Give Me Five: Dover Takeaways - Speedway Digest

The NASCAR Sprint Cup, Xfinity, and Camping World Truck Series completed a triple-header weekend at the Monster Mile, Dover International Speedway for the AAA 400 Drive for Autism, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200, and the Jacob Companies 200. Here are five takeways from this past weekend in the first state:

TV: Fox Sports 1 was home to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, while the NASCAR Xfinity Series was on FOX. The Verizon IndyCar Series was on for the same time slot at the NASCAR Xfinity race. Was the plan to try to compete with IndyCar and ABC? What was wrong with the 12 pm Eastern start times for the Xfinity Dash4Cash Heats? These are the questions to be answered. The XFINITY Series, however, did beat out the .8 TV ratings with IndyCar with a 1.1.
Matt Kenseth: Lady Luck has finally turned her ear of bad luck away from Kenseth, who scored his first win of the season. This win makes for all four Joe Gibbs Racing teams to be in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. It will be interesting to see how many more wins Kenseth and Joe Gibbs Racing can receive.
Dover: In general, this was probably one of the best races at Dover in awhile. When I am watching a race, I want to be surprised by who won. I want to be able to not know who will win. As always, you should not change the channel because you should expect the unexpected when it comes to live sports.
Young Guns: It was amazing to watch Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Larson all have the chance to battle for the lead. It was refreshing to see new names at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. If they are the future of NASCAR, then the future is bright for NASCAR.
Restarts: The racing events at Dover in the NASCAR Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series had its fair share of restart issues. In Friday’s Camping World Truck Series race, Cole Custer was penalized for jumping the restart. On Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, Elliott Sadler was penalized because he was being “pushed” on the restart and beat the leader to the line. Restarts seem so 2015, but they still continue to be an issue in 2016 among rookies and veterans. Hopefully, drivers will be able to control the starts/restarts better.

What are your takeaways from this past weekend’s events at Dover International Speedway?

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Caleb Whisler

I am 19 years old from Atlanta, GA. I have been following motorsports since I was born. Motorsports has been "passed down" in my family. I am named after NASCAR Hall of Famer, William Caleb Yarborough, also known as Cale. Growing up in the southeast, racing was something that was a Sunday tradition after church. What an honor it is to share that passion with others.