Dover Magic Makes It Two-in-a-Row For Jimmie Johnson

Johnson & family celebrate in Victory Lane, June 1, 2014

Jimmie Johnson dominated in monstrous fashion at Dover, bringing home his ninth victory in 24 career Cup starts at the track. The second win of the season virtually guarantees Johnson a spot in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“It was an awesome car,” Johnson said. “The first run I wasn’t sure we were going to have the normal Dover magic here. Once the track rubbered in, our car came to life and it was so good. It’s amazing that we can stay on top of things here with the different generation car, different rules, different tires.”

Johnson led seven times for a race-high 272 laps. Partway through the event he set the record for leading the most laps at Dover with 2802.

During the final 10 laps or so, Johnson said he was hoping it would stay green.

“Cautions at the end, you kind of expect them, for whatever reason. Truthfully, it’s an opportunity for the guy that’s dominated all day to make a mistake, so I wanted to make sure I chose the right lane and got a good restart and got up through the gears well, and that all worked out for us.”

Runner up Brad Keselowski said he had an up-and-down day, but had a strong run at the end where he went from 13th or 14th up to second.

“Thought we were gonna get a crack at Jimmie and then that last caution came out and we just kind of whiffed on pit road, came out way behind.”

Matt Kenseth finished third, with Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin rounding out the top five.

The day ended badly for Kyle Busch, dashing his hopes of a triple-win sweep at Dover. After taking the lead from polesitter Keselowski on the first lap, Busch led the first 81 laps before hitting the wall after contact from Bowyer, mangling the right front side of his car. For a few tense moments it appeared that Busch would exact retribution, slowing on the track then heading after Bowyer, who took evasive maneuvers. Busch headed for the garage and a disappointing 42nd-place finish.

A multi-car crash on Lap 135 resulted in a brief red flag for track clean-up. AJ Allmendinger tried to scoot below Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but didn't quite make it. Allmendinger slid up in front of Stenhouse, then hit Greg Biffle, ruining the Roush teammates' day. Ryan Truex and Landon Cassill were collateral damage, crashing while trying to avoid the slowing cars in front of them.

Shortly thereafter, the race was red-flagged again for about 22 minutes after Ryan Newman’s car kicked up a chunk of concrete. The piece of track flew backwards, damaging the nose of Jamie McMurray’s car. Workers patched the hole in the track and taped broken glass in the walkover bridge above Turn 2, which had been also hit by the flying debris. Despite the mishap, McMurray got back on track and finished a respectable 13th.

According to Robin Pemberton, the hole in the track surface was pretty substantial.

“It was two or three inches deep, and it was six or eight inches by maybe 10 inches or something like that,” he said.

Dover International Speedway track personnel did an admirable job of fixing the spot quickly, using an epoxy-type substance to fill the hole.

Kyle Larson was the highest finishing rookie in 11th, but a couple of his fellow rookies had some nervous moments. Alex Bowman seemed to have an affinity for the outside wall, making contact three separate times. Justin Allgaier had a close call when his car slid sideways while entering pit road, but he managed to save it.

Matt Kenseth now leads Jeff Gordon by four points in the Sprint Cup standings.

Unofficial results:

Fin	Driver	Sponsor / Owner
1	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools
2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite
3	Matt Kenseth	Dollar General
4	Clint Bowyer	Cherry 5-hourEnergy
5	Denny Hamlin	Autism Speaks / FedEx Freight
6	Martin Truex, Jr.	Furniture Row / Denver Mattress
7	Tony Stewart	Code 3 / Mobil 1
8	Joey Logano	Shell / Pennzoil
9	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	National Guard
10	Paul Menard	Pittsburgh Paints / Menards
11	Kyle Larson	Cottonelle
12	Aric Almirola	Smithfield
13	Jamie McMurray	Cessna
14	Carl Edwards	Subway
15	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger / AARP
16	Marcos Ambrose	DeWalt / Stanley Tools
17	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser
18	Kurt Busch	Haas Automation
19	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance
20	Austin Dillon	American Ethanol
21	A.J. Allmendinger	Scott Products
22	Brett Moffitt	Land Castle Title
23	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy
24	Reed Sorenson	Click It or Ticket
25	Casey Mears	GEICO
26	Justin Allgaier	AccuDoc Solutions
27	Cole Whitt	Burger King
28	Josh Wise	iRacing.com / Reddit.com
29	David Gilliland	The Pete Store
30	Blake Koch	SupportMilitary.org
31	Ryan Newman	Caterpillar
32	Ryan Truex	Burger King
33	Dave Blaney	Randy Humphrey Racing
34	Landon Cassill	Newtown Building Supplies
35	Michael Annett	Pilot / Flying J
36	David Ragan	Dockside Logistics
37	David Stremme	Little Joe's Autos
38	Greg Biffle	3M
39	J.J. Yeley	Phoenix Warehouse
40	Alex Bowman	Dr. Pepper
41	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	Nationwide Insurance
42	Kyle Busch	M&M's Peanut Butter
43	Brian Vickers	Aaron's Dream Machine