Afternoon report from Dover (Update)
05/30/15 It’s about 1 p.m. here at Dover International Speedway. The second NASCAR Sprint Cup practice session of the day has begun. The session is currently red-flagged with rear end grease apparently having leaked onto the track from the #88 car of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Earlier, Darrell 'Bubba' Wallace secured the Coors Light Pole for the 34th Annual Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket NASCAR XFINITY Series race scheduled to start around 2:30 p.m. ET.
I spent some time in the Sprint Cup garage area asking teams what the key was to getting the car right at Dover. As you probably know, the teams weren't exactly overly forthcoming with information about the specifics of set up. However, there are some themes that seem to be universal.
The first key to a quick lap here is getting the car 'planted' coming out of turns 2 and 4, down the long straights. Dover's straights are relatively long and drivers who can get the power down early are the ones that typical thrive at Dover.
As for how you do that? That, I couldn't really get out of the teams.
Another thing I heard consistently was that the balance at Dover is very temperamental. In other words, a good car is great, but a bad car is wicked bad.
And without overstating the obvious another key to quick laps at Dover is tires. Teams in all three NASCAR series are running the same combination of left – and right-side tires this weekend. The right-side tire code (D-4440)have been run since 2012, while this is first time the left-side tire code (D-4392) has been run. Below, are recommended inflations:
Left Front — 23 psi
Left Rear — 21 psi
Right Front — 49 psi
Right Rear — 45 psi
Also, Dover is unique amongst NASCAR tracks a mile or less, as the inner liners are used on all 4 tire positions. The pressure in the inner lines is supposed to be about 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
Moving on, I spoke with one member of Michael Waltrip Racing and asked him about the turnaround for teams from week-to-week. If you already know this, my apologies, however, NASCAR teams tend to have 'track' cars. For example, the cars for short tracks like Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond are different than say Pocono and Indianapolis. Ditto for Daytona/Talladega cars and say Sonoma/Watkins Glen cars.
One quick note:
At least from what I've seen, Sprint does not have much of a presence here at Dover. They have one small booth that I saw between turns 1 and 2, but no real major presence. Again, that's just an observation from what I've seen here.
The Sprint Cup practice session has restarted.
Results
| POS | DRIVER | BEHIND | GAP | SPEED | TIME |
| 1 | DENNY HAMLIN | LEADER | 0.072 | 156.087 | 23.064 |
| 2 | CARL EDWARDS | -0.072 | 0.059 | 155.602 | 23.136 |
| 3 | PAUL MENARD | -0.131 | 0.034 | 155.206 | 23.195 |
| 4 | MATT KENSETH | -0.165 | 0.041 | 154.979 | 23.229 |
| 5 | KYLE BUSCH | -0.206 | 0.01 | 154.706 | 23.270 |
| 6 | JIMMIE JOHNSON | -0.216 | 0.006 | 154.639 | 23.280 |
| 7 | KEVIN HARVICK | -0.222 | 0.074 | 154.599 | 23.286 |
| 8 | JAMIE MCMURRAY | -0.296 | 0.002 | 154.110 | 23.360 |
| 9 | JEFF GORDON | -0.298 | 0.018 | 154.096 | 23.362 |
| 10 | KURT BUSCH | -0.316 | 0.009 | 153.978 | 23.380 |
| 11 | JOEY LOGANO | -0.325 | 0.003 | 153.919 | 23.389 |
| 12 | RICKY STENHOUSE JR | -0.328 | 0.023 | 153.899 | 23.392 |
| 13 | CLINT BOWYER | -0.351 | 0.011 | 153.748 | 23.415 |
| 14 | DAVID RAGAN | -0.362 | 0.008 | 153.675 | 23.426 |
| 15 | BRAD KESELOWSKI | -0.37 | 0.037 | 153.623 | 23.434 |
| 16 | KYLE LARSON | -0.407 | 0.012 | 153.381 | 23.471 |
| 17 | GREG BIFFLE | -0.419 | 0.023 | 153.302 | 23.483 |
| 18 | ARIC ALMIROLA | -0.442 | 0.02 | 153.152 | 23.506 |
| 19 | DALE EARNHARDT JR | -0.462 | 0.012 | 153.022 | 23.526 |
| 20 | MARTIN TRUEX JR | -0.474 | 0.012 | 152.944 | 23.538 |
| 21 | AUSTIN DILLON | -0.486 | 0.016 | 152.866 | 23.550 |
| 22 | RYAN NEWMAN | -0.502 | 0.011 | 152.762 | 23.566 |
| 23 | AJ ALLMENDINGER | -0.513 | 0.014 | 152.691 | 23.577 |
| 24 | TREVOR BAYNE | -0.527 | 0.016 | 152.601 | 23.591 |
| 25 | KASEY KAHNE | -0.543 | 0.008 | 152.497 | 23.607 |
| 26 | MICHAEL ANNETT | -0.551 | 0.003 | 152.445 | 23.615 |
| 27 | DAVID GILLILAND | -0.554 | 0.005 | 152.426 | 23.618 |
| 28 | CASEY MEARS | -0.559 | 0.005 | 152.394 | 23.623 |
| 29 | JUSTIN ALLGAIER | -0.564 | 0.004 | 152.362 | 23.628 |
| 30 | BRIAN SCOTT | -0.568 | 0.015 | 152.336 | 23.632 |
| 31 | TONY STEWART | -0.583 | 0.017 | 152.239 | 23.647 |
| 32 | DANICA PATRICK | -0.6 | 0.015 | 152.130 | 23.664 |
| 33 | SAM HORNISH JR | -0.615 | 0.014 | 152.033 | 23.679 |
| 34 | COLE WHITT | -0.629 | 0.093 | 151.944 | 23.693 |
| 35 | JOSH WISE | -0.722 | 0.108 | 151.350 | 23.786 |
| 36 | JEB BURTON | -0.83 | 0.01 | 150.665 | 23.894 |
| 37 | MATT DIBENEDETTO | -0.84 | 0.004 | 150.602 | 23.904 |
| 38 | LANDON CASSILL | -0.844 | 0.028 | 150.577 | 23.908 |
| 39 | ALEX BOWMAN | -0.872 | 0 | 150.401 | 23.936 |
| 40 | BRETT MOFFITT | -0.872 | 0.227 | 150.401 | 23.936 |
| 41 | MIKE BLISS | -1.099 | 0.023 | 148.988 | 24.163 |
| 42 | J.J. YELEY | -1.122 | 0 | 148.846 | 24.186 |
Brian C. reporting from Dover