“It’s awesome”, Crafton said.
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“I think the biggest changes are always to the tires and the downforce levels and the bodies and things like that”, Truex Jr. explained.
Snapping a winless streak at Dover International Speedway that stretched 15 years, Crafton held off Daniel Suarez down the stretch and raced to a Truck Series victory. A year later, he missed three races while in seclusion after his vehicle struck and killed a fellow driver at a dirt track in NY. It was just one of those deals – wrong place at the wrong time.
If he takes the checkered flag in Sunday’s race, Johnson will join Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip as the only drivers to win 11 or more races at single track.
Larson matched his career-best finish for owner Chip Ganassi. Coincidentally, Harvick won the pole for the race at Richmond, the most recent race where qualifying was rained out.
Passing tends to be at Dover, so it should be no surprise that starting up front has been a major benefit over the years. He came within a fraction of a second of winning the Daytona 500 and also saw possible triumphs get away at Texas and Kansas.
“It’s always good to come here”, he said. He hasn’t finished worse than 18th when completing a race. Aric Almirola, one of the drivers who parked his vehicle after the wreck, said he injured the short finger on one hand and speculated that it might be broken.
The first NASCAR weekend of the year in Dover concludes Sunday with the marquee event.
Once Crafton took the lead, it was a clear race to the finish line. Martin Truex Jr. nailed the 48 from behind and Dover soon looked like the site of a gnarly demolition derby.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: One win, nine top 10s, 63 laps led, 11.62 average finish, 98.2 driver rating. But Johnson already has a pair of wins (at Atlanta and Auto Club), which qualifies him for the 2016 Chase.
If it’s one driver they need to worry about, it’s Jimmie Johnson.
“I want to get out and punch somebody, ” Truex said over the radio.
“I was trying to drive as hard as I could”. Larson made contact with Edwards and shot the JGR driver into the wall. “The 41 (Kurt Busch) and him were outside of me”. Peters was 14th and Byron, the pole-sitter, led a race-high 80 laps and was 11th.
Matt Kenseth hopes Dover will turn his luck around now that he has scored two top 10’s the last three races. He’s now 37th in the standings – 59 points behind 30th-place Regan Smith.
With Kyle Busch’s breakthrough victory at Kansas last Saturday, only Charlotte and Pocono are left for him to conquer.
Suarez was close to winning his first career race, but just couldn’t get any closer to Crafton. Damn, man. Give me a break.
Stewart-Haas Racing said Stewart was fine. So I feel bad about that, if it was my fault.
Despite the sixth caution coming in the final quarter of the race, Crafton maintained his lead with 20 laps to go. But we kept on working on it and there at the end we had the machine to beat.
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“I didn’t see much”, Edwards said afterwards.
