For the second week of the ten-week Chase to the Sprint Cup, the series heads to the Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware. The high-banked concrete oval is one of the most demanding tracks on the circuit and will definitely play a factor in who is crowned this year's champion.

A major shakeup in the Chase happened last week in New Hampshire, with Kyle Busch taking the biggest hit of all. After a broken bolt holding the sway bar to the chassis and contact with Jamie McMurray ruined Busch's day, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota found himself in 8th-spot, seventy-four points behind leaders Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson. This marks the first time since May that Busch has not occupied the top-spot in the series standings. While he captured the win at Dover earlier this year, it should be interesting to see if the kid they call Rowdy can rebound and keep himself in contention.

"Dover is fun -- I love that place," Busch explained. "I always run the triple there in the spring race because the trucks are there with us. I'm running the Nationwide race this time, too. There are a lot of characteristics that make it fun -- the concrete, the mile, the high banks and everything. I think we can run well there. We won the last time and this time around, hopefully things will go about the same way. If not, a top-three or a top-five would be good."

Greg Biffle was the big winner last week at New Hampshire, passing Jimmie Johnson late in the race to earn his first win of the year. The Biff has quickly made himself a contender for this year's Chase, and is heading to a track he runs very well at. Last year's Chase race in Dover came down to a battle between Biffle and his Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. Edwards took the win, while Biffle came home second.  The driver of the No. 16 Ford Fusion took the win at Dover in 2005, and in the seven races since then has four top-5 finishes and six top-10s, the other finish was a 13th.

"I've run well at Dover in the past and was able to win there in the Cup car in 2005. I expect it to be a good race for us," Biffle confidently pointed out. "We're coming together as a team at the right time of the season and I cannot tell you how excited I am for the next nine weeks. I can't wait to get to Dover and I'm sure as soon as that race is over, I'll be ready to go to Kansas. I have complete confidence in my team and after getting Dish Network a win in New Hampshire, we would love to put the 3M Ford Fusion in victory lane sometime soon."

The Roush Fenway brigade is always a contender at the Monster Mile - as mentioned before - last year's race came down to a battle between Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth. While Edwards and Biffle went on to take the top spots, Kenseth was left with a blown engine and 34th-place finish. After suffering a hard hit both in the car and in the points last week in New Hampshire, Kenseth is looking forward to making the trip to the First State.

"Dover is probably my favorite track for a lot of different reasons," Kenseth explained. "My first Cup race was there, plus we've won a couple times there in the Nationwide Series, then we got our first Cup win there in 2006, so we've had a lot of good times at Dover. The track is so fast and challenging. It's unique because of the way you drive up out of the turns. The turns set a bit lower than the straightaways and you can feel it when you're driving out there."

With back-to-back finishes of 39th and 40th, Kenseth is currently twelfth in the series standings, already 177 points behind Edwards and Johnson. The 2003 Cup Series champion knows his work is cut out for him and his Killer Bees crew.

"We've dug ourselves a bit of a hole these past couple of races. Our performance hasn't been where it needs to be. We just didn't run good at Richmond or Loudon. We were a mid-pack car at both races and ended up getting wrecked twice. But, there are still nine races to go and we're going to take it one week at a time. I know everyone is working as hard as they can to get our cars better. So hopefully with that, we'll be able to run up front and avoid the messes that we've suffered these past two weeks."

Messes are something Dover has a tendency to produce - they don't call it the Monster Mile for nothing. Earlier this year, the Monster bit five Chase drivers in Lap 16 incident that collected Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. If the Monster decides to take another bite out of the competition this weekend, things in the Chase can certainly shake up for a second week in a row.

With so much talent in this year's Chase, Sunday's race can realistically come down to any of the twelve drivers gunning for the championship. Of the twelve Chase drivers, only three - Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick - have not won on the high-banked concrete oval. Remember, you can never count out drivers like Martin Truex Jr., Mark Martin or Kurt Busch when it comes to playing the role of spoiler.

Either way the action is sure to be fierce and full of excitement. Be sure to check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com for all of the action live from Dover this weekend.