Fans get a full day of racing action at the Monster Mile Friday.
It gets underway with practice sessions for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series cars at 10am.
Qualifying for Sunday’s Sprint Cup “FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks” is at 3:30 Friday afternoon and the day concludes with the “Lucas Oil 200” truck series race at 5:30.
22-year old Ben Kennedy is among those running in the truck series race. Kennedy will be driving the Delaware Office of Highway Safety sponsored #31 truck Friday afternoon with its “Click It or Ticket” paint scheme. He says he enjoys the chance to tame the Monster Mile.
“I think its one of the coolest tracks out there," said Kennedy. "You’ve got trucks that are bottoming out. Everyone asks what you can compare it to, another racetrack. I compare it to a rollercoaster. You come flying down these corners and you drop three stories [going into the corners] and you gain three stories coming out of the corners. It’s kinda of crazy with the 90 degree banking on the straightaways.”
In his first year in the truck series, Kennedy is sixth in the standings with one top five finish and two top tens.
He also has some experience at Dover driving in three K&N Pro East races. His best finish was fourth.
But Kennedy says that only helps so much since those were cars, not trucks.
"There’s some of the stuff, little tidbits you kind of keep in your memory bank about the race track, how everything plays out, about how the rubber lays on the track – especially at this concrete mile," said Kennedy. "So, there’s little tidbits you keep from the K&N series, but at the same time you’ve got to be cautious. You’ve got to work up to the speed and everything and do it all right.”
Rain limited Truck series practice Thursday, meaning the field will be set by the rule book rather than qualifying. That puts Kyle Busch on the pole since his team tops the owners points standings.
The first NASCAR weekend of the year in Dover continues Saturday with the Nationwide Series "Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket" and concludes Sunday with the Sprint Cup "FedEx400 benefiting Autism Speaks."
