NASCAR at Dover 2016 Results: Winner, Standings, Highlights and Reaction

Matt Kenseth held off Kyle Larson's furious charge to win Sunday's AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway in Delaware.    

Kenseth used every trick he knew to block Larson's attempts to get into first place in an excellent example of defensive driving. Every time Larson had a window, Kenseth did just enough to deny the No. 42 car. FS1 provided a replay of the race's final laps:

Below are the top 10 finishers:

Pos.	Driver	Time Behind (sec.)	Laps Led
1	Matt Kenseth	----	48
2	Kyle Larson	0.188	85
3	Chase Elliott	0.634	0
4	Kasey Kahne	2.671	0
5	Kurt Busch	3.309	0
6	Brad Keselowski	4.239	49
7	Denny Hamlin	4.261	15
8	Ryan Blaney	6.501	0
9	Martin Truex Jr.	6.706	47
10	Trevor Bayne	8.380	0

Here's a look at the standings in the Chase for the Sprint Cup following Sunday's race:

Pos.	Driver	Points	Wins
1	Kyle Busch	397	3
2	Carl Edwards	380	2
3	Jimmie Johnson	369	2
4	Brad Keselowski	368	2
5	Kevin Harvick	418	1
6	Matt Kenseth	313	1
7	Denny Hamlin	308	1
8	Kurt Busch	386	0
9	Chase Elliott	341	0
10	Joey Logano	339	0
11	Martin Truex Jr.	336	0
12	Austin Dillon	315	0
13	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	314	0
14	Jamie McMurray	296	0
15	Ryan Blaney	288	0
16	Kasey Kahne	286	0

NASCAR shared Kenseth's post-race celebration in Victory Lane:

In terms of drama, fans couldn't have asked much more from the race. Kenseth, Larson and Chase Elliott provided a nail-biting finish, and any of the three seemingly could've come out with the win had one or two things gone differently. Fox Sports' Chris Myers noted how the fight pitted the savvy veteran against the talented youngsters:

And yet the biggest talking point from Sunday will likely be the massive crash on Lap 354. Immediately following a restart, Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 car locked up, causing a massive domino effect—Johnson being in second place heightened the crash's impact:

According to the Fox broadcast (via Fox Sports: NASCAR), the wreck involved 18 drivers—one short of the track record at Dover:

Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee joked it wasn't all that bad:

Richard Childress Racing rolled with the punches:

At this point, rolling with the punches is all Martin Truex Jr. can do, as his bad luck on the track continued.

Last year, Truex appeared to be cursed. From February through May, he was one of the best drivers on the circuit but failed to find a breakthrough before finally earning his first win on June 7. To a certain extent, the same has happened for Truex in 2016. Entering Sunday, his 303 points were tied for fifth-most among drivers without a win this season.

Truex's fortunes appeared to be turning around on Lap 343. Tony Stewart blew an engine and spilled fluid on the track. The fluid claimed Chris Buescher, who lost control and spun out. Truex nearly did the same but narrowly avoided running into the wall and retained the top spot. SB Nation's Jordan Bianchi couldn't say enough about Truex's driving on the save:

The racing gods found a way to thwart Truex nonetheless. He was powerless to get out of Johnson's way and sustained major damage to his front end. His crew did enough to get the No. 54 car back out on the track, but Truex had no chance of getting back into first place and settled for ninth.

When the dust cleared from the crash, Kenseth sat in first place, and Carl Edwards was right behind in second. Edwards couldn't enjoy the position for too long after he spun out and crashed out of the race. The No. 19 car looked shaky coming around the turn, and contact from Kyle Larson was the tipping point as Edwards hit the inside SAFER barrier head-on:

Autoweek's Matt Weaver didn't blame Larson too much for his role:

With Edwards out of the picture, Kenseth, Larson and Elliott engaged in a three-way battle for first place over the final 35 laps, bringing a thrilling conclusion to the event.

The Sprint Cup Series will take a week off with the Sprint Showdown next Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the Sprint All-Star Race follows Saturday. After Sunday provided such a roller coaster of emotions for many drivers, the All-Star Race couldn't come at a better time.

The Series will get going once again on May 29 at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600.

Post-Race Reaction

After the race, Larson admitted he had exhausted all his options to pass Kenseth short of making contact with the No. 20 car:

Kenseth described what was going on in his mind during the dramatic final stretch, per Yahoo Sports' Nick Bromberg:

"

[Larson] is extremely talented and I knew if I was on the bottom, he was going to be on the top. We got so free, I started working that middle groove and I was able to get just far enough ahead. If he would have snuck outside of me, it would have been over. I had just enough momentum to stay in front of him.

"

In all likelihood, Kenseth wouldn't have been in a position to win had a large chunk of the field not gotten caught in the massive crash. Johnson described what went wrong with his car to set off the chain reaction, per USA Today's Mike Hembree:

"

As soon as I went from second and tried to go third … it stopped before it ever went to third. There was a long pause there where I thought I maybe I missed a shift and it just locked out and wouldn't go into gear. Unfortunately, I lost a shot at winning and I hate to see all those cars torn up. In my career, I've never had a transmission do that to me. To lock out and not go across the gate and no gear available is something that has never happened to me.

"

Truex, meanwhile, could only shrug his shoulders when asked when his luck might turn around:

At least Truex can take solace in the fact he's comfortably inside the Chase cutoff for the time being. That safety won't last forever, though, so it will be important he gets that elusive first win this year.