CP MOTORSPORTS - KENSETH'S VETERAN SAAVY HOLDS OFF YOUTH FOR DOVER WIN
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Heading into Sunday afternoon's AAA 400 Drive For Autism at Dover International Speedway, the 2016 season has been anything but lucky for former Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth.
Kenseth was not caught up in the 18 car pileup which ensued on lap 354 when then-leader Jimmie Johnson appeared to spin his tires and get turned around by the No. 78 Toyota of Martin Truex, Jr.
Kenseth was not collected when future second place finisher appeared to make contact with the No. 19 Stanley Toyota of Kenseth's teammate Carl Edwards sending him into the inside retaining wall.
And most importantly Kenseth was not passed at the end of the race when Larson and Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott appeared to have cars capable of passing him and taking the win. Instead it was the veteran Kenseth finding a way to lead the final 48 laps and take home his 37th win of his championship career, his third career win at Dover and clinch an all-important spot in the Chase.
Kenseth knew it was only a matter of time until the bad luck ran out and he'd be celebrating in victory lane.
"I feel like the way we've been running, eventually law of averages are going to work out, you're going to get your wins, your finishes," Kenseth said. "It's going to happen sooner or later. I would say as good as we have ran, that is probably the longest streak I can remember being on without having any real good finishes. We finished fourth last week, that was the first top five of the season. As good as we've ran all year, like I said, with having cars that fast, not being able to get better finishes or maybe a win or two.
"I have all the confidence in the world in these guys. Obviously the organization is strong. Everybody else has won races. I don't think there's a better crew chief in the garage than the one sitting next to me. I felt like it was a matter of time. But you can never take it for granted. I still got to go out and do the work every week and make it happen."
Larson led 85 laps in his most recent bid to grab his first Sprint Cup series win but could not will his car to taking the position from the eventual winner, Kenseth. While Larson did make slight contact with Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota, he knew racing clean at the end was of upmost importance.
"I had gotten close to his bumper a couple times and I may have even got into him once but I didn't want to do anything dirty," Larson said. "I respect Matt Kenseth a lot. He's definitely in my eyes the cleanest racer out there. He always races me with respect. I try to do the same with him. So I was just going to try and race him as hard as I could without getting into him to beat him. He's sitting in Victory Lane and I'm not, so maybe I need to do something a little bit different, but nothing crazy to take him out or anything.
"It would be nice to be sitting here knowing I'm in the Chase but we'll keep working hard. We got a lot of points to make up if we don't win a race before the Chase starts. Keep having runs like today and we shouldn't have a problem."
While the top two finishers battled in close quarters for the better part of the race's final ten laps, Chase Elliott put his name in the mix for his first career Sprint Cup win. The third place finish for Elliott is his third top-five finish of the season but the 2014 Xfinity series champion knows it's either put up or shut up.
"I hope I'm close," Elliott said. "Doesn't really matter what I say. Until you go get it done, it really is irrelevant. For me, I think I have a team that's capable of doing it. The way I see today, we had our shot, we had a chance to do it today, I didn't do it. It's as simple as that.
"Either you do or you don't, and we haven't yet."
Elliott's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne drove to a fourth place finish. Kurt Busch finished in fifth place followed by Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, rookie Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex, Jr, and Trevor Bayne rounding out the top ten finishers.
Kevin Harvick, who won the pole and led 117 laps early in the race, suffered from pit road woes and was forced to settle for a 15th place finish.
At the end of the day Kenseth was complimentary of his young competitors, most notably Larson.
"I think if he would have snuck inside, it would have been over," Kenseth explained. "(Kyle Larson) raced me really, really hard, but clean at the same time. He's a great racecar driver. To me it doesn't even seem right that he hasn't won yet.
"He's got a bunch of victories in front of him for sure. He's a really, really clean, hard racer, and a fast learner."
Race Results
Dover International Speedway
47th Annual AAA 400 Drive For Autism
UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics Sunday, 5/15/2016 @ 2:15 PM Pacific UNOFFICIAL
Fin Str Car Driver Team Lap Pts BPts Status TLd LLd
1 10 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota 400 44 4 Running 2 48
2 23 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet 400 40 1 Running 3 85
3 13 24 Chase Elliott # NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 400 38 Running
4 11 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 400 37 Running
5 9 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet 400 36 Running
6 14 2 Brad Keselowski Wurth Ford 400 36 1 Running 1 49
7 6 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 400 35 1 Running 1 15
8 18 21 * Ryan Blaney # Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford 400 33 Running
9 7 78 Martin Truex Jr Furniture Row Toyota 400 33 1 Running 2 47
10 25 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford 400 31 Running
11 19 27 Paul Menard Schrock/Menards Chevrolet 400 30 Running
12 32 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Chevrolet 400 29 Running
13 31 10 Danica Patrick Nature?s Bakery/Autism Delaware Chevrolet 400 28 Running
14 5 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr SunnyD Ford 400 27 Running
15 1 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Chevrolet 399 28 2 Running 3 117
16 8 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 398 25 Running
17 27 23 David Ragan Dr Pepper Toyota 397 24 Running
18 30 34 Chris Buescher # Dockside Logistics Ford 396 23 Running
19 35 38 Landon Cassill MDS Transport Ford 396 22 Running
20 28 95 Michael McDowell WRL General Contractors Chevrolet 396 21 Running
21 24 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald?s/Cessna Chevrolet 395 20 Running
22 22 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 391 20 1 Running 2 2
23 20 47 AJ Allmendinger Bush's Beans Chevrolet 391 18 Running
24 17 44 Brian Scott # ACME/Shore Lodge Ford 390 17 Running
25 21 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 387 17 1 Running 1 4
26 26 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 374 15 Running
27 36 98 * Cole Whitt Vydox Plus Chevrolet 364 14 Vibration
28 4 19 Carl Edwards Stanley Toyota 359 14 1 Accident 4 27
29 16 16 Greg Biffle Kleen Performance Ford 355 13 1 Accident 1 6
30 3 18 Kyle Busch Pedigree Toyota 354 11 Accident
31 15 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 354 10 Accident
32 2 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Nationwide Chevrolet 354 9 Accident
33 12 3 Austin Dillon AAA Chevrolet 345 8 Running
34 34 14 Tony Stewart Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet 342 7 Suspension
35 39 32 Jeffrey Earnhardt # CorvetteParts.net Ford 334 6 Running
36 40 30 * Josh Wise Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet 331 5 Running
37 37 46 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 223 4 Accident
38 38 55 * Reed Sorenson World Record Striper Company Chevrolet 204 3 Accident
39 33 7 Regan Smith APC Chevrolet 139 2 Accident
40 29 83 Matt DiBenedetto Cosmo Motors Toyota 116 1 Accident
# = Rookie, Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led. (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Average Speed: 109.348 MPH Time of Race: 03 Hrs, 39 Mins, 29 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.187 Seconds
Lead Changes: 19 among 10 drivers Cautions: 12 for 65 laps