dover rewind and kansas look ahead

DOVER
I'm really happy with the way things went this week for our target drivers.  We really hit on a few of them.  Here are a few rewind notes from the Dover race:

• We had Harvick and Truex as the best of the Dominator types.  Harvick was an absolute beast.  Truex really had a good car and probably would have had an even better showing if he didn't have to overcome the issues he had near the end of Stage 1 with a tire going flat.
• We were all over Kyle Busch's odd history of poor performance in the Spring race.  While we kept him listed as a potential Dominator, we liked others better and identified his Spring race issues in our last two updates.  I don't know exactly why it continues to happen but, once again, he suffered a mechanical issue and finished poorly.  It was his fourth finish of 30th or worse in the last five Spring races.  Conversely, in the last five Fall races, he has a win, four Top 5s and hasn't finished worse than 10th.  Very, very odd.
• We nailed it on Clint Bowyer -- going so far as to note a chance at a Top 5 finish with laps led.  He finished 2nd, led 40 laps and was +10 position difference.  He, too, may have been even better but for an early pit road incident.  In the first round of pit stops under caution, he had to pit twice due to an air gun/air hose issue.  He re-started from the rear so it took him longer to work his way to the front.
• We also pushed Kasey Kahne and his strong history on concrete tracks.  We'll take a Top 20 and +8 position difference from Kahne any day.
• I'm disappointed with Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Austin Dillon.  They each had their own issues.  Fortunately, our other picks were strong enough to overcome them.

KANSAS
I'm happy with the roll we're on, but am already working on Kansas.  Here's a few things to know about that race next week:

• This is a compressed schedule, two day event.  There are two practices and then qualifying on Friday afternoon.  The race is then Saturday night.  I really don't like this set up because the teams are forced to do race practice before qualifying and before they know their starting position.  But it's what we got.
• Truex won both Kansas races last year and has to be considered the favorite at another 1.5 mile track where he does so well.
• After a rough history early on, Kyle Busch has five Top 5 finishes in the last six Kansas races.  He won the Spring race in 2016.
• Harvick has a win, three 2nd place finishes and a 3rd place finish in eight races with SHR.
• Blaney has four Top 10 finishes in the last five races.  Now with Team Penske, he has an even better chance of running near the front.
• Watch the Dillon brothers.  This is one of Austin's best tracks and he finished 6th in both Kansas races in 2016.  Ty finished 14th and 16th in the two races last year in his first season with Germain Racing.
• Kyle Larson has finished 30th or worse in three of the last four races.

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