Nationwide returns to Dover Downs: The Dover 200 Nationwide Preview

It’s a week of returns. Nationwide Racing is back for 5 straight races before the final off weekend of the season. That also means that I’m back bringing you great Nationwide racing.

The world’s best driver to never finish on the lead lap is also back; Danica Patrick makes her 7th start of the year and she is hoping to have a better outing this week. It’s been a disappointing season for the IRL racer. Any intelligent fan would be satisfied with a lead lap finish at this point. At the beginning of the year a lot of us hoped that Patrick would be a top 10 competitor, her race team is but the change over from IRL to Nascar has been slow and hard for Patrick. She hasn’t seen the quick start to her career that other open wheel guys have.

Juan Montoya raced 4 Nationwide races in his first attempts at Nascar. He finished 11th and 20th both on the lead lap, and 14th one lap down, and 28th 3 laps down. That’s what most people were expecting from Danica. Not mediocre, and not unbelievible. Instead, she’s looked more like Sam Hornish whose first 11 Nationwide races had just one lead lap finish, a 15th place run at Atlanta. The other 10 were all below 25th.

So, on a scale of Tony Stewart to Sam Hornish, she’s just slightly worse than Hornish. But Sam has made very big strides in the sport. He’s starting to look a bit more competitive, his average finish has climbed every year. As long as Patrick is serious about the move, she could still become a decent Nascar driver.

The big thing I would like to see is her going full time in Nascar next season, or at least up her race amount. That’s the biggest knock against Patrick right now is the fact that she has one toe in nascar and the rest of her in IRL. Look how long it took for people to accept Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya, heck, there are some ignorant fans who still moan about Toyota in NASCAR. They forget that in order for Toyota to be in Nascar, they have to have a manufacturing facility in the US for more than 2 years, the same cannot be said for Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. While the so called American Manufacturers have been shipping off American Jobs to other contries, Toyota has been putting money in the pockets of true blue collar Americans.

Wow, I’m getting very far off topic. Let’s get to some racing.

Entry List and more after the JUMP!

Kyle Busch is looking to be the first Nationwide Driver since Randy Lajoie in 1996 to sweep both Dover Races in the same year. Kyle also won at Dover in the Cup series earlier in the year, so he’ll be looking to sweep in Cup as well. Just a few things to note on the entry list.

Josh Wise is in the #09. I have no idea why. Lately it’s been John Wes Townley. Wise is out of a ride this week since Patrick is back.

The #10 is TBA. That’s because Braun Racing has sold his 4 Nationwide Car team and his Cup team to Turner Motorsports. Turner Motorsports runs the Chevy Trucks of #4 of Ricky Carmichael and #31 of James Buescher.

Buescher could return to Natiowide racing as he’s getting married to Steve Turner’s daughter. So that works out good for him. Turner plans to run all 4 Nationwide teams for the rest of the year. Next year the Nationwide Cars will convert over to Chevy. It’s possible we could see both Carmichael and Buescher move up to Nationwide next season. No word on if the 3#2 cup team will return. Buescher, Carmichael, Sorenson, and Scott are expected to return next year.

Erik Darnell makes his second start in the #16.

Drive For Diversity driver Marc Davis will make his 2010 Nationwide Debut driving the R3 Motorsports #23 Chevy.

Drew Herring will most likely start and park the #27 Ford this weekend.

K&N East driver Alan Tardiff will attempt his first ever Nationwide Race this week driving for Go Green Racing in the #39.

ARCA Driver Stephan McCurley will make his first ever NASCAR attempt in a family owned race car. 20 year old McCurley hails from.......really? Humble, Texas. That’s a real place? Okay, From Humble, Texas driving the McCurley Racing number 51 Chevy......Stephan McCurley! Works for me. McCurley must prove he can race at Dover so that Nascar will allow him to race at every track. If McCurley does well, expect to see him try to run full time next season.

Truck Driver Tim Andrews brings a new team to Nationwide, the #79 Ford will make it’s first attempt.

Five teams will go home this week. It’s the biggest field we’ve had for quite a few weeks. We return to Saturday afternoon racing as the Dover 200 kicks off at 3pm eastern time on ESPN2 from Dover Downs, DE! Enjoy!