(nickname: ''The Monster Mile'') is a
NASCAR Race Track located near
Dover, Delaware . It is unusual in several respects. It is a concrete track; most NASCAR tracks are asphalt. It is co-located with a
Horse Racing track, ''
Dover Downs '', and in fact is sometimes also referred to by this name. It is also exactly one mile long; technically this means that it is neither a
Superspeedway nor a
Short Track . The speedway is also notoriously hard on cars, and its standard nickname is ''The Monster Mile''. The horse track is part of an extensive entertainment complex including other forms of
Gambling ; at one time both it and the speedway were owned by the publicly-traded ''Dover Downs Entertainment'', but they have since been split into two separate enterprises, partly at the encouragement of NASCAR. At one time the
Winston Cup races held here were 500 miles long until a NASCAR rules change limited 500 mile races to being held only at tracks over a mile in length; the current
Nextel Cup races here are 400 miles long. Dover also hosted
Indy Racing League races in 1998 and 1999 won by
Scott Sharp and
Greg Ray .
The same company owning Dover Downs also owns several other racetracks, including
Nashville Superspeedway ; it has been suggested that one of the two current Cup races held there could be shifted to
Nashville but this seems unlikely as both current Cup races at Dover are easily sold out. The Dover ownership is one of only three publicly-held ownership groups of NASCAR tracks, the other two being
International Speedway Corporation , controlled by NASCAR's founding France family and owners of the
Talladega and
Daytona tracks, among others, and
Speedway Motorsports, Inc. , led by Bruton Smith and H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, which owns
Lowe's Motor Speedway and
Texas Motor Speedway , among others. Aside from these three ownership groups, NASCAR tracks are privately held by one or a few individuals.
''See also:''
List Of NASCAR Race Tracks
