It was yet another scary incident on the track that was made safer by the barrier in place.
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Truex, who had a freak mechanical issue with a brake head bolt breaking last week in Kansas that cost him the victory, suffered more bad luck with 46 laps remaining in the 400-lap race at Dover International Speedway.
Rain Friday afternoon washed out qualifying – putting points leader Kevin Harvick on the pole by virtue of his auto posting the top practice time Friday morning. Harvick already has a win this season and he should be a strong candidate to pick up his second victory of 2016 at Dover on Sunday.
Dover International Speedway is a cranky race track. The stats are pretty much unbelievable.
But the driver to watch every time NASCAR hits the Monster Mile is Johnson. The two have both finished in the top 10 in the last two races. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five. He won last year’s Spring race and three of the last five Dover races. It is what we race for – we race for wins. I got into him, turned him into the inside wall. “You win there and you feel like you’ve conquered a monster”. Newman continues to climb towards Chase eligibility and now sits just two points out of the final spot, currently held by rookie Ryan Blaney. “It’s my home track, I love coming up to this race track for a lot of reasons”. Like Matt Kenseth, Truex has had some dominating runs this season with little to show for it in the long run. “Because we are like ‘man this is our place this is where we run well, why are we off?’ It has many pros, but there are some cons that exist with a track that you’ve been so good at”.
Suarez was 19 in this race last season. Sunday presents another good opportunity for Truex and the #78 team to redeem themselves and it remains to be seen if they can capitalize on it. Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards followed Busch.
Tyler Reddick, the 20-year-old Californian who utilized his skills honed as a youth on dirt tracks to produce a runner-up NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finish in 2015 has struggled so far this year.
The series’ next race is scheduled May 20 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Wins aren’t an absolute requirement to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup lineup, and several – if not all – of the winless quintet will make the postseason on points.
Greg Biffle’s cost has dropped in part to a rough start to the season as the No. 16 driver has zero top 10s with an average finish of 22.6.
“I remember thinking that if someone had told me we were going to win, I would’ve told them they were insane”, Stewart remembered of that day. If you are looking for a possible first time victor to cheer for on Sunday, Kyle Larson is your guy.
“If you look at the consistency in our team, it is still there”, Logano said. Truex has finished in the top 10 in three of the past four races.
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Race distance: 400 miles, 400 laps.
