NASCAR preview: Autism Speaks 400
The big news heading into this week’s Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway is that it will be the first race that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will run with a new crew chief.
After Dale Jr. (currently 19th in the points) finished 40th in Monday’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, the third consecutive finish of 27th or worse, team owner Rick Hendrick realized a change had to be made.
“I can tell you this is the most pressure I’ve felt in racing,” Hendrick said of replacing Tony Eury Jr., who also happened to be Earnhardt’s cousin.
Hendrick named Lance McGrew as Earnhardt’s interim crew chief beginning with next week’s race at Pocono. Team manager Brian Whitesell will serve as the crew chief at Dover while McGrew works with rookie Brad Keselowski. Last season, McGrew and Junior ran three Nationwide Series races, posting two top-10s and a 15th-place finish.
Earnhardt and Eury had one win, 19 top-10s and 11 top-5s in 48 races after moving from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to HMS in 2008.
Fellow driver Kyle Busch, the defending champion of this race, was critical of the move: “It’s never Junior; it’s always the crew chief.”
McGrew worked with Busch in the Nationwide Series at Hendrick in 2004.
“He’s got his hands full, I guess, having to deal with what’s going on,” Busch said of McGrew. “And if Junior doesn’t run well, then he [McGrew] is going to be the ‘problem’ again.”
So can Junior pull a miracle and win this week at Dover? He has recorded one win and four top-five finishes at the “Monster Mile” in his career. But he’s not among the WagerWeb.com favorites with his struggles this year.
Mark Martin loves Dover, as it’s his best track of the 22 currently on the Cup series schedule. Martin is eighth on the all-time starts list at Dover with 45 and he has four wins (tied for fourth all-time and tied for first among active drivers), 21 top-fives (all-time leader), 28 top-10s (all-time leader) and four poles (tied for third all-time and tied for first among active drivers).
In the last 10 races at the one-mile oval, Martin has finished outside the top 10 twice and inside the top five six times. Thus he is among the WagerWeb.com favorites this week.
Of the current top 12 in the points standings, only two of them have yet to post a victory at Dover: Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin. The WagerWeb.com favorite this week is Carl Edwards, who has five consecutive top-threes at Dover with one victory.
Ryan Newman comes off a second at Charlotte and has four consecutive top-five finishes on the series.
But he hasn’t cracked the top-10 in five of the past Sprint Cup six races at Dover.
Greg Biffle also might be worth a bet at WagerWeb.com, as he’s a two-time winner at the Monster Mile, and as recently as last fall.
NASCAR Betting at WagerWeb.com
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