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Joe Nemechek |
By JIM McCONNELL
You may think it's physically impossible for a race track to reach out and bite you, but Joe Nemechek knows better.
Dover International Speedway, also known as the "Monster Mile," has bared its razor-sharp fangs to Nemechek before, and he's not eager to see it happen again.
"I don't care how many times you've raced at Dover, you better have a load of respect for the track," said Nemechek, who will pilot the U.S. Army Chevrolet in Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Dover. "If you think otherwise, you'll be in the wall pretty quickly and I can tell you firsthand it's not a fun place to be."
Nemechek learned to respect the high-banked concrete oval the hard way: after a pair of crashes, one of which nearly ended his racing career.
He was testing his Busch car at Dover in 2001 when a blown right-front tire sent Nemechek careening into the Turn 4 wall. Nemechek suffered fractures to his right shoulder blade, ribs and elbow, and missed five races while recuperating.
Two years later, the "Monster Mile" chomped on Nemechek again. During the fall race, Nemechek suffered another flat tire and hit the wall in Turn 1. Rescue workers helped Nemechek escape his burning car, and it took 27 caution laps to repair a crack in the wall caused by the impact.
"I guess you can say we either run well or crash hard at Dover," Nemechek added.
That's the reality on a track that has been called "a bigger Bristol" because of its similarity to the half-mile bullring. With 43 cars battling for position on Dover's narrow straightaways, there's little margin for error over the course of 400 grueling laps.
Then there's the surface. Dover officials tore up their asphalt in favor of concrete 11 years ago, making it unique among NASCAR tracks a mile or longer.
It's a fast track because concrete doesn't absorb heat like asphalt. On the down side, the concrete was laid in large square slabs, creating multiple seams that are particularly punishing to cars and drivers at 150 mph.
"It feels like driving on a washboard road at times. It really jars the car, and it is a rough ride all the way around the track," points leader Jimmie Johnson said.
That can't be music to the ears of the drivers, who are still trying to catch their breath after the most physically demanding race on the Nextel Cup schedule.
Interviewed on television after a mechanical malfunction temporarily knocked him out of the 600, Kevin Harvick wore the dazed look of a man who could have used a week of uninterrupted sleep.
Harvick won't find any rest at Dover, however. Some 200 miles shorter than the Coca-Cola 600, Sunday's event will still require drivers to complete 400 laps under the blazing midday sun.
"It is a long race," Jeff Burton said. "It's a lot like Bristol in that when you have green-flag runs, you knock a lot of laps off really quickly. When you have a lot of cautions, it takes forever."
Of course, simply making it to the end of a race on the "Monster Mile" is its own challenge. The track's high banking (24 degrees in the corners) lends itself to high speeds, but it also chews up cars that aren't perfectly dialed in.
Getting the car set up properly is tougher now, too, since Nextel Cup teams no longer receive their tires a week in advance of a given race.
"You come up off the corner, you get a little bit loose, you don't kind of respect the thing all the time with a hundred percent of respect, you'll spin out and be in the inside wall in a second," Greg Biffle said. "I've done it. I've watched people do it. It's easy to do because that place will creep up on you in a hurry."
Added Johnson: "If the car isn't handling right, especially if it is tight, you can't just muscle through it like you might at other tracks. You have to take care of it and baby it a little bit."
Whatever approach Johnson has taken, it's been successful. He's won twice at Dover.
Among today's drivers, however, nobody seems to have a better Dover game plan than Ryan Newman. He's won three times in eight career starts on the "Monster Mile." He was also the last driver to sweep the season there, winning both races in 2003.
"I'm looking forward to getting back up to Dover. It's always been a good track for this team, and it's almost expected that we do well there," Newman said. "We're not going to take anything for granted, though."
Sounds like he's been talking to Nemechek.
To reach JIM McCONNELL:
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com
NEIGHBORHOOD EXCELLENCE 400 Sunday, 1:30 p.m. in Dover, Del. |
