Dover Speedway

In my Denny Hamlin post, I mentioned that I attended the Dover 200 Busch Series race in September at Dover Speedway.

I really liked the "Monster Mile." I had a general admission ticket, and picked a seat in Turn One. The views were generally tremendous, although with the banked "self-cleaning" straightaways, I didn't have a clear view of some of the heavy impacts of the two early backstretch pileups.

The one-mile track is a nice size, and the speeds are over 30 MPH faster than another mile track, my "local" big-time track, the "Magic Mile" of NHIS in Loudon, NH. The speed and action were excellent at Dover.

I also liked the fact that the speedway is smack in the middle of a regular town. It's about two minutes north of the center of downtown Dover, the capital of Delaware. Malls, homes, and businesses surround the speedway, which began business as a horse racetrack. The facility still operates the horse track and a casino.

For some reason, I love visiting these older tracks that are right in town. New speedways, like Las Vegas Motor Speedway, are pre-planned facilities built miles from town, with their own exit ramps off the Interstate. But tracks like Dover and Daytona and Lowe's are part of the fabric of their towns.

Dover Speedway is a nice enough facility, and hosts the biggest of big-time U.S. auto racing, the NEXTEL Cup Series, but Dover has a pleasant small-time feel, and I like that. I'd love to return there.

Here are two photos, taken from my seat for the race. Click to enlarge.

Retro Ads: Beer Print Ads of 1987

Along with analysis of the current news stories and hubbub in NASCAR, another area I'd like to pursue with this blog is "retrospection" with an emphasis on the late 1980's. Here's the first installment, the beer company print ads of 1987. Click on any picture to enlarge:

Miller Brewing. One of NASCAR's all-time greats, Bobby Allison remained very competitive in 1987, four years after his only Winston Cup title. Bobby finished 9th in points in 1987 in a season highlighted by a wild win at the Firecracker 400 in Daytona. (I'll post on that race at some point in the future.) A fine ad by Miller.







Budweiser. I loved this car. I didn't necessarily root for Junior Johnson & Associates as a team (not like I cheer for Yates and Gibbs these days), but Terry Labonte has always been a low-key, clean, winning race car driver. And he drove this classic #11 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS to a third-place championship finish in 1987.







Coors. Check out Bill Elliott in this ad! Bill will always be "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville." The Melling Engineering #9 Ford Thunderbird pictured in this ad is actually the 1986 model T-Bird. Elliott had a wonderful year in 1987, capturing six victories including the Daytona 500 and the July race at Talladega, on his way to runner-up finish in the final series points. A great comeback year for Bill, after his relatively disappointing 1986 season.





Busch Beer. Busch didn't sponsor a car in 1987, and as far as I'm aware, has not sponsored a car in at least 25 years, or since they opted to become title sponsor of NASCAR's Busch Series. But for years, Busch was the "Official Beer of NASCAR." They supported their sponsorship through the Busch Pole Awards at every Winston Cup Race, and through general marketing campaigns including this ad featuring cars from the old Daytona beach course.