AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway Recap

brospn (60)in #sports • 6 years ago (edited)

Kevin Harvick dominates the "Monster Mile" to win the AAA 400 Drive for Autism

Kevin Harvick patiently waited out a 41-minute rain delay at Dover and drove past the competition to claim his fourth checkered flag of the year. Harvick now has 41 career NASCAR Cup series wins, moving him ahead of Mark Martin for 18th place on the all-time wins list.

The field was shaken up before the race even started as pole sitter Kyle Larson's No. 42 and 15th place qualifier Alex Bowman's No. 88 both failed three pre-race inspections and were moved to the rear of the pack. Crew chiefs David Bryant (Larson) and Austin Konetski (Bowman) were both ejected from the race and each team will lose thirty minutes of practice time next week at Kansas Speedway.

Once the race started, it quickly became the Kevin Harvick show. He led a race high 201 laps and swept the first two race segments, the fourth time he accomplished the feat this year. The only one who had a chance to stop him from winning was Mother Nature.

During the final segment, Clint Bowyer was able to take the lead after a round of pit stops with Harvick hot on his tail when rain began to fall. NASCAR red-flagged the race with 80 laps remaining. Since the race had passed the halfway mark, it would have been an official finish if the race couldn't resume. But the weather cleared and the race was re-started after a 40 minute delay. Harvick quickly chased Bowyer down and drove away from the field, finishing in first by an impressive 7.45 seconds. Bowyer held on to finish runner-up, his third top-five finish of the season.

It was a great day for the Fords of Stewart-Haas Racing, which include the top two finishers Harvick and Bowyer, as well as fifth place finisher Kurt Busch. It was the first time the organization had three top-five finishers in a single race.

"Three cars in the top five says a lot about where we are as a company," Harvick said. "It's fun racing your teammate."

Daniel Suarez finished in third place, matching his career high in the NASCAR Cup series. After the race Suarez stated he feels his team is finally moving in the right direction.

"I feel like if we keep running the way that we’re running today, top 5, top 10 — pretty much all day long we were running in the top 10 — I think it can happen any time." Suarez said. "We just have to somehow beat the 4 car (Kevin Harvick). The 4 car today was in a different league. Normally if you can run in the top 5, you can have a shot any time. Those crazy restarts and stuff. Like I said, overall very proud of my team. I feel like we are moving in the right direction. We just have to keep it up."

Martin Truex Jr. faced adversity early in the race when a flat tire put him a lap down at the end of segment one. He took a wave around as the race re-started to gain his lap back and battled back to claim a fourth place finish. He was followed by Kurt Busch, who finished in fifth.

Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson round out the top-ten.

Driver points leader Kyle Busch entered the race as the favorite and was running in third place when his driveshaft broke on lap 272. It was the first time this year Busch was unable to complete a race. He finished in 35th place with his seventh career DNF at Dover, the most he has at any track on the NASCAR circuit.

Kevin Harvick won segments one and two, earning two bonus points for the post season.

Click here for full race results.

Despite the DNF, Kyle Busch continues to lead the NASCAR driver point standings. He is followed by Joey Logano, who cut his deficit behind Busch from 30 to 22 points. Kevin Harvick now sits in third, 40 points behind Busch.

You can see the updated Driver's Points Standings here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Midwest next Saturday night with the KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway.

_{Photo credits: Dough4872 CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

_{Author: @chops316}
_{Editor: @liberty-minded}