Kyle Busch tamed the Monster Mile at Dover International Speedway on Sunday in a spectacular finish between he and second-place finisher Chase Elliott. Busch, a veteran racer from Las Vegas, will leave with his fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the year to advance into the Round of 12.
The win did not come easy for Busch. With two-laps remaining, two-miles remaining, Busch passed Elliott for the lead and won by 0.357 seconds over the Georgia native looking to score his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Elliott will go into Charlotte Motor Speedway next week with eight top five and 16 top 10 finishes. The last time out at Charlotte didn’t go so well for Elliott. On lap 19, he and Brad Keselowski tangled on the frontstretch and weren’t able to continue. Elliott left the 1.5-mile oval with a 38th-place run.
As for Busch, it’ll be completely opposite as he left the Coca-Cola 600 in May with a runner-up finish behind surprise race winner Austin Dillon.
Rounding out the top three finishers at Dover International Speedway on Sunday was Jimmie Johnson. Johnson led the field for five circuits in the Apache Warrior 400 presented by Lucas Oil.
He’ll leave Dover, where Johnson went to victory lane in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 11 times prior, with three wins, four top five and 10 top 10 finishes through 29 events.
Playoff drivers Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five finishers. The highest finishing non-playoff driver was Kansas native Clint Bowyer.
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Playoff Points After Dover: |
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|
POS |
CAR |
DRIVER |
|
1 |
78 |
Martin Truex Jr. |
|
2 |
18 |
Kyle Busch |
|
3 |
42 |
Kyle Larson |
|
4 |
2 |
Brad Keselowski |
|
5 |
48 |
Jimmie Johnson |
|
6 |
4 |
Kevin Harvick |
|
7 |
11 |
Denny Hamlin |
|
8 |
17 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
|
9 |
21 |
Ryan Blaney |
|
10 |
24 |
Chase Elliott |
|
11 |
20 |
Matt Kenseth |
|
12 |
1 |
Jamie McMurray |
|
13 |
31 |
Ryan Newman |
|
14 |
3 |
Austin Dillon |
|
15 |
5 |
Kasey Kahne |
|
16 |
41 |
Kurt Busch |
|
Green = Move On Red = Eliminated |
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Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch will not advance into the Round of 12. These drivers finished 13th, 16th, 14th, and 20th.
The series will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend for the Bank of America 500. Coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET. live on NBC. The Performance Racing Network will carry the live radio broadcast.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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