By Gary Walstrom / @CoachWalstromJr
The Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway is set for Sunday May 16th at 2:00 PM. Tune in on Fox Sports 1, MRN radio, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 to catch Sunday’s afternoon's racing action.
Welcome to Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware, nicknamed “The Monster Mile” because of how demanding it is on drivers and their equipment. Dover is a 1-mile concrete oval with 24-degree banking in the turns and 9-degree banking on the straights. Drivers will have an average speed of 135 MPH as they simultaneously battle their opponents and the track. Whoever enters victory lane will receive a unique trophy on Sunday as well. Rather than handing out a standard “cup” style trophy, drivers take home a smaller replica of “Miles the Monster,” a 46 foot tall statue standing right outside the track.
Best Bets Recap - The Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway
Kyle Larson Top 5 Finish (-139): Kyle Larson pulled through with a second place finish last weekend, and although he didn’t lead a single lap, he did have himself in the right position all day. He had a pit road speeding penalty on lap 92, giving us flashbacks of the Phoenix race where he had two pit road penalties that cost me us another Larson top 5 bet. This time, however, he redeemed himself and helped us cash.
Twitter H2H Matchup - Chase Elliott (+130) vs. Kyle Busch: This one looked promising when Busch had a tire issue and tapped the wall on early in stage one. I thought we could cash in on a damaged car, but his pit crew was able to service the car well enough for a 3rd place finish. Elliott had a good car overall as well in finishing 7th, but not as good as his two other Hendrick teammates, Larson and Byron. I am very surprised that Elliott hasn’t visited victory lane yet - a slow start to the season for the reigning champ.
Drivers to Look Out For
Martin Truex Jr (+350 FanDuel): Last week’s winner has had great success at this track. Since 2018, Truex Jr. has an average finish of 4.3 with five top 10’s (and including one outright victory). Truex Jr. is right below Harvick when analyzing laps led since 2018 at 10.5%. From a DFS perspective, Dover normally has two "dominators" (laps led and fast laps), and Truex Jr is in a great spot to be an early dominator since he starts on the pole. He is the most expensive NASCAR driver on DraftKings ($11,900) as well, so after Truex Jr. you will have enough money left over for one more potential dominator and then it’s drivers in the $6K range.
Denny Hamlin (+550 FanDuel): When will Mr. Dennis get his first win? Well, he did win here last August during the double-header weekend and over the last six races he has an average finish of 9.17. He also has four top 10’s and led 14.96% of all laps during that period. Joe Gibbs Racing always shows up to this track strong, and Hamlin will start second here and be another potential dominator for DFS players. He is priced reasonably high at $11,100 (DraftKings), but if Hamlin has the setup similar to what he had last August, where he led 115/311 laps and ran 61 fast laps, then look out for the #11 come Sunday.
Kevin Harvick (+700 FanDuel): In the last six Dover races, no one has a better average finish than Kevin Harvick at an average of 3.3 - during that same time frame he has never finished outside of the top 10, including two outright wins. Another important note is that Harvick has led 30% of the last 2,400 laps at Dover (the most of any driver). This is a track that Harvick can score his first win of the year for the #4 Busch Light team. His DraftKings price is $9,800, but he hasn’t shown that dominator style yet like what he had last year. During the double-header weekend, Denny Hamlin won the Saturday race and Harvick won the Sunday race. During the Sunday race, Harvick led 223 laps (the most) and had 107 fast laps (the most). He isn’t on too many people's dominator radar, so keep him in mind if you can afford him.
Best Value Bets
Kyle Busch (-112 FanDuel) vs. Chase Elliott: In my best bets recap, I stated that Busch clearly had the better car at Darlington even after he got some damage. What was most impressive though was that Busch had to pit after he wrecked and was able to drive back up through the field. Elliott, on the other hand, stalled out before he reached 5th. In the last 6 races at Dover, Busch has an average finish of 12.17 compared to Elliott’s 16.67, and I simply see two drivers trending in different directions here. While Elliott is not having a terrible season by any means, he isn’t performing quite as well as his other teammates.