If there is one driver that deserves the title of being the most dominant so far since NASCAR betting made the move from using the rear wing on the back of its car back to the traditional spoiler, it would be Denny Hamlin. Following Jimmie Johnson’s three wins in four races to close out the rear wing era, Hamlin has won three of six races to move all the way up to sixth in the Sprint Cup Series standings. Wins at Martinsville, Texas, and Darlington have lifted the 11-car to within 14 points of the top five, right on the tail of Roush Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth.
Kenseth will need to be better heading in to this weekend’s online betting race at Dover International Speedway if he is going to have any chance of maintaining or improving his position in the SCS standings. Kenseth hasn’t placed in the top-ten in any of his past four starts, with a sixth place finish at the Subway Fresh Fit 600 the last of his six top-tens this season. While Hamlin has excelled since the move to the spoiler, the 17-car’s numbers before and after the move are the most clear indication of his struggles since the adjustment was made. Consider that each of Kenseth’s top-ten finishes came in six of the first seven races of the season, and that consecutive 13th place results are his best finishes since, and it becomes clear that he and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer will need to make adjustments to the new feel of the car.
One driver who can’t seem to figure out what adjustments must be made in order to elevate him to his first win of the 2010 season is Jeff Gordon. Gordon has finished in the top-five in the SCS standings in consecutive weeks, and five times overall, but has failed to capture the checkered flag in any of the first 11 races. One year after finishing third in the standings, Gordon finds himself in a similar situation early on in the season, and will need to get over the hump of finishing good and not great at the NASCAR Dover betting race in order to avoid being a runner-up again in 2010.
