Despite all the changes, Dover still largely feels like Dover according to NASCAR Cup Series drivers this weekend.
The changes include, primarily, the first race at The Monster Mile, in which the new short track rules package and increased horsepower have been affixed to the NextGen car. Additionally, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have applied a light coating of resin across the entire surface in the attempts to widen out usable racing grooves.
Through it all, things do not seem to be much different year-over-year. Chase Elliott didn’t notice much from a rules package standpoint.
“It feels like Dover to me,” Elliott said. “I mean, I think the power is a good thing at places like this where you’re not just off (the throttle) and back to wide open and there’s just a lot more work on the throttle here than other tracks, in general.
“So, that part is fun and I think having a little more power tends to lend itself to more of that, so all good things.”
Christopher Bell said the surface took rubber and widened out quicker due to the resin, which isn’t a bad thing but didn’t fundamentally change the racing product at all.
“It felt like very normal Dover to me,” Bell said. “During the Truck practice, it maybe took rubber a little quicker than it would have otherwise but it didn’t feel much different to me at all.”
Brad Keselowsk said he likes Dover, but also didn’t feel like much has changed, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“I can’t tell a huge difference,” Keselowski said. “They obviously have a little more power (and) a little less downforce. I think the resin is probably really good and should hopefully help the racing.
“So, all signs point to this, uh, being a, a good adventure. We’ll see.”
Kyle Larson appreciated how much quicker the second and third lanes came in.
“I think it definitely helped it, black to start and felt slick,” Larson said of Friday’s practice. “Like, rubber was laying into it really fast. I’m not sure what others have to say about it but it felt like race conditions, which was great.
“I think it made for a really good practice, because so often, you just come here and you are just balls out as fast as you can and don’t learn anything. You get into the first run and learn that your car isn’t that great or something like that.
“So I felt like these were great conditions to learn as it gets hotter this weekend, it’ll just get slicker.”
The track being wide on Sunday is important due to the format of the All-Star Race which will invert the field after the first segment. The starting lineup will be determined by the average finish across the first two segments. The average finish will also determine which of the 10 drivers not already locked-in drivers will be eliminated before the final 200 lap main event.
Ty Gibbs said ‘this is still Dover’ and called it ‘a great race track’ but also advocated for 900 horsepower instead of the 750 that was increased from 670 last year.
It was a similar sentiment from Ryan Blaney too.
“I think it helped today for sure,” Blaney said after practice. “Track got pretty rubbered in, got pretty black, the trucks rubbered it in a lot. We moved around a good bit. So, I’m curious to see where that continues to move. … I think it’s been positive so far.”
Kyle Busch won the Truck Series race on Friday and also reported no real fundamental change to the racing.
“Not really,” Busch said. “I felt like it was maybe it was easier for the rubber of the vehicles to go down. Like, the Trucks kind of spread it out about two lanes and the Cup cars practicing made it a third lane. I felt like that was maybe a little bit quicker than we had maybe seen here, and maybe the longer practice helped with that a little bit too, but besides that, grip level wise, you can feel a little bit grip level difference between the lanes but it was just a matter of where your truck worked best.”
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