Round 1 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup is over, and the race at Dover was extremely eventful.
Four drivers no longer have a shot to win the Sprint Cup Championship this year, including a couple of fan favorites.
For the second time in three races rain wreaked havoc on the weekend schedule, shortening practices and cancelling qualifying. This, however, allowed all sixteen Chase eligible drivers to start in the top 16, since the rules line up cars by series points.
Brad Keselowski would start on the pole with his top seed in the standings, but would only hold the lead for 5 laps before a hard-charging Martin Truex Jr. took over. Despite having a free pass to the next round, Truex Jr. would run hard for the entire race, not giving an inch to his fellow not-locked-in Chase competitors.
Truex led for a handful of laps before Kyle Busch would take over and proceed to dominate the first third of the race. Busch has had a successful season so far in his bid to defend his 2015 Championship, and he showed plenty of speed at Dover. After taking the lead on lap 37 he wouldn’t relinquish it until lap 124 when Truex once again took the lead as Busch began battling the handling on his #18 Toyota.
Truex would lead for another 50 laps before Dover king Jimmie Johnson took over the lead. Johnson had arguably the best car, and set a blistering pace for 88 laps before another pit road penalty took away his chances for a win. Pit Road penalties have been plaguing Johnson all season, with two dominating performances squashed by them during the Chase so far. He continued to have the fastest car on track but being stuck a lap down relegated him to a 7th place finish.
Truex Jr took over the lead and set a ridiculously fast pace, lapping all but the top 6 cars by the end of the race. Truex held the lead without challenge from the time Johnson had his penalty until the end of the race.
Kyle Busch would wind up second, with rookie and Dawsonville native Chase Elliot in third, Brad Keselowski fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth. Joey Logano finished sixth as the last car on the lead lap.
Throughout the race all eyes were glued to the Chase bubble drivers, those who were most at risk of finishing outside the top 12 in points and being unable to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Kyle Larson was the first to have his hopes dashed as an early problem with the battery put him quickly one lap down. This issue would be compounded by a pit road penalty accrued while trying to fix the power problem, and he would wind up 3 laps down. Later in the race he cut a tire and finished in the 25th position some six laps off the pace.
Jamie McMurray had a fast car and high hopes to advance, but wound up finishing dead last due to a blown engine. This put both Chip-Ganassi Racing cars outside the top twelve.
Tony Stewart, arguably a fan favorite to win in his final season, failed to make the cut as well due to a string of poor finishes during this first round of the Chase. After his win at Sonoma earlier in the year and strong performance afterwards, there had been high hopes for him to at least advance past the first round, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Chris Beuscher, the “Cinderella” story driver who made the Chase on a win at the fog-shortened Pocono race back in June, finished poorly all three races as well, only racking up a 23rd place finish on Sunday.
So, that leaves these four drivers on the outside looking in as we head to Charlotte this coming weekend.
There will be plenty to watch for, primarily to see whether Martin Truex Jr. is able to repeat his performance in the Coke 600 earlier this year when he lead almost all the laps and was untouchable all night. In addition, will the Toyota’s in general continue to dominate this weekend, or will Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing be able to keep up? Will Jimmie Johnson be able to have a mistake-free race? All these and more questions will be answered this coming Saturday night at Charlotte, assuming the weather cooperates of course.
