Asterisk Mark Report – Dover

Kevin Harvick – Last year at Dover, nobody was better than Kevin Harvick. He easily raced his way to victory lane in the spring, and last fall he dominated but finished a misleading 6th. In the race he won Stage #1, won Stage #2 and led 286 laps. Unfortunately, his race wasn’t incident free. With 78 laps to go during green flag pit stops he pitted twice because of a loose wheel. If his race would’ve been incident free there’s no doubt he was the driver to beat.

Jimmie Johnson – How good was Jimmie Johnson at Dover last fall? I have no clue because he was in the garage for the first 10 laps which doomed him to a 36th place finish. There was absolutely no bouncing back from that.

Aric Almirola – Last fall at Dover, Aric Almirola had one of the best cars, but he finished a misleading 13th. After Kevin Harvick got penalized on pit road the race was his for the taking, but his race wasn’t incident free. There was a late caution which dropped him back a few positions (others didn’t pit or used pit strategy) and then during a restart he got overly aggressive and wrecked. In the race he finished 9th in Stage #1, 5th in Stage #2 and led 64 laps. I’ll note if there wasn’t late cautions he was poised to win.