Dover Beats Weather - Sprint Cup Goes All 400 Laps With Harvick Winning; Johnson Eliminated

Kevin Harvick leading the field at Dover. (NASCAR imageby: Jeff Curry/Getty Images)

(DOVER, DEL - OCT. 4, 2015 - RIS) The persistent weather of the previous few days broke up Saturday, allowing one brief NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, the K&N East race and the XFINITY races to run. Colin Cabre won the K&N event, by less than a second ahead of Rico Abreu, while William Byron clinched the K&N East crown for the year. Regan Smith captured the XFINITY race, followed by Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, but the feature race of the weekend, the AAA 400, saw six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson fall out of contention with a rear axle seal failure, dropping him nearly 40 laps back early and out of contention for the Chase, finishing in 41st place. In failing to move on in the Chase, Johnson is joined by Jamie McMurray, who finished one spot behind Dale Earnhardt Jr but tied for points, with Earnhardt getting the nod due to the higher finish.

The race was dominated by Kevin Harvick, leading 355 of the 400 laps, with only two other racers leading the event: Kyle Busch led only 19 laps and Matt Kenseth headed the field for 26 rounds.

"Never quit. That's why right here, guys," Harvick said after taking the checkered flag.

Johnson entered fifth in the standings and, with 10 career wins at Dover, seemed a lock to advance. His No. 48 Chevrolet was forced off the track for 36 laps with a torn rear axle seal and he plummeted in the standings.

Four more drivers will be eliminated in the next three-race segment that starts next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth had already earned berths in the next round with wins in the first two Chase races. Carl Edwards also advanced along with Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch.

Truex survived after he was sent to the rear for the field after his team made an unapproved adjustment to the right rear after inspection. Gordon's drive for a fifth championship is still alive in his final season.

Harvick did all that was needed in the No. 4 Chevrolet and pulled off another victory in a must-win Chase race. He was eighth out of eight teams and had to win last season at Phoenix International Raceway to advance into the championship finale. He won the race, then won it all the next week when his second straight checkered flag gave him the highest finish among four championship drivers to earn the crown.

The rest of the Chase field knows they blew their shot at eliminating what should be their toughest contender in the final seven races.

It was only three weeks ago when a confident Harvick said about the JGR drivers, "We're going to pound them into the ground."

He was instead a bust in the first two Chase races and finished 42nd in the Chase opener at Chicagoland and 21st last week at New Hampshire..

"We weren't in a good situation coming into today, but that's what this team is made of," Harvick said. "This is what it's all about, those big-time moments."

Harvick's team celebrated in victory lane chanting "I believe that we will win!"

It may be hard for fans to believe Johnson is out of the playoff picture. In his 500th career start, he again seemed poised to be in the hunt to win at one of his favorite tracks, but the No. 48 Chevy instead spent a nice of chunk of the race in the garage and his crew furiously worked on repairs.

Johnson won championships in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013, putting him one shy of matching Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for most on the career list.

"I've lost championships this way. I've won championships this way," Johnson said. "It's not the way we want to end the season, but it is racing. Not much we can do about it."

Brad Keselowski got into the next round by the skin of his teeth.  The 2012 champion did not have a good day on the concrete high banks of Dover.

“We survived kind of ugly today, but I’d rather survive ugly than not survive pretty,” Keselowski said.  “We’ll take it and move on and realize that everything we’ve done from this point in the season doesn’t really mean anything.  Everything is back to scratch and that’s probably a good thing for us this year.  We just didn’t have the speed.”

Dale Earnhardt spent much of the day below the elimination line, but rallied in the final laps to make the next round.

“We made some mistakes together last week in New Hampshire and put ourselves in a bad position, but I knew we were a good enough team to make it to the next round,” Earnhardt said.  “We kind of got lucky to start on the outside of that one restart and just kind of went around them somehow.  I just drove it in there and it stuck.”

The Next Sprint Cup race is Saturday night, October 10th, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

 

Unofficial Race Results, 46th Annual AAA 400, Dover International Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, TLd, LLd, Lap, Pts, BPts, Status
1) 15, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet, 7, 355, 400, 48, 5, Running
2) 13, Kyle Busch, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, 5, 19, 400, 43, 1, Running
3) 12, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Plenti Chevrolet, , , 400, 41, , Running
4) 11, Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Nature Made Chevrolet, , , 400, 40, , Running
5) 18, Aric Almirola, No. 43 Nathan's Famous Ford, , , 400, 39, , Running
6) 17, Kasey Kahne, No. 5 HendrickRideAlong.com Chevrolet, , , 400, 38, , Running
7) 1, Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, 3, 26, 400, 38, 1, Running
8) 27, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Fastenal Ford, , , 400, 36, , Running
9) 19, Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Plaid Chevrolet, , , 400, 35, , Running
10) 4, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, , , 400, 34, , Running
11) 9, Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet, , , 400, 33, , Running
12) 10, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 AARP Member Advantages Chevrolet, , , 400, 32, , Running
13) 20, Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ortho Ford, , , 400, 31, , Running
14) 16, Clint Bowyer, No. 15 5-hour Energy Toyota, , , 400, 30, , Running
15) 3, Carl Edwards, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota, , , 400, 29, , Running
16) 8, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Wurth Ford, , , 400, 28, , Running
17) 7, Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, , , 400, 27, , Running
18) 2, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, , , 400, 26, , Running
19) 6, Ryan Newman, No. 31 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, , , 399, 25, , Running
20) 26, Sam Hornish Jr., No. 9 SlimFast Ford, , , 398, 24, , Running
21) 24, Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet, , , 398, 23, , Running
22) 28, David Ragan, No. 55 Aaron's Online Dream Machine Toyota, , , 398, 22, , Running
23) 21, Austin Dillon, No. 3 DOW Chevrolet, , , 398, 21, , Running
24) 22, Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, , , 397, 20, , Running
25) 14, Paul Menard, No. 27 Knauf/Menards Chevrolet, , , 397, 19, , Running
26) 25, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, , , 396, 18, , Running
27) 30, Justin Allgaier, No. 51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet, , , 395, 17, , Running
28) 31, Cole Whitt, No. 35 Dockside/Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters Ford, , , 394, 16, , Running
29) 23, AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevrolet, , , 394, 15, , Running
30) 32, David Gilliland, No. 38 MDS Transportation Ford, , , 394, 14, , Running
31) 29, Trevor Bayne, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford, , , 393, 13, , Running
32) 35, Alex Bowman, No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet, , , 393, 12, , Running
33) 40, Reed Sorenson, No. 98 Premium Motorsports Ford, , , 391, 11, , Running
34) 37, Matt DiBenedetto #, No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota, , , 391, 10, , Running
35) 42, JJ Yeley(i), No. 26 Maxim Fantasy Toyota, , , 390, 0, , Running
36) 41, Josh Wise, No. 32 Schwarze Sweepers/CorvetteParts.net Ford, , , 389, 8, , Running
37) 38, Michael Annett, No. 46 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet, , , 387, 7, , Running
38) 36, Alex Kennedy #, No. 33 Chevrolet, , , 386, 6, , Running
39) 43, Timmy Hill(i), No. 62 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet, , , 380, 0, , Running
40) 33, Landon Cassill(i), No. 40 CRC Brakleen Chevrolet, , , 365, 0, , Engine
41) 5, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, , , 364, 3, , Running
42) 34, Brett Moffitt #, No. 34 CSX Play It Safe Ford, , , 346, 2, , Accident
43) 39, Jeb Burton #, No. 23 Dr Pepper/Estes Toyota, , , 186, 1, , Accident

# = Rookie, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led.
Average Speed: 119.870 MPH
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 20 Mins, 13 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 2.639 Seconds
14 Lead Changes among 3 drivers
8 Cautions for 43 laps

John Davison with Ron Fleshman

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

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Volume 2015, Issue 10, Posted 7:25 PM, 10.04.2015