As many of you know, I am addicted to NASCAR this year. I committed to the idea that I would watch every race this year whether it was live or recorded and I would follow my own driver throughout the year and root for them while learning a bit about the various tracks and how things go. Of course I am not going to give up hunting in order to watch races and hunting season is right in the middle of the best series of races. This week we have the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway(The Monster Mile) at 1pm ET on ESPN for 400 laps and I will be recording this race. Well this week it will be a recorded race and I wil have to catch up with it when I can.
I am picking up Don Rickards, HuntingLife Pro Staff and he and I will be heading out to chase Mule Deer in South West Nebraska with TNT Outfitters. I will be checking the stats through www.NASCAR.com and www.doverspeedway.com. This week the dominant driver is obviously Jimmie Johnson with a point over second place Brad Keselowski and seven points over third place Denny Hamlin – but this could be the week when Johnson can say a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship is his to lose. While Dover International Speedway is known as the “Monster Mile”, Johnson has mauled the concrete-surfaced track into virtual submission. Over the past eight races there, Johnson has won four times (two in the Chase); posted top-five finishes six times and led 54 percent of the laps. His Driver Rating of 120.6 easily is tops at the Delaware track. Johnson’s June victory was his seventh, matching NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison for the most Dover wins.
For Denny Hamlin on the other hand, Dover has traditionally been Hamlin’s road block. While Hamlin’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway victory last Sunday was impressive, this week doesn’t figure to be so easy considering the statistics. Denny Hamlin does have the pole in this race but Dover is Hamlin’s second-to-worst track in terms of Driver Rating (78.6, eighth among Chase drivers). He finished 18th in June’s race — 11th among the eventual 12 Chase qualifiers. His best Dover finish is fourth, twice. On the flip side of the Dover coin, Hamlin has five finishes of 20th or worse.
My drivers on the other hands are starting way back in the pack so I will be trying to catch the race on the radio following twitter through the hashtags #NASCAR, #Chase, #MonsterMile, #AAA400 and specifically following @NASCAR @Monstermile and of course @MissSprintCup.
GO GET EM BOYS and Don and I will be headed out to get a Mule Deer or two and if all goes well we will be all wrapped up in time to catch Talladega next Sunday. Of course we encourage you all to watch the race today, tweet us the highlights and keep us informed of whats going on during the race. Don and I will be tweeting from the field all week and posting up daily stories of our hunt for the big boys all throughout the week on twitter, here on the site and on our Facebook page.
