Hendrick Motorsports finished 1-2-3-4 at Dover Motor Speedway in 2021 in the NASCAR Cup Series. Is it the favorites once again, or will a new challenger emerge on Sunday?
Last year’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway was absolute domination by Hendrick Motorsports. Its cars combined to lead 382 of the 400 laps and finished 1-2-3-4, the first time that a team swept the top four positions of a Cup race since RFK Racing did so at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2005.
Hendrick should reprise its role once again as the favorites for Sunday’s (May 1) race, but there will be new obstacles that the team will have to face.
First, the 2021 running was largely uncompetitive at the front of the field, as drivers struggled to pass. William Byron’s pass of Martin Truex Jr. for the lead on lap 17 was the only on-track lead change of the afternoon, and the lead thereafter went to the driver that won the race off of pit road.
However, drivers have indicated that the Next Gen package will lead to a different type of racing at Dover this weekend, one where there will be passing and action at the front of the field. And if cars are able to pick their way through the field, Hendrick won’t have as easy of a monopoly on the top spots as they did last year.
Despite this, Hendrick will also benefit from its biggest rivals at Dover having disappointing seasons in the Next Gen car. Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Truex are the three most recent Dover winners outside of the Hendrick camp, and they have all suffered from slow starts to the season.
Harvick has shown inconsistent speed, with a sixth-place run at Phoenix Raceway and a near-win at Richmond Raceway as the only two races where he made noise toward the front. Hamlin passed Byron and held off Harvick in the closing laps for the win at Richmond through tire strategy, but it’s his only top-10 finish of the season. Truex has been the best of the three with top 10s in half of his starts, but Richmond and Las…
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