Dover 400 Race Review

Dover International Speedway -- 05/31/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Jun 1 2009 12:36am

Well, one driver did dominate Dover today, but I am relieved to report it wasn’t Kyle Busch – not because I don’t like Busch, but because it makes for a boring race and a boring season when one team is so superior to the rest.

Today, it was Jimmie Johnson who had the best car, though it appeared in the closing laps that a problem on pit road might cost him the win.

Johnson started the race in eighth-place after running in the top 10 in all three pre-race practice sessions. Polesitter David Reutimann led most of the very early going, but Johnson was able to move into the lead by lap 49.

Overall, Johnson led nearly three-quarters of the race - 298 of 400 laps. He had the lead when a debris caution was thrown on lap 363, but Chad Knaus called for four tires while other contenders, including Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart, took just two.

The race went green on lap 369 but the caution flew again a lap later when David Stremme made contact with the wall. This time, the 48 team had a slow stop after trouble on the left front. Johnson came out of the pits in eighth, with Biffle in the lead and Stewart in second.

In the end, though, neither Biffle nor Stewart on two tires could hold off Johnson on four, and he retook the lead with two to go en route to the checkered flag.

“We had a solid day on pit road and at the end we came out in eighth, and with cars in the lap down lane, I wasn't sure what was going to happen,” Johnson told reporters after the race. “I was just trying to get what I could. I didn't want to make a mistake like I did in Las Vegas and tear the car up trying to get back to the front and, before I knew it, I got by the guys that were on four and was in third, and kind of stalled out for a lap or two, and searched around and found a new line and ran him down, and caught the 16 as he was getting passed by the 14 so that helped me make quick work of him, and then set the 14 up and took a few laps. It took a lot of commitment to get to his outside. I wasn't sure the car was going to stop sliding up the track. I thought it was going to hit the fence. Fortunately, it grabbed just in time and changed directions and off I went and got alongside of him.”

The race itself had a couple of long green flag runs, but Biffle and Reutimann were the only drivers besides Johnson to lead any significant number of laps. Biffle led 41 total, mostly as the race wound down, while Reutimann led 25 early on. The rest of the race was all Johnson.

As predicted, tires were somewhat of an issue as they were in the other series this weekend. Overall, just 20 cars finished on the lead lap, 18 drivers were more than one lap down, and there were 12 DNFs.

Following Johnson, Stewart and Biffle across the finish line were Matt Kenseth (4), Kurt Busch (5), Kasey Kahne (6), Carl Edwards (7), Ryan Newman (8), Casey Mears (9), and Mark Martin rounding out the top 10.

That put both Stewart-Haas drivers in the top 10 along with two of their Hendrick semi-teammates. Roush-Fenway had three teams in the top 10.

Other finishes of note included Dale Earnhardt Jr., 12th with new crew chief Lance McGrew; Kyle Busch, 23rd after suffering damage to his splitter; and Jeff Gordon, who was only able to make it to 26th from his 42nd-place start after a qualifying crash Friday.

Unofficially, Tony Stewart’s second-place finish, coupled with Gordon’s 26th, moved Stewart into the lead in the series by 46 points with Gordon now in second. Jimmie Johnson moved up one spot to third, supplanting Kurt Busch, who fell to fourth. Ryan Newman climbed one spot to fifth.

Though the remaining drivers shuffled spots up or down a bit, no one fell out of – or moved into – the top 12 overall.

The tightest points battle is currently between Kyle Busch in 6th, Denny Hamlin, 7th, Matt Kenseth, 8th, and Greg Biffle, 9th - just 16 points separate those four spots.

This week, the series heads to the “tricky triangle” more commonly known as Pocono Raceway. The winner of the spring race last year was Kasey Kahne.

Please check back later in the week for our race preview.

Comment on this article.

(255 chars max)

Username:
(No HTML)

Captcha: