NASCAR at Dover 2016: Winners and Losers from the AAA Drive for Autism 400
Toward the end of the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway, FS1 NASCAR analyst Jeff Gordon said during the broadcast, “Matt Kenseth has had a tough year, and he’s right up there. He can win this race. Don’t count out Kyle Larson. He’s right there from the second row.”
Is he the oracle?
Kenseth carried his No. 20 car to Victory Lane for the first time of the season and the first time in 17 races. He did it while holding off a rabid Larson, who drove with the quiet desperation of a driver still looking for his first win.
The effort ranked as Larson’s best in his young career (and I’m not talking about the second-place finish; I mean the overall performance from beginning to end.)
The Monster Mile devoured contenders and non-contenders alike. If Talladega and Daytona have the Big One, then Dover has the Monster.
Let’s see how this final contest before the All-Star race shook out before we head to Charlotte on May 20.
Loser: Austin Dillon's Rotor
1 of 8
Austin Dillon hungers for that first win.
He stared into the eye of the monster, and Miles broke his No. 3 Chevy heading into Turn 4.
“I knew we blew up a rotor,” Dillon said during the FS1 broadcast. “It’s a bummer. Body failure. It’s part of racing.”
The brakes plagued his handling all afternoon, and it finally caught him on Lap 184.
It always seems to happen more to drivers desperate for a win or desperate for their first. Luck rarely finds those in need of it.
As if he hadn’t suffered at the hands of enough bad luck, Dillon then doled out some of his own. While unexpectedly slowing down once he got back on the track, Brad Keselowski used Dillon’s rear bumper like a cheese grater and shaved off his right-front fender.
To quote Metallica’s “My Friend of Misery”: “Misery loves company.”
Winner: The Sneakiest Move Nobody Saw
2 of 8
OK, so nobody commented how during the Monster Wreck at Dover that amid all the carnage, rookie Chase Elliott slithered out from the rocks of that mess without a speck of dirt on his splitter.
Elliott avoided it with so little drama that he was gone before anyone could make sense of it.
As a result, Elliott was in prime position for his first win of the year. When Kenseth and Larson dueled for the lead, Elliott started chewing up track position.
As he approached Larson, the two engaged in a thrilling battle to see who would advance to the finals against Kenseth.
A good question: Who wins their first career race? Elliott or Larson?
Based on 2016 performance alone, you may say Elliott, but if you study Kansas and Dover and throw in the relative seasoning Larson has over Elliott at the Cup level, then maybe Larson has the edge.
Loser: Wrong Place, Wrong Time
3 of 8
Suffice it to say, Martin Truex Jr. has little mirth after these races.
He finished ninth this week, which without the requisite context sounds like a delightful walk along a low-tide beach.
But when you realized he had a winning car and then slammed into Jimmie Johnson’s screen, suddenly ninth place is a wicked bummer.
Truex said on FS1 after the race:
"I don’t know when it’s going to end. All I can do is worry about what we’re doing. I thought all weekend we had a new package, science project on Friday. Went to Happy Hour and it was pretty good. When we needed to be the best car I thought we were. It’s one of those deals, wrong place, wrong time.
"
Truex led 172 laps a week ago at Kansas before a pit-road gaffe took him out. This week, he led 47 laps, and it was pit-road strategy that bit him, not that he could have ever known what awaited on the ensuing restart.
The No. 78 let the No. 19 beat him to the line on pit road, so Truex could start fourth instead of third. That was all the difference. Position 4 sat behind Johnson.
“I hate that it happened,” said Truex. “I wanted to be fourth on that restart, but I didn’t want to be fourth that bad. Maybe I should have not let the No. 19 beat us off pit road, but I don’t know how you can see those things coming.”
You can’t.
“I just want to get out and punch somebody, vicariously. Like hard. Like hard as I can,” Truex said over the radio.
Still, it’s nice to have that bad of a day and still finish ninth and even climb one spot in the driver standings from 10th to ninth.
Winner: The Other Hendrick Motorsports Drivers
4 of 8
If you asked anyone before the race who the top two Hendrick Motorsports drivers would be at the end of the Dover race, you’d likely say Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But it was Kasey Kahne and Elliott. Kahne finished fourth, one spot behind Elliott, while Johnson took 25th, and Junior finished 32nd.
Johnson was nonplussed after he became the lead domino that slaughtered 18 cars.
And Junior was uncharacteristically short during his post-crash interview. He told FS1’s Jamie Little that his hand, which he clearly hurt in his car, was “fine.”
Did he see anything?
“I didn’t,” he said. “They just stopped in front of us. I thought I had all of it clear, and the [Casey Mears] came up into us.”
Then he walked off either scratching or grabbing his lower back. After starting on the front row, the day did not follow the blueprint.
So it was Elliott who takes the HMS game ball, with Kahne giving the first high-five.
Loser: No Gain in the Standings
5 of 8
Tony Stewart missed a big opportunity Sunday.
With drivers like Matt DiBenedetto and Regan Smith tanking out of the Monster Mile, Stewart could have gained valuable spots in the standings.
Instead, his track bar punctured his oil tank and turned what could have been a top-20 car into a 34th-place car.
As a result, Stewart gained zero places in the standings and remains in 37th for the next two weeks until the Sprint Cup resumes scoring at the Coca-Cola 600.
Stewart offered no verbal insights during his post-wreck interview, but his body language said it all.
The pressure mounts. He has 14 races remaining to win and claw into the top 30 in points.
Winner: Kyle Larson's Big Finish
6 of 8
NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton tweeted after the AAA 400, “I believe that [Kyle Larson] did it the RIGHT way. Anyone can move a guy. It takes more skill to make a clean pass on a top driver.”
With Kenseth in the lead fighting off Larson, Burton clearly referenced Joey Logano’s tactics in the fall Kansas race that saw Logano spin out Kenseth.
“I was trying to do all I could do to get by without getting into him,” Larson said after the race on the FS1 broadcast. “I probably could have bumped him a little bit there. I was trying to be patient. I knew I was better than he was. We got to race really hard. By the time I got to second hew as a little too far in front of me.”
That was the big question hanging over the duel: What lengths would Larson go to not only get a win and a berth in the Chase, but to get his first career win and his first berth in the Chase.
Few people would have begrudged him, then again, maybe so. Maybe people would have asked, “Is that how you want to win your first race?”
“The car was not good to start the race,” Larson said. “We went a lap down, got the lucky dog, got some track position and a whole new car. It was weird. Got to lead some laps. Ran up front and race people hard. We’d like to be in Victory Lane. The day’s coming.”
The 2014 Rookie of the Year has put together some strong efforts this year. It’s hard to argue with him. Yes, the day is coming.
Loser: No Gear Available
7 of 8
Johnson, a winner of 10 races at Dover and seven of the past 13 heading into Sunday’s race, took only two tires in a pit stop with 45 laps to go.
He moved up to first with the gutsy move and started “started” from the outside lane. He never got out of second gear.
The No. 48’s transmission slept at the switch and wouldn’t engage. Every car behind Johnson was more than thrilled to pop into third gear and beyond. The resulting melee accordioned 18 cars.
Johnson told FS1’s Jamie Little after the crash:
"As soon as I went from second and tried to go to third, it got up into the neutral gate of the transmission and didn’t even go to third. It stopped before I got to third. I tried fourth, then third and fourth, then eventually I got hit from behind. There was a long pause there where I thought I had missed a shift. It wouldn’t go in gear. Martin was good and patient with me.
It locked out and wouldn’t go into gear. I lost a shot at winning and I hate too see all those cars tore up.
"
Johnson started way back in the field at the track he can practically drive—and win—with a blindfold or, at minimum, an eye patch.
“In my career, I’ve never had a transmission do that to me,” he said. “No gear available is something that’s never happened.”
The crash’s effect rippled throughout the entire field injuring some but wounding more cars and egos than anything.
Winner: Snapping the Streak
8 of 8
Thanks to FS1’s Chris Meyers, look at the CliffsNotes for Kenseth’s season to date:
- Daytona, lost last lap
- Atlanta, illegal fueling
- Spin in Vegas
- A flat tire in California
- Loose wheel in Texas
- Lost a tire in Bristol
- Battery problem in Rich
- Accident in Talladega
Kenseth then earned his first top five of the year at Kansas, survived the melee at Dover and fought off a starving Larson for Kenseth’s first win of the season.
“We needed this one,” Kenseth said after the race on the FS1 broadcast. “Great race team and organization. We were tight all night on restarts and five laps out from that last one we got so loose that Kyle would get right by me. I buried the track bar and kept digging, trying to hold him off.”
Kenseth knew how to work the outside lane. Many times it looked like he ceded the lead to Larson, but then Kenseth merely used the outside to slingshot ahead of Larson. Experience won him the race, and Larson’s sportsmanship/temerity gave it away.
Kenseth also worked his track bar like a see-saw.
“I ran it down as far as it went. It just went loose that run,” said Kenseth. “I was being aggressive to get off the corners. I thought the first half of the race we were pretty good. We lost the handle in the second part. We got fortunate when some of the good cars got in accidents.”
That accident took out several potential winners and Kenseth took the opportunity to get all the Joe Gibbs cars in the Chase.
The win makes seven out of 12 for Gibbs this season and six of the last seven.
.jpg?w=600 "Post-Lawrence Trade Mock Draft 📝")
_0.png?w=600 "Real Winners & Losers At Mania")