Despite what looked like a potential win for A.J. Allmendinger who dominated the front part of the race, ended up having a tire problem due to a ten cent washer problem with the tire. He still pulled out a top-10 and I was glad to see A.J. being competitive. This left the door wide open for Jimmie Johnson to take over the race, lead the most laps and winning the AAA 400 from Dover International Speedway.
Johnson pulls his back-side out of the fire from last weeks’ terrible result and now he’s back in the chase and his fellow Chase contenders now have to keep an eye on him! Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin mustered an acceptable finish for the team, retaining the points lead while Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart may have sealed their fates with their performances today.
The top-10 finishers from the NASCAR AAA 400 were
- Jimmie Johnson,
- Jeff Burton,
- Joey Logano,
- Kurt Busch,
- Carl Edwards,
- Kyle Busch,
- Paul Menard,
- Ryan Newman,
- Denny Hamlin &
- A.J. Allmendinger.
-
Chasers Finishing Spots. The list is ordered as they stand in the point standings in their Chase for the Sprint Cup after Dover:
- Denny Hamlin manged a 9th place finish at a track that doesn’t like him.
- Jimmie Johnson, well, I’m thinking you figure this one out!
- Kyle Busch finished 6th,
- Kurt Busch finished 4th,
- Kevin Harvick finished 15th after unsuccessfully trying to deal with the track conditions, losing 3 spots in the points standings.
- Carl Edwards finished 5th.
- Jeff Burton finished 2nd.
- Jeff Gordon came in 11th after a lost lugnut debacle in their last pit stop of the race and lost 4 spots in the points.
- Greg Biffle pulled in at 19th,
- Tony Stewart: 21st and I’m thinking this race cemented any sliver of hope of contending.
- Matt Kenseth: 18th.
- Clint Bowyer had a bad day on top of his bad week and finished 25th. Heck, Dale Jr beat him!
-
The Top 15 positions in the Points Standings:
| Pos | Pts | Behind | ||
| 1 | – | Denny Hamlin | 5368 | – |
| 2 | 4 | Jimmie Johnson | 5333 | -35 |
| 3 | – | Kyle Busch | 5323 | -45 |
| 4 | 1 | Kurt Busch | 5309 | -59 |
| 5 | -3 | Kevin Harvick | 5303 | -65 |
| 6 | 1 | Carl Edwards | 5295 | -73 |
| 7 | 2 | Jeff Burton | 5288 | -80 |
| 8 | -4 | Jeff Gordon | 5285 | -83 |
| 9 | -1 | Greg Biffle | 5228 | -140 |
| 10 | – | Tony Stewart | 5206 | -162 |
| 11 | – | Matt Kenseth | 5203 | -165 |
| 12 | – | Clint Bowyer | 5130 | -238 |
| 13 | – | Ryan Newman | 3363 | -2005 |
| 14 | – | Jamie McMurray | 3344 | -2024 |
| 15 | 1 | Juan Montoya | 3253 | -2115 |
-
Despite Harvick dropping 3 spots in the standings, look carefully and you’ll see only a 30-point spread from 2nd to 5th, where Kevin sits. I’m not counting these guys out as looking at the Cup. Denny has yet to possibly have that mulligan race like Jimmie did. Look how Jimmie has pulled himself back up after last week, back into 2nd in the points.
There’s an 85 point spread from 1st to 8th and we still have eight fun-filled races left in the Chase for the Cup.
=
Some Oddball Notes:
Three of the four cautions today were for debris. In case you were wondering, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 23rd. The worrisome note for Hamlin fans, as reported repeatedly by ESPN in their different coverages was that the driver leading the points coming out of Dover in the last 6 Chase races has not won the championship. Yet if Dover is Hamlin’s team’s worst track, you have to wonder just how much of a challenge everyone will have trying to catch him. The only thing I worry about is that after his being so outspoken about RCR, if the whole team will be taking shots at him for the rest of the season? LOL… just fooling there. I can’t see that happening. Despite Kevin’s little fender rubbing during a practice session at the track earlier this week.
-
NASCAR.com: Dover: Unofficial Results | Unofficial Standings | Lap-by-Lap
follow “NASCAR Bits & Pieces“on Twitter
-
