NASCAR At Dover International Speedway: Kurt Busch Picks Up Chase Victory

While Chase contenders Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards had strong performances Sunday at Dover International Speedway, some of the other Chase contenders were left to wonder what could have been at the “Monster Mile.”

Matt Kenseth (finished 5th):

That’s pretty much the position Gordon is in now. After a 12th-place result on Sunday at Dover International Speedway, Gordon said he’ll have to balance it out with a better finish somewhere down the line.

“That means we have to go and perform better,” he said. “Every time we have a finish like this, it means we’ve got to perform that much better in the next couple of races.”

Carl Edwards was the class of the field for the first half of Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway and led 116 of the 400 laps overall. However, a mistake on pit road nearly cost him a shot at a solid finish.

Edwards was hit for speeding on the exit of pit road during a round of green flag pit stops just past halfway – his first infraction of the 2011 season. Perhaps coming at the worst time possible, Edwards dropped to 28th and a lap down to the leaders.

Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards sat together on the Dover International Speedway media center dais after finishing second and third, respectively, in Sunday’s NASCAR Chase race.

Both drivers had reasons to be upset with themselves for mistakes that likely cost them the race and allowed Kurt Busch to win it instead.

C’mon...did you really think five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was out of Chase contention after two less-than-stellar results?

Let’s hope not. Because if you did, you were wrong.

Coming into Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team had this race circled as one they simply wanted to survive. Not one of their best tracks, Harvick had only three top-10 finishes in his previous 10 Dover starts.

If he hoped to capture the Chase points lead, Harvick would have to change that trend Sunday.

Just when Dale Earnhardt Jr. thought he had overcome a broken sway bar arm that put him a lap down early in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, another problem suddenly emerged.

After rallying to get back on the lead lap and moving into the top 15, Earnhardt Jr. began to feel a vibration on the right side of his car after a pit stop.

While the day started off strong for Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski, the No. 2 team was forced to overcome multiple issues throughout Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway to finish 20th.

Just past the 250-lap mark in the 400-lap event, Keselowski hit pit road and the Paul Wolfe-led crew went to work under the hood of the No. 2 Dodge. After running over something on the track, the team had to replace the power steering belt.

Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards had the dominant cars on Sunday at Dover International Speedway, but Kurt Busch was able to make the right adjustments throughout the race and capitalize on a restart with 35 laps to go to pull ahead and score his second win of the season – his first at Dover.

The victory also moved Busch into fourth in the Chase standings, just nine points behind Kevin Harvick and Edwards. The win was a much-needed rebound race after a disappointing 22nd-place finish last weekend at New Hampshire.

It’s NASCAR race day at Dover International Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s Chase race for you below.

What time does the race start today? The command to start engines will be given by an official from race sponsor AAA at 2:08 p.m. Eastern time. The green flag will then wave at 2:16 p.m. Eastern. That’s an hour later than most of the Sunday races so far this season – so make sure you’re not sitting there an hour early for no reason. If you want to tune in for the actual race itself and skip the pre-race show, just tune in at 2:16.

The weather for Dover International Speedway will continue to be influenced by a stalled upper level storm system. This system is expected to meander over Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the day on Sunday. This will keep the threat of scattered showers in the forecast for the Sprint Cup race, but like we saw Saturday for qualifying and Nationwide race, Sunday afternoon should be mostly dry.

SUNDAY:

2:00 p.m EDT

Sprint Cup Race – Mostly cloudy, very chilly, possible scattered shower – temp: 57

Martin Truex Jr. has a knack for running well at his home track, and in doing so he took a little bit of the spotlight away from NASCAR’s Chase drivers – at least for a day.

Truex won the pole for Sunday’s Dover International Speedway race, and will lead the starting lineup ahead of Kurt Busch, Paul Menard, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.

The forecast remains unchanged from Friday: Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers possible all weekend thanks to a stalled upper level system. It will also be chilly (highs in low 60s and upper 50s) and breezy with westerly winds 10 to 20 mph.

My take on these showers is that they will be hit or miss. I am hoping for more miss than hit. This kind of activity is very hard to forecast and pinpoint (actually it is impossible). I expect there to be more dry time than wet, but that doesn’t mean one of these showers doesn’t work its way over the track and cause possible delays.

When it comes to gathering interesting NASCAR driver quotes to pass along, some days are better than others.

In that regard, Friday’s media sessions at Dover International Speedway were not very productive. The 12 Chase drivers – each of whom is required to meet with reporters weekly – have pretty much clammed up at this point in the season.

Add another topic to the long list of things Tony Stewart is weary of discussing: His team’s dramatic turnaround.

“We’ve been talking about that for three straight weeks now,” Stewart said. “We weren’t good before Atlanta. We’ve been good for a four-week stretch now that’s been really good, and I don’t know why it’s turned around.”

When a reporter asked Brad Keselowski on Friday why the driver waves an American flag after each of his race wins, Keselowski momentarily had a hard time finding the right words.

It wasn’t because he didn’t know the answer to the question, he said, but rather because of what the flag meant to him personally.

Matt Kenseth told reporters earlier in the week he got a “sick feeling” in his gut watching his wife, Katie, wreck a bandolero practicing for a charity race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Despite blaming himself for allowing her to get in the car, Kenseth said Friday at Dover International Speedway his wife is “doing pretty well” as she recovers from a broken scapula and bruises sustained in the incident.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wishes NASCAR fans and media couldn’t hear what drivers were saying on the team radios during races, but he’s also grateful they can.

If that doesn’t make sense, hang tight.

We’re two races into the 2011 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup and five-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson is 10th in the standings, his lowest position ever in the final 10-race stretch.

After finishes of 10th at Chicagoland and 18th in New Hampshire, many in the garage are starting to wonder if this is the year Johnson’s title streak comes to an end.

An upper-level storm system will work out of the Great Lakes and move into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast this weekend. With it comes some very chilly air, gusty winds and the possibility of a few scattered showers. The overall forecast is not a wet one, with the best chance of rain being on Saturday.

Saturday’s forecast is not a wash – there will be times of clouds and sunshine with just a few scattered showers possible. Temperatures for the weekend will be near 60 or the upper 50s.

The Chase rolls into Dover, Del. this weekend for the third race of the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Typically the second race of the final 10-race stretch, the second Dover race has seen nothing but Chase drivers go to Victory Lane since 2004.

This weekend the NASCAR Nationwide Series rejoins the Sprint Cup Series at Dover, while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will race Saturday evening at Kentucky Speedway.