Dover International Speedway

The concrete-surfaced Dover International Speedway contains a horse track within its perimeter, but it's the speedway that produces the real action.

Opened in 1969 and located at 1131 North Dupont Highway in Dover, Delaware, the "Monster Mile" is one of the most action-packed speedways on the NEXTEL Cup circuit. The one-mile oval is banked 24 degrees in the four corners and 9 degrees on the straights, making Dover International Speedway one of the fastest tracks of its size in the country.

Because the straights measure only 1,076 feet each, drivers spend the majority of each lap in the corners. As a consequence, spotters are especially important at Dover for their role in advising drivers about accidents that occur ahead of them on the track. Typically, a driver has only a split second to react to a wreck and escape trouble.

Richard Petty won the inaugural Winston Cup race at Dover, the Mason-Dixon 300 on July 6, 1969. The track hosted one event that year and a single Cup race in 1970. Since then, Dover has been the site of two Winston/NEXTEL Cup races per year, held in June and September. Rusty Wallace set the track qualifying record of 159.946 mph (22.505 seconds) in September of 1999.

Before the 1995 season, Dover's asphalt surface was replaced with concrete, and before the fall race in 1997, the length of the Cup events at the track was shortened from 500 miles to 400. (With average speeds that often failed to reach 120 mph, Dover races were some of the series' longest in duration.) Interestingly, the speedway derives its name from the "Dover Downs" horse track that encircles the infield.

With a seating capacity of 140,000, Dover is one of the most popular destinations for sporting events in the mid-Atlantic states.

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