There were a lot of names bandied about this week as contenders at Dover International Speedway – perhaps Kyle Busch, who has run strong at Dover in just about every race here in every circuit the last three years. Perhaps it would be Jimmie Johnson, who had won three of the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the Monster Mile, and who sat on the pole for Sunday. Maybe Carl Edwards, who won the “5-Hour ENERGY 200” NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday could pull off another win. Perhaps even A.J. Allmendinger, who started second and was coming off a strong run at Dover in the race last fall, or Dale Earnhardt Jr., who hasn’t won at Dover since 2001 but had a strong practice session on Friday.
Not among those names was Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Wiley X Sunglasses Ford, who started 24th. But he ended up winning the May 15 “FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, taking the checkered flag on a day that started out cloudy, briefly turned rainy, but was drenched in sunshine by the end – a trifecta of conditions that gave many of NASCAR’s top drivers fits and left them fighting their machines all over Dover International Speedway throughout the day.
Also not among those names, although he can never be counted out at Dover, was Mark Martin – he finished second. Definitely not among those names was Marcus Ambrose, who had never started higher than 20th at the Monster Mile, finished higher than 14th, and who had never led a single lap around at Dover. He still hasn’t, but he finished third.
This upheaval came about with 39 laps to go, when Juan Pablo Montoya spun in Turn 4 and brought out the fifth caution flag of the day. Prior to that, the race was following a completely different script – one that many more people had expected. Johnson dominated early on, but started to falter near the halfway point and spent much of the next hundred-plus miles jockeying with Edwards for the lead. And Clint Bowyer jumped in on the fun on a restart at lap 338, taking a turn up front for 29 laps.
But with Montoya’s mishap and the subsequent pit stops, there were decisions to be made. Two tires or four was the main one. Fuel mileage was another concern, but lesser so. Bowyer, Edwards and Johnson went with four tires. Kenseth took two; Martin took none and just flat-out stayed on the track.
As a result, Kenseth beat the formerly top trio back out onto the track and restarted second, right behind Martin. His fresh pair of shoes allowed him to quickly slide by his old mentor and into the lead, while Johnson and Edwards were stuck in traffic and sitting 10th and 11th, respectively. He opened up a wide margin and was never threatened over the final 32 laps, ending up with a win by 2.122 seconds.
“It was pretty exciting for me to win here at Dover, especially the way we did it,” Kenseth said. “It seems we’ve lost more that way than we’ve won. We came in and I know [crew chief Jimmy Fennig and I] were both thinking about it at the same time. I just keyed the mic and said ‘Jimmy, you sure you don’t want to try two?’ And he didn’t even hesitate. It went smooth almost like we planned it.”
But sudden as the change was at the front of the field, it wasn’t a situation where Kenseth backed into a win. He was being mentioned over the radio by other crew chiefs as the fastest car in the track as early as the first 100 laps. Despite starting 24th, he was in 12th by lap 59 and was in eighth by lap 76, a leap of 16 positions. He reached fifth by lap 136, moved into fourth at lap 150 and was third on a restart at lap 170. But his car started to loosen up as the sun warmed up the track, and he gave up fourth place to pit at lap 284 to try and have the problem corrected. Whatever his crew did, it worked, as he returned to contention quickly afterward.
“There were times in the race where I felt like we had one of the best cars, but there were times where it felt like we had a 14th place car,” Kenseth said. “They were able to make some good adjustments to get it good there at the end. I knew one of the front three cars on that restart would probably win the race, because the rubber was building up and it was almost impossible to pass.”
Car owner Jack Roush had been paying attention, and knew Kenseth could be a threat at the end.
“If anybody was watching their lap trackers, Matt drove from 23rd to the top five,” Roush said. “As hard as it is to pass and deal with this car, when I saw that I figured that the 17 was equal to the cars that were running up front. They didn’t back into this thing – they deserved to be up there. Between the two of them, they made the gutsy call for two tires. As many times as they’ve been burned by that, I was surprised they did that.”
Martin was all smiles after finishing second in his 50th career race at the Monster Mile. He’s finished in the top 10 in 31 of those races.
“It was another great race at Dover,” Martin said. “I love this place. I always get excited about coming here to race. We had a really fast race car. Great call by Lance McGrew and great teamwork. We’ve had great teamwork all year. I’m proud of this race team and proud of these guys.”
It was also a happy day for Ambrose, who was coming off a weekend where he felt he deserved better than his 13th-place finish at Darlington.
“Today I’m really excited about, because we had a really good day at Darlington and it didn’t go our way,” Ambrose said. “We’ve had some terrible luck. I’m really excited that my team is learning me, I’m learning them and I’m learning how these cars work.”
Left to wonder what might have been was Johnson, who has won six times at Dover and would have tied Bobby Allison and Richard Petty for most career wins at the track with a victory, but instead wound up with a ninth-place finish. Afterwards, he was surprised that a four-tire change on the last pit stop wasn’t more effective.
“I guess in our minds we didn’t think that would take place, so many guys taking two [tires],” Johnson said. “At the time, we had done four all day and we saw some two yesterday and it didn’t pan out. I knew we were outnumbered once we came off pit road and saw so many guys who had taken two and one or two that didn’t stop, so at that time I knew we were in trouble. If you just look at the numbers, the four-tire guys just couldn’t get back through there.”
Edwards had similar sentiments after finishing seventh.
“I thought we would be able to march up through there and I thought the race would be between Clint and I,” he said. “I did see a couple cars go fast early on two tires but I really felt we were going to have something. If we had had a caution, who knows what would have happened.”
Johnson led 135 of the first 142 laps before Edwards caught him and the two started more or less passing the lead back and forth. Johnson ended up leading 207 laps, while Edwards was ahead for 117. It’s the fifth consecutive race at Dover where Johnson has led at least 190 laps.
Meanwhile, some of Dover’s usual front-runners were left in the back of the pack, including Kurt Busch (14th), Jeff Gordon (17th), Greg Biffle (19th), Ryan Newman (21st), and Tony Stewart (29th). Kyle Busch also had a rough day by his standards for Dover, even though he finished fourth. He had to start at the rear of the field due to an engine change, which didn’t help, but like many drivers still didn’t have his normal zip on the concrete oval.
“It was a tough race for us, but we ended up looking really good considering how our weekend was,” he said. “We put something under it knowing this is how we ran here in the past and it just didn’t work today. I don’t know that anything would have worked for a lot of guys.”
The average speed was 125.578 mph, which was just behind the pace of the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Dover; however, those three races are the three fastest at the track in the last 12 years. There were 23 lead changes among 11 drivers and just six cautions for 28 laps – one of which was a competition caution and one of which was because of a brief shower that drifted over the track at lap 173.
There was no change among the top five in the points standings, with Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick all maintaining their positions. Kenseth was the biggest mover, jumping from 10th to sixth. Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart round out the top 10, while Mark Martin and Greg Biffle sit just outside.
Dover International Speedway PR
