t too far away plus it was a track that we hadn’t visited yet. Later on we decided we would also visit Pocono for the third time, but it was Dover that we originally decided on first. What’s even better was that were were able to stay with my cousins who live about a half hour from the track in Delaware. That saved us a ton of money right there.
Luckily enough we were also able to score tickets for a Dale Jr. & Martin Truex Jr. event at the Dover Downs Hotel. We weren’t quite sure what it was, but we’d go to anything featuring those 2 drivers since they are our favorites. We left Thursday afternoon and made our way down to Delaware. We arrived at the track around 6:00pm and saw a huge line of people outside the hotel. We were a little worried because we didn’t think that many people would be there. At any rate, we made it in just fine. The room was set up like a concert. There were stadium bleachers in the back, or standing room on the floor by the stage. We decided to stand on the floor so we could see much better. The opening act was a cover band called “Chorduroy”. They played a lot of classic rock songs and were pretty good. After an hour, they finished up and Martin Truex Jr. came out, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. They both sat on the stage on opposite sides of the interviewer. She asked them questions that some audience members were able to submit prior to the start. Video clips were shown of some of their greatest victories so far and then talked about them afterwards. Since they were up on stage, and there were way too many people, they weren’t able to do any autographs. However, afterwards they threw out some driver cards they they autographed. Unfortunately we were unable to snatch any up. Well, we were a little disappointed that we didn’t get any autographs, but happy we were able to see them in person finally. We then made our way to my cousins house where we stayed the night.
The next day was qualifying day for both the Busch and Cup races. We arrived at the track a little after 9:00am. Before heading inside, we checked out all the souvenir trailers and other displays. Since we went crazy at Pocono with getting driver autographs, we decided to take it easy this time. If we were able to get any, that would be fine, but we wouldn’t drive ourselves nuts. A number of drivers that we had gotten in Pocono would be signing that weekend, so we wouldn’t have to worry about them this time. The only driver we would try and get would be Carl Edwards who was signing on Sunday morning.
After some bumming around outside the track, we headed in. I was a little surprised by the size of the track. It was much bigger than I anticipated. However, it was the perfect size since you could see the entire track without the use of binoculars. You definitely needed them at the other two tracks we visited, Pocono and Daytona. We sat up in the stands for awhile watching the happenings in the garage area. You could see everything pretty clearly but I would loved to have been down there. Unfortunately, unless you have a garage pass, there is no way you can go down near the garage area or pit row. That’s one thing I missed that I had gotten used to with Pocono. Eventually the Cup cars went out for their first practice. At one point in the practice, Mike Bliss in the #0 Best Buy Chevy got loose and hit the inside wall. He would have to go to a backup car. After the first practice was over, we went out to eat lunch. We were nearly back inside the track to watch the 2nd practice when Bobby Hamilton Jr. also hit the wall in his #32 Tide Chevy. Looks like he’d have to go the backup as well.
After both practices were over, the Busch drivers started their qualifying. Looked like Martin Truex Jr. was close to a getting a pole until Ryan Newman came out and took it from him. Tony Raines hit the wall in his qualifying attempt and would start at the back.
Cup qualifying took place soon afterwards and was incident free. Ryan Newman took the pole in that race as well, sweeping the weekend. After qualifying was finished, the Busch North drivers would be racing, however we decided to leave early and go spend a little time with my cousins.
Saturday was Busch Racing and Nextel Cup happy hour. We arrived fairly early at the track and took in the sites again. We checked out the displays, some of which we had seen at Pocono, but there were a few new ones as well. Crown Royal had a big tent you could go into, after giving all kinds of information, proving that you are 21. You had to be 21 to enter since you could get a free drink inside. I enjoyed my Crown Royal and Pepsi and got ready to go inside the track.
We watched happy hour which was incident free and got ready for the start of the Busch race. After all the pre-race festivities, the race had gotten underway. Only 2 laps into it, there was a huge crash on the backstretch involving 14 cars. It started when Matt Kenseth got loose, ran into Paul Menard and several cars rain into them. Donnie Neurenberger went on a wild ride after his car flipped over. The race was red flagged for 20 minutes to clean up everything. Not too long after that, another multi car accident happened after Erin Crocker got loose and got into Justin Labonte. Kyle Busch ran into them and had a few choice words later on. After those two accidents, the rest of the race ran pretty smoothly except for a couple of cautions. Martin Truex Jr. ran second to Ryan Newman most of the race until a late flat tire cost him any chance of a win or at least finishing second. Luckily enough, Ryan Newman put a lot of cars a lap down, so Truex finished 12th, however lost more points to Clint Bowyer who finished 2nd. After the conclusion, we headed back to my cousin’s house and turned in a little early since we would be getting up super early at 5:00am the next day.
We were at the track at the crack of dawn the next day where we stood in line for tickets for Carl Edwards who would be signing. Only 100 tickets would be given away. There were a lot of people on line already, so it didn’t look too good. Unfortunately I was right, we were about 10 people short of getting a ticket. Oh well, we wouldn’t be getting autographs this weekend, but at least could go around taking pictures of the drivers. Some of the drivers signing that morning that we took pictures of were Carl Edwards of course, Sterling Marlin, Dave Blaney, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon. It was wall to wall people that day, you couldn’t breathe in certain areas. After going around taking pictures, we ate an early lunch at a Deli in the casino, and made our way to the seats. For the Busch race, we were right by the start-finish line. For the Cup race, we sat at turn four but were high up at least. We had no problem seeing the track, but couldn’t see a whole lot of pit row.
After the pre-race festivities were complete, the MBNA Racepoints 400 was underway. It looked like Dale Jr. had a strong car as he quickly moved up to 2nd place. Unfortunately that wouldn’t last too long. After a caution due to Stanton Barrett hitting the wall, Dale Jr. hit the pits complaining of a brake issue. The crew couldn’t find any issues, and sent Jr. back on the track, 7 laps down. He would eventually gain some spots as cars went out, but finished 31st. There were a number of cautions during the race, some for debris, others for cars getting into accidents. Mike Bliss continued his miserable weekend as he got loose and hit the wall. Chase driver Matt Kenseth had several issues during the day including a tire going down which put him into the wall. Jamie McMurray and Tony Raines got together and took out Jeff Gordon with them. Joe Nemechek, Kevin Lepage and Robby Gordon also brought out cautions as well. In the end, it was Jimmie Johnson who held off Kyle Busch for the win. Overall, it was an entertaining race even if we watch Jr. struggle for the 2nd race we went to this year.
After the race, we dealt with all the fun traffic. It was pretty bad, took us about 5 hours to get home, stopping for dinner too. However, I still think the Pocono race traffic is worse. We definitely have had our fill of races this year, it definitely takes a lot out of you if you attend the whole weekend. We may attend one next year, possibly Richmond if others in the league want to go as well.
Results from the MBNA Racepoints 400, September 25 2005
