Welcome to “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format.
The winner of this week’s paint scheme award goes to the No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet driven by Juan Pablo Montoya with a special nod to Denny Hamlin. Hamlin will drive his No. 11 FedEx Toyota with an “Autism Speaks” puzzle scheme.…..Fox Sports is investigating the cause of the failure of its cable system for the overhead camera at Sunday’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte. NASCAR has said it will wait until Fox has completed their investigation before any further decisions on the overhead camera use is made……Jimmie Johnson plans to visit Moore, Oklahoma this week. His wife Chani is from Muskogee, Oklahoma, about 2 hours from the area ravished by the recent tornado. Johnson has pledged his race winnings from the race this week at Dover to the recovery effort.……Jimmie Johnson leads all active drivers with 7 wins at Dover. Johnson is tied with Richard Petty and Bobby Allison for most wins at Dover……Tony Stewart was upset with Rickey Stenhouse after the Coca Cola 600. “I’d choke him right now” he said after the race. Stenhouse was involved in a crash that damaged Danica Patrick’s car, which is owned by Tony Stewart. Making this a bit more interesting is Stenhouse is Patrick’s boyfriend. I wonder how that worked out for old Rickey after the race?……..Here are some interesting Dover track facts. There are 15 sets of tires allocated to each Sprint Cup Team for the weekend. $20,000 is the approximate tire bill. Fuel mileage for a Dover race is about 5 miles per gallon at a fuel cost of $780……The concrete surface of the Monster Mile was opened in 1969. The King, Richard Petty won the inaugural race……The seating capacity for Dover Speedway is 113,000 although attendance there the past few years has been about half of that……Suspended driver, Jeremy Mayfield holds the Dover track record with a speed of 161.522 mph. This record will be challenged this weekend with the new Generation 6 car……No major changes to the top of the Sprint Cup point standings through 11 races. Jimmie Johnson sits comfortably on top of the standings, leading Carl Edwards by 32 points. Edwards is followed in the standings by Kenseth, Bowyer and Kahne. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Menard, Truex and Keselowski complete the top ten……Country music group Gloriana will perform the National Anthem prior to Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks. The green flag is scheduled for 1:00pm……..The weather forecast for Dover on Sunday calls for sunny skies with highs in the mid 80’s.
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