By Andy Walter

DOVER — When it comes to the actual race, Mike Tatoian likes to think of Dover’s staff as being “agnostic.”

The Dover Motor Speedway president said they don’t have a rooting interest in any one driver in Sunday’s NASCAR’s Cup event.

“But we do hope it’s a memorable race,” said Tatoian, “because that helps with our fan excitement and willingness, to a certain extent, to come back and see some great racing.

“We don’t control the product, but we always are rooting for a good, safe race.”

As Dover Motor Speedway began another NASCAR weekend on Friday, there are a lot of things beyond the facility’s control.

Like every track, the Monster Mile is still trying to bounce back from the hit leveled by the COVID pandemic.

Dover also can’t do anything about things like the weather, the price of gas or whether fans like what happened in the race itself.

And the fact that NASCAR hasn’t announced next year’s Cup schedule leaves the door open for plenty of speculation about the sport’s future direction.

But Tatoian said he believes strongly that Dover will continue to be part of NASCAR for the foreseeable future.

“I’m 100 percent confident,” he said. “There’s been no indication from anyone — including our sanctioning body — that there will not be a NASCAR race here for certainly longer than (the next) five years.

“I think we play an important role, from being in the Northeast region and our track is unique. It’s a one-mile concrete oval. So the diversity of the tracks, I think, is important in the sport. I think that’s really what distinguishes us and I think helps us sustain our long-term future.

“I feel very comfortable saying that we plan on being here for a long time.”
Tatoian said one of the most important things Dover seems to have going for it is that the track is popular with many of the drivers themselves.

Over the years, some of the sport’s top racers have said how much they love the experience of driving on the Monster Mile.

“I think there are many drivers that feel like this is one of their favorite tracks to drive,” said Tatoian. “Because of the 24-degree banks, the nine degrees in the straightaways, it feels like you’re up and down in a rollercoaster. ... When you think about some of the top drivers in the history of this track, we’re pretty unique. I think that’s great.”

Clearly, though, every race weekend is especially critical now.

This will be Dover’s first race under the ownership of Speedway Motorsports, the North Carolina-based company that now operates 11 U.S. tracks.

This will also be the second year that the Monster Mile hosts just one race weekend. The seating capacity is now only 54,000 — less than half of what it once was at its biggest.

Tatoian said the partnership with Speedway Motorsports can only help better the fan experience at Dover.

“We have a larger pool of experience that we can lean on,” he said. “This weekend, I think we genuinely have what I think will be our best off-the-track performance.

“We go back to what we can control. We can’t control the weather but we can control what goes on on the property outside of the oval.”

Tatoian points out this will be Dover’s first race weekend since 2019 without any COVID restrictions. He hopes that erasing most of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic will make a difference.

“This is the first time in two and a half years that we are going full throttle,” he said. “I think we’ve seen across sports — including NASCAR — that having that unbridled opportunity now, fans are coming back. I think it’s been terrific. I think we can really feel the energy, which is great.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at walter@iniusa.org.

Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.