Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth are at the head of the class at Dover
At Dover recently, it's been Jimmie Johnson, then Matt Kenseth and then everyone else.
Johnson is the only Chaser who has a top 10 average finish at Dover, and in the last nine races there, he has four wins and just one finish outside the top 10. (Fun Fact: Carl Edwards actually has a higher average finish than Johnson does at Dover, but alas, he's not in the Chase. And Aric Almirola's average finish is 6th, but the first 2012 Dover race was his first start at the concrete mile.)
Kenseth's run at the top of the Dover scoresheet is pretty impressive too. While he's only got one win to Johnson's four in the last nine races, he's only finished outside the top five once.
How does everyone else fare?
Johnson: The five-time champ's average finish at Dover is 8.5, and those aforementioned four wins in the last nine races include a 2009 sweep and a win in 2011 and this year's first race at Dover. And that one time he has finished outside the top 10 in those nine races was a race that he dominated, leading 225 laps before getting caught out of sequence thanks to an ill-timed caution.
Kenseth: It may be a great chance for Kenseth -- who has an average finish of 11.8 -- to make up some ground on a lot of the drivers ahead of him in the Chase standings. If you're looking for a non-Vader alternative for your fantasy driver lineup, you shouldn't look any further than Kenseth.
Greg Biffle: The Biff's average finish isn't too far behind Kenseth's at 12.2, but his last four races at Dover haven't been very memorable thanks to a pair of 19ths, a 27th and an 11th in June this year.
Jeff Gordon: Original four-time has four wins in 39 Dover starts, and his average finish is 12.3. And while Gordon hasn't been poor at Dover lately, his last top 10 finish came five races ago in the fall 2009 race.
Tony Stewart: Smoke's average finish of 13.4 is inflated by his first 12 starts, which included two wins and 11 top 10s. Since then, it's been a load of "meh" and hasn't finished inside the top 20 in his last four Dover starts.
Clint Bowyer: Bowyer hasn't won at Dover in 13 starts, but has been in the top 10 in his last three starts and has an average finish of 13.5. He was fifth in the summer.
Kevin Harvick: In Cupcake's 23 career starts, he has 10 top 10 finishes and finished second in the summer. In 2011, he was 10th in both Dover races. His average finish is 16.0.
Martin Truex Jr.: Dover is the site of Truex's one and only Cup win in 2007, but since then he's only finished in the top 10 in three races, leading to a 16.4 average finish. Of course, one of those races was earlier this year, when he finished seventh.
Brad Keselowski: In his five Dover starts, Keselowski hasn't finished higher than 12th. But he also hasn't finished lower than 22nd. And that (sort of) leads him to a tidy average finish of 17.0, smack dab in the middle of those two extremes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior won at Dover in 2001, but went eight races between his last two top 10 finishes, a third in 2007 and a fourth in the summer of this year. His average finish is 17.5
Denny Hamlin: A brutal four race stretch from 2007-2009 drags Hamlin's average finish of 20.5 at Dover down, but he hasn't been spectacular there recently either, finishing 16th, 18th and 18th in his last three races.
Kasey Kahne: Kahne has six DNFs in 17 starts, hence his average finish of 21.5. One of his five top 10 finishes at Dover came in in the summer, when he finished ninth.
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