Next to Darlington Raceway's slogan as "The Track Too Tough to Tame," Dover International Speedway may have the best nickname on the NASCAR circuit.
The one-mile concrete oval is known as "The Monster Mile" for one simple reason –- it eats cars up and spits them out.
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| Mark Martin's Dover approach: Just attack it and just drive like an animal. (Getty Images) |
"Darlington and Dover's nicknames are the two most fitting of all the race tracks," Burton said. "Dover has always been a challenging track, but racing the car of tomorrow there is a bigger challenge because they don't drive very well. It's just a physically demanding race track. It's very difficult to handle well there."
Burton is one of several veteran drivers who hope past experience at Dover will translate into success during Sunday's Best Buy 400, the 13th race of the Sprint Cup Series season.
The new Cup car was employed in both Dover races a year ago, but as Burton points out is still a handful to drive at the high-banked concrete track. That will put even more emphasis on the experienced drivers to use their know-how on finding the best lines around the speedway.
"You're in the throttle a lot of the time, there's a lot of banking, and you really have to work hard to get your car to turn well," said Burton, who has made 28 career Dover Sprint Cup starts, with his lone victory coming in 2006.
"You have to make it turn well and keep it where you can run on the bottom. You don't want to lock in so you can only run on the bottom. You want to be able to run different grooves. If you can do those things, you can run really well there."
Mark Martin is another veteran who has run well at Dover. In 43 starts, he has four wins, which puts him at the top of the active driver career victory list.
What is the secret to that success? The attack, says Martin.
"It's not a track that calls for a lot of finesse," said Martin, who will pilot the DEI No. 8 Chevrolet again this weekend. "You just have to attack it. You go into that place and you let it all hang out. You just drive like an animal."
"The first time I went there in 1982, I loved it from the start. We actually ran top five in our first race there. It's an awesome track and there is no cooler place in the world to race. It is definitely one of the tracks that always comes up when I'm asked about my favorites."
Dover has always been a favorite of one of Martin's DEI teammates. Martin Truex Jr. grew up in nearby New Jersey and developed a fondness for the Monster at an early age. That affection became even greater last year when he scored his first career Sprint Cup win in the June Dover visit.
