Edwards was more reserved after being evaluated and released from Dover’s infield care center.
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Elliott, knocking on the door for his first win in what has been a fine rookie season, emerged from the chaos of the huge late-race wreck to challenge.
Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive For Autism at Dover International Speedway was one of the wildest and craziest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in recent memory, with Matt Kenseth outdueling Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott in a tense fight to win his first race of the year.
HOT: KURT BUSCH – The success of the Joe Gibbs Racing squad has made this one of the most under-reported stories of the year, but Kurt Busch is quietly putting together an excellent season.
“I’d say as good as we have run, that is probably the longest streak I can remember being on without having any real good finishes”. I knew of the Carnegie. “You’re going to get your wins, your finishes”, said Kenseth, even-keeled as ever. “I think if he would have snuck inside, it would have been over”. “Either you do or you don’t, and we haven’t yet”.
“Had a lot of fun racing with those guys at the end there”.
“And then the No. 20 got back away and by the time I got to second, he was just a little bit to far in front of me”.
Indeed, Sunday at the Monster Mile offered plenty for Kenseth and his team to navigate, including 12 cautions, a massive pile-up with fewer than 50 laps to go and – once things had been cleaned up and the race restarted – two aggressive youngsters still looking for their first career victories (and, incidentally, a bid in next week’s All-Star Race, which would have accompanied such a win). There wasn’t auto that could match him in the turns.
“It all worked out for us, kind of the opposite of the way I feel like its been going the past couple of months”. I try to race everybody with respect. I don’t think there’s a better crew chief in the garage than the one sitting next to me. I try to do the same with him. And while his rally may have come up one spot short, it was a much-needed shot in the arm for a team in need of some signs of progress.
From Johnson’s perspective, the malfunction was unprecedented.
“I’m still early in my career, so I don’t want to make anybody mad or make any rivals”, he said.
Kyle Larson competes during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race, Sunday, May 15, 2016, at Dover I … Debris-likely from his car-allowed him to pit under yellow a few laps later and he stayed on the lead lap and in contention. “I would have had to get into him (to get by) and I didn’t want to do that”.
Larson remains in 21st position in points, 30 behind 20th place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. When he finished the spin, Johnson had plenty of company.
“Just one of those deals – wrong place, wrong time”, said Truex, who led 47 laps before the accident.
Johnson, a 10-time victor at Dover, failed to jump off the restart because of a faulty transmission in the No. 48. But he’s posted three consecutive top 10s and is doing a good job finishing races.
There was some interesting strategy played under this caution, as Ryan Newman and Johnson both came in to pit, but they were the only ones, as they wanted to make it a one-stop race.
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The No. 78 let the No. 19 beat him to the line on pit road, so Truex could start fourth instead of third. But it would work out Matt Perry drove the wheels off that thing at the end of really did a nice job but on a good show for the fans and cal grew you know very nice clean race Jimenez.
