Can Kyle Busch repeat? Plus story lines, how to watch NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover

Ask Kyle Busch if he’s a superspeedway specialist now — considering his win at Talladega last weekend and his general ambivalence for superspeedway racing — and he’ll sport a wry smile.

“Nah, just lucky,” Busch said earlier this week.

He’s about to descend on a place, though, where his robust success and luck having nothing to do with each other.

The NASCAR Cup Series hits Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware on Sunday at 1 p.m. The race will be on FS1 and PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Busch has taken three checkered flags at the Monster Mile, which is tied for the most of every active driver. Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have also each claimed three wins. Chase Elliott has won twice — including most recently in 2022 — and Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski have each won once.

Dover is considered a “measuring stick” venue for teams based on how the track is uniquely laid out and where it lands on the Cup Series schedule.

Three teams have dominated the past 18 Cup races at Dover: Hendrick Motorsports has notched nine wins, Joe Gibbs Racing has notched five and Stewart-Haas Racing has recorded four. Busch is running well and doing so at every kind of racetrack this season — so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if a new race organization (Richard Childress Racing) might find Victory Lane this weekend.

Opening odds for Sunday’s race at Dover heavily favor those three teams. Kyle Larson (5-1) and William Byron (11-2) and Elliott (13-2) are all of Hendrick Motorsports — followed by Hamlin (9-1) and Christopher Bell (9-1) of JGR and then Harvick (9-1) of SHR. Busch opened with 18-1 odds.

Here are three other story lines to keep track of ahead of Sunday’s Cup race.

▪ Alex Bowman will miss the next three to four weeks after sustaining a fractured vertebra in a sprint car earlier this week. Josh Berry will run in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Cup car in his stead. This injury is the latest in a string of injuries that occurred outside of a NASCAR race that have impacted the NASCAR Cup Series season. Among the others: Chase Elliott (broken bone in his left leg after a snowboarding accident in March) and Chase Briscoe (broken finger after late model dirt race in April).

▪ Don’t sleep on Ty Gibbs and Todd Gilliland. Two of the younger driver of the series have been putting in great performances under the radar this season. Gibbs (20) has notched four top 10s in the past six races, and Gilliland (22) is coming off two top 10s for Front Row Motorsports — including a 10th-place finish at Talladega after starting 28th.

▪ Want to see some racing close to home on Sunday? While the Cup Series heads to Dover, NHRA drag racing descends on the zMAX Dragway in Concord on Sunday. The venue will host the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, an event that follows up the spectacle earlier this month in Las Vegas, where legendary racer Tony Stewart earned his first Top Alcohol Dragstar win. Check out the Charlotte Motor Speedway website for a full schedule for Sunday.

NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover details

• Race: Würth 400

• Place: Dover Motor Speedway

• Date: Sunday, April 30

• Time: 1 p.m. ET

• Purse: $7,629,649

• TV: FS1, Noon

• Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

• Distance: 400 miles (400 laps around 1-mile track)

• Stages: Stage 1 (Lap 120), Stage 2 (Lap 250), Stage 3 (Lap 400)