Chase Elliott is trying to keep a good thing going during NASCAR’s spring race weekend at Dover International Speedway.
Fresh off his first win of the year last week at Talladega, Elliott grabbed the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup “"Gander RV 400" at the Monster Mile.
And he set a track record for qualifying along the way.
“Hopefully, we can keep it going in the right direction" said Elliott. "And again, Fridays are Fridays. And Saturdays and Sundays are very different from what we do just tying to go fast for two laps. So, we have a lot of work to do the rest of the weekend, but excited and glad we could get the NAPA Breaks Chevy on the front row. We’ll go to work and see what we have."
Elliot is looking for his second straight win at Dover after taking last fall’s Cup race on the Monster Mile.
Jimmie Johnson was 12th in qualifying. He’s the all-time leader in wins at Dover with 11. And he’s excited take a shot at number 12 as the track begins its 50th anniversary celebration this weekend.
“I think all drivers can appreciate the challenge that comes with this track. The banking. The speed. The transitions from the straight-aways to the corners," said Johnson. "I’ve noticed on social media before we got here that drivers, crew chiefs, crew members were all talking about how much they love coming here. It’s just a very unique challenge and a totally different racetrack than anything else we race on."
In addition to qualifying for Sunday’s race, Friday’s action at Dover saw Johnny Sauter win the Gander Outdoors Truck Series “JEGS 200”. That’s three straight Truck Series wins on the Monster Mile for Sauter.
The XFINITY series "Allied Steel Buildings 200" is on tap Saturday. That starts at 1:30 p.m.
