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In one of the wildest races in recent history at Dover International Speedway, Matt Kenseth was able to avoid the carnage and hold off a hard charging Kyle Larson to win Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism.
The win made Kenseth the seventh different driver to win in the Sprint Cup Series this season and the win marked the 37th of his career. This marks the second times in as many seasons that all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will advance to the Chase for the Sprint Cup which starts at Chicago in September.
Kenseth was relieved to get the win after what had been a few tough months to start the season.
“It feels good to be here, been a tough few months, for sure”, Kenseth said. “These guys did a great job, did a great job on pit road today. Obviously Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and these guys did a great job with the car and adjustments as well as Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development). We had a good car today. I thought we were competitive and there were a few guys at different parts of the race that were a little bit better and Kyle (Larson) gave me all I wanted at the end, and then some. We were fortunate to be able to hold him off.”
Kyle Larson recorded his fourth runner up finish of his career on Sunday after leading 85 laps. Larson was able to stay with Kenseth over the last five laps however was unable to score his elusive first cup win.
“I was trying to do all you could do to get by him without getting into him,” Larson said.
Chase Elliott once again showed experience beyond his years with a third place finish after starting 13th. Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth followed by: Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top ten.
The turning point of the race came on lap 354, when 10 time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson led the field on a restart when Johnson’s No.48 Chevrolet slowed after being stuck in second gear which triggered an 18 car pileup which also involved Truex, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and many others.
Johnson was baffled at what went wrong after the incident.
“As soon as I went from second and tried to go to third, I kind of got up into the neutral gate of the transmission and didn’t even go to third,” Johnson said. “It stopped before it ever went to third. And then I tried fourth and third and fourth and eventually I got hit from behind. There was a long pause there where I was trying to, I thought maybe I missed a shift; but it wouldn’t go in gear.
“Martin was good and patient with me. He gave me a couple of opportunities to try to find a gear and it just locked out and wouldn’t go into gear for some reason. It was still that way at the end and I couldn’t drive the car and I don’t think I’m all that damaged, but unfortunately I lost a shot at winning and I hate to see all those cars tore up.”
Busch and Logano addressed the incident after the smoke cleared.
“All havoc ensued and we piled right in and we get to go home early,” Busch said.
Logano said the biggest issue in the incident was the fact no one could see anything as the wreck unfolded.
“That was the problem, we couldn’t see,” he said. “When you are stacked up on the restart like that there isn’t much to be able to see at all. … I tried checking up and going to the bottom like we were going to miss it and got hit from behind and that sent me into it more. Now we need a new radiator. We have been the victim of circumstances the last few weeks. It is what it is. I am not going to say it was bad luck. We put ourselves in position to be back there on our pit stop. It is our fault. We have to smarten up and get a little better at every little area. We had a decent car. We weren’t the fastest car but we were a top-five car for sure. Things happen.”
