Welcome to Dover, the Chase's meanest track

The place seems so friendly and inviting. All that brass and marble in the hotel. All those blinking lights and electronic jangles emanating from the casino. Why, when the NASCAR circuit isn't in town, they even have a horse-racing track inside the stock-car oval. How can anyplace that Seabiscuit calls home seem so intimidating?

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And yet, once you leave the hotel and casino behind, once you realize that the horse-racing track is covered by gravel, once you look up and see those steep concrete walls that comprise the corners, once you notice the inescapable trench that passes as a backstretch -- oh, it's plenty intimidating all right. Even more so with 43 cars traveling in close quarters and at speeds approaching 160 mph. Talladega gets all the attention, and yes, it's out there, looming in the north Alabama hills and just waiting to cause havoc. But don't be fooled. Dover International Speedway, this little oval in a little state, is the absolute meanest track in the Chase.

In the case of the Monster Mile, the name fits. Enough of the cartoony, Thing rip-off of a mascot. There's nothing funny about Dover. The place is tight enough and fast enough that drivers still feel the hits a week later. There are no sweeping corners, no real runoff areas, no places to simply get out of the way. There's nothing but concrete all around, 24-degree banked corners that launch cars onto straightaways guarded by high walls on either side. You start the engine, and you're locked in, like some kind of automotive Thunderdome.

"If you spin out, chances are, you're going to hit something or be hit," said three-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. "It's tight, it's narrow, the straightaways are banked, you can go down and hit the outside wall. So there's a ton of risk." (Continued)