After a two-week stretch of dominance by Shane van Gisbergen on road and street courses, it’s back to the ovals for the NASCAR Cup Series.
Dover Motor Speedway will begin three consecutive races with exclusively left turns — the tracks where van Gisbergen has struggled as a Cup rookie. The three-time Supercars champion has three victories in 2025 at Sonoma, Chicago and Mexico City but a best finish of 14th (in the Coca-Cola 600) on an oval.
The balance of power at Dover will tip toward Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, which have won 14 of the past 19 races on the 1-mile concrete oval.
Denny Hamlin has the most recent victory at Dover and is the only repeat winner in the past seven Cup races in Delaware.
Track position is important at the Monster Mile — the last eight Dover winners have led 68 laps apiece and only once in the past 24 stages has a race winner finished outside the top 10 — but it’s been tougher for pole-sitters. It’s been 24 races since a driver won from the pole at Dover.
Some milestones in Sunday’s race:
—Joey Logano, 35, will become the youngest driver to make his 600th Cup start.
—Daniel Suarez will make his 200th consecutive Cup start.
—Chris Buescher will make his 350th Cup start and 200th for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
Dover will mark the semifinals of the In Season Challenge with four Cup drivers squaring off for the final two slots at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The matchups are: Ty Dillon (32nd seed), No. 10 Chevrolet vs. John Hunter Nemechek (12), No. 42 Toyota; Ty Gibbs (6), No. 54 Toyota vs. Tyler Reddick (23), No. 45 Toyota.
Alex Bowman has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Dover, including a victory.
Details for Sunday’s Cup race at Dover
(All times Eastern)
START: The command to start engines will be given at 2:08 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 2:17 p.m.
PRERACE: The Cup garage will open at 11 a.m. … Driver introductions are at 1:30 p.m. … The national anthem will be performed at 2:01 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is 400 laps (400 miles) on the 1-mile, concrete oval in Dover, Delaware.
STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 120. Stage 2 ends at Lap 250.
ENTRY LIST: Click here for the 37 cars entered at Dover Motor Speedway.
TV/RADIO: TNT will broadcast the race starting at 1 p.m. … Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have radio coverage.
FORECAST: WeatherUnderground — Partly cloudy with a high of 91 degrees and winds from the west at 10 to 15 mph. It’s expected to be 89 degrees with a 9% chance of rain at the start of the Cup race.
LAST TIME: Denny Hamlin fended off a late charge by Kyle Larson to win by 0.256 seconds after leading a race-high 136 of 400 laps on April 28, 2024.
