Viewer's Guide: Dover

If someone had said to you a year ago that Richard Childress Racing would dominate the headlines after the first weekend of the Chase, you'd have probably clowned them, unmercifully.

	Richard Childress Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers RCR in 2006 Starts 81 Wins 4 Top-fives 19 Top-10s 38 Poles 5 Laps Led 1,329 Avg. Start 16.0 Avg. Finish 15.0

Yet, here we are. And there they are -- on Sunday's pre-race show from Dover (12:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Of course, Kevin Harvick leads the Nextel Cup Series points for the first time in his career. After wins at Richmond two weeks ago and New Hampshire last week, Harvick heads to Dover looking to become the first driver to win three consecutive races since Jimmie Johnson did it in October 2004.

"I think it is a Catch-22," Harvick said of his team's run of success. "You want to temper yourself to the point to where you are excited, but not overly excited.

"We are excited that we have turned our organization around, and we feel like we can race for the championship, but I have also been on the arrogant and cocky side of it in years past. You don't want to stick your foot in your mouth."

Meanwhile, teammate Jeff Burton sits fifth in the points after a seventh-place outing last weekend at New Hampshire. Despite the fact that Burton has yet to win at Dover after 25 Cup starts, he's still oozing with confidence heading to the Monster Mile. After all, Burton led 48 laps there in June before finishing fourth.

"We have very high expectations," Burton said about Sunday's race. "We thought we were a little bit off at the end of the race last time. We led a lot of laps and ran really well in June. Hopefully we've improved our program a little bit since then."

Still, Burton said there's still plenty of work to do.

"We're just taking one race at a time," he said. "Obviously we want to win the championship. We believe we must go into each race and do the very best we can and put forth our best effort. We'll look at the points later.

"I think anything less than that is just crazy. We can't change anything. We just work to be the best we can be every week. The upcoming race is the one on which we concentrate."

Also on Sunday's pre-race show, Wally Dallenbach will take 2006 world champion figure skater Kimmie Meissner for a twirl around the track in another segment of Wally's World.

Jeff Burton and Tony Stewart are the scheduled guests for Friday's Trackside from Dover (7 p.m. ET, SPEED). If you're going to Dover, the show will tape at 4:30 p.m., and the SPEED stage will be outside the Turn 4 grandstands.

In ratings news, last Sunday's Sylvania 300 drew a 3.1 rating and a 6.9 share. That's down 8.8 percent from 3.4/7.8 last season.

	MESSAGE BOARD •   Send your question to Benny and Wally

In this week's edition of "Ask Wally and Benny," Craig Robertson of Richmond, Va., asks how tearoffs are installed in cars.

Wally Dallenbach answered this time:

"Tearoffs are basically a sticker that is applied on the left-hand (driver's) side of the windshield," he said. "You have to make sure they are on tight. They will use a weegie to smooth out all the bubbles and cracks because they are layering them, so it's important that there are no bubbles or cracks.

"They will apply anywhere from three to as many as they can get on before it starts to distort the drivers' vision. Each time you put a layer on, you have a corner you fold up and then the next one goes on top and you fold up that corner. Sometimes they put red fluorescent tape on the corner so when a guy comes in to pit, the crew member grabs that corner and peels it off."

It's a good thing, too, Dallenbach said.

"During the race, drivers get sandblasted by debris, dust, rock, rubber ... especially after a pit stop when the tanks are full of gas, they are so full that if you're following a car out, the fuel will hit the windshield and make it hard to see," he said. "So sometimes even when a driver gets a new tearoff, they might get hit with fuel on the way out.

"The windshields get really dirty during the course of the race. Before tearoffs, the pit crew used to have to clean off the windshield, and nine times out of 10, they made the visibility worse, so the tearoff is a big plus for drivers.

"Drivers go through them until they're out, but they won't be taken off unless the driver mentions it. There are times when they're not running with a lot of cars so it's not so bad, or it's worse if they are in a lot of traffic on the track."

Now on to this weekend's schedule.

Nextel Cup Series: Dover 400

Track: Dover International Speedway

• 1-mile oval
• 24-degree banking in turns
• 9-degree banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 1,076 feet
• Length of backstretch: 1,076 feet

Race length: 400 laps/400 miles

TV schedule (all times ET)

2005 FlashbackSee teammates battle for the victory at Dover Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

• NASCAR Live: 2 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Bud Pole Qualifying: 3 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Trackside: 7 p.m. Fri, SPEED
• Final practice: 10:30 a.m. Sat., SPEED
• NASCAR Raceday: 11 a.m. Sun., SPEED
• Pre-race: 12:30 p.m. Sun., TNT
• Race: 1:30 p.m. Sun., TNT

One year ago, Johnson barely hung on to beat teammate Kyle Busch, then credited the rookie for helping him win at Dover International Speedway, a victory that vaulted Johnson into the lead in the Chase.

"He was all over me at the end, and that's the way it should be," Johnson said. "I've got to thank Kyle for being such a good teammate and racing me clean at the end."

The most recent checkered flag went to Kevin Harvick, who got his second consecutive Nextel Cup win Sunday at NHIS. As a result, Harvick took the lead in the Cup point standings for the first time.

Keep an eye on Mark Martin. Martin has outperformed all of his competitors at Dover during his tenure in the No. 6 Ford. He has four poles and four victories at the track -- both lead all active drivers. Martin also leads the active roster with 19 top-five finishes and 25 top-10s at Dover.

Busch Series: Dover 200

Track: Dover International Speedway

• 1-mile oval
• 24-degree banking in turns
• 9-degree banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 1,076 feet
• Length of backstretch: 1,076 feet

Race length: 200 laps/200 miles

TV schedule (all times ET)

• Qualifying: 11:30 a.m. Sat., SPEED
• Race: 3 p.m. Sat., TNT

2005 FlashbackSee Newman make it four wins in a row at Dover Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

One year ago, moonlighting Ryan Newman tied a Busch Series record by winning in his fourth consecutive start of the season, a dominant performance in a wreck-filled race.

The most recent checkered flag went to Kevin Harvick, who was untouchable in leading 153 laps and easily winning the Emerson Radio 250 at Richmond.

Keep an eye on Martin Truex Jr. Truex, a Mayetta, N.J., native who calls Dover his home track, won this race in each of his title seasons -- in the fall of 2004 and the June event in 2005. Truex has run in only five races this season with one win (Talladega) and three other top-10 finishes.

Craftsman Truck Series: Smith's Las Vegas 350

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• 1.5-mile oval
• 20-degree banking in turns
• 9-degree banking on frontstretch
• 9-degree banking on backstretch
• Length of frontstretch: 2,275 feet
• Length of backstretch: 1,572 feet

Race length: 146 laps/219 miles

2005 FlashbackSee Bodine get the best of Musgrave at Las Vegas Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

TV schedule (all times ET)

• Race: 9 p.m. Sat., SPEED

One year ago, Todd Bodine passed Ted Musgrave on the final lap in a green-white-checker finish at Las Vegas for his second Craftsman Truck Series victory of 2005.

The most recent checkered flag went to Johnny Benson, who found the best way to stay out of trouble in Saturday's New Hampshire 200 was to run up front, winning his fourth Truck Series race of the season..

Keep an eye on the racetrack. Since last year's event, banking in the track's turns has been increased from 12 to 20 degrees. The backstretch now is banked nine degrees -- the same as the frontstretch. Lap speeds are expected to increase from the mid-160 mph range to well into the 170s and side-by-side racing is expected to increase.