Last Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire began the first of the 10-race "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship. Mark Martin, who entered the Chase as the top-seed, kept his points lead intact with the victory. Martin capitalized on a late-race pit strategy and then held off Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin in a three-lap shootout for his first win at New Hampshire in 26 starts there.

Martin won his fifth race of the season, which tied Harry Gant's 1991 Cup Series record for most single-season victories by a driver 50 years of age or older. He now holds a 35-point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, as the series heads to the one-mile, concrete-surface Dover International Speedway.

Seven of the 12 drivers competing in the Chase have won at Dover. Martin, Johnson and Jeff Gordon lead all active, full-time drivers with four wins each there. Ryan Newman has won at Dover three times, compared to two for Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart. Carl Edwards has one victory there.

"Dover is one of my very favorite racetracks on the whole circuit," Martin said. "I really have been blessed with a lot of great race cars there. The cars seem to run really good there. [Crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and our team are really excited about getting back there. I look forward to getting there."

Johnson is looking for a season-sweep at Dover after winning the spring race there. He swept Dover in 2002, becoming the first rookie to win both races at the same track in the same season. Johnson also took the fall event there in 2005.

Newman is the last driver to sweep Dover, doing it 2003.

Newman, in his first year with Stewart-Haas Racing, holds the seventh spot in points (-76). He is just five markers behind his teammate and owner Stewart. Newman's last win in the series came in the 2008 Daytona 500 when he drove for Penske Racing.

After winning at Richmond and finishing second at New Hampshire, Hamlin carries a lot of momentum into Dover. But Hamlin considers "The Monster Mile" as one of his most challenging tracks.

"It's a racetrack that is almost like Talladega, you never know what can happen there," Hamlin said. "You can get caught up in a wreck pretty easily. It's a long, grueling race for us, and it's very physically demanding."

Hamlin's best finish at Dover is fourth, which came in June 2007. Since then, he has finished 36th or worse there.

With his third-place finish at New Hampshire, Montoya made the biggest gain in the championship standings, moving from 11th to fourth. He trails Martin by 55 points. Montoya, in his first career Chase race, started on the pole and led an event-high 105 laps.

"The first race of the Chase, of course, you're going to jump one way to another depending how you run," Montoya said. "We had a very good day, and we gained a lot of grounds. At the same time, I think the leader is the only person that really counts right now."

Montoya is hoping to improve his track performance at Dover, where he has finished 30th and 39th in the last two races.

Biffle, currently ninth in points (-92), won last year's fall race at Dover. Biffle grabbed the lead from his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth with eight laps to go and then held it for his second victory of the season. Kenseth, who led a race-high 136 laps, finished second. Edwards came in third to give Roush a 1-2-3 finish at Dover. Biffle also won the week prior at New Hampshire.

A Roush driver has won a Sprint Cup race at Dover in each of the last five years -- Martin (2004), Biffle (2005 and '08), Kenseth (2006) and Edwards (2007).

Forty-four teams are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's AAA 400.

During the off-season, Dover underwent a pit-road renovation. The new 1,592- foot concrete wall extends from turn four down the frontstretch and into turn one. The construction allowed track officials to widen and improve pit road, which is now four feet wider. All 43 stalls are four feet longer than the previous length.