At Dover, a little 'Big One' always looms as possibility

It began innocently enough, with a simple kiss of sheet metal. But that was all it took to send Dave Blaney ricocheting hard off the outside wall and back down into traffic, where he was T-boned by Jimmie Johnson. On a track large enough to generate high speeds yet small enough to foster close contact, cars slammed into one another. The mechanical melee three years ago at Dover International Speedway sent 19 cars home early.

The 12 drivers competing in NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup are already expressing concerns about Talladega Superspeedway, the mammoth Alabama track where the series tested last week and competes Oct. 7. They should be just as worried about Dover, a place where multi-car pileups are far from a rarity, and plenty capable of producing a little Big One that could leave a title contender's hopes smoldering in central Delaware.

Cemented berth

Martin Truex Jr. returns to the track where he got his first Cup victory and began his run to lock a spot in the Chase.

• Complete story, click here

It's a short track masquerading as a 1-mile layout, with narrow straightaways and low corners and a 24-degree banking that sends every accident tumbling down toward the apron. The 140,000-seat facility can leave drivers black and blue, packing a punch that rattles them again and again. With so many cars in such a tight space and drivers approaching top speeds of 160 mph, it's like Bristol on steroids. No wonder they call it the Monster Mile.

"It's a place that scared me when I first went there a few times," admits Kyle Busch, fifth in the Nextel Cup standings, with three top-10s in five starts at the track. "I just kind of got used to it. I guess I'm always scared there, but for some reason I run well."

The place, so fast for its size, can be intimidating. Jeff Burton remembers driving it for the first time in a racecar owned by his father, and being amazed at how a track could be so fast yet so narrow at the same time.

"It's a place where you never have a soft hit," said Burton, 11th in points, and the defending winner in Sunday's event. "When you hit, you always hit hard. It's very demanding and high-speed. I think it's one of the most physically demanding racetracks that we go to."

It's a place that can batter the bodies of car and driver alike. Mark Martin took a monstrous hit at Dover in 1993, when the right-front tire blew on his No. 6 car and he hammered the wall hard enough to rupture his fuel line, destroy his brakes, and start a fire in the rear of the car. He walked away. The same couldn't be said for John Andretti, who was lifted out of his car with what thankfully proved only a cut ankle after he was involved in an 18-car crash on the second lap in 1995.

That accident left the smoking husks of mashed-up racecars collected at the bottom of the racetrack in a scene more befitting an auto salvage yard. "This looks like one of those Talladega crashes," television announcer Mike Joy said. (Continued)