In a race that featured plenty of craziness and a thrilling duel, Matt Kenseth prevailed to win the AAA 400 Drive for Autism Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
NASCAR Dover 2016 results: Matt Kenseth wins AAA 400 Drive for Autism
Kenseth wins his first race of the season in dramatic fashion.
Kenseth withstood a furious charge from Kyle Larson over the final 30 laps that saw Larson get alongside Kenseth several times, but never pull clear ahead, to win his first race of 2016.
Chase Elliott finished third, Kasey Kahne fourth and Kurt Busch fifth.
“Kyle gave me all I wanted at the end, and then some,” Kenseth said. “We were fortunate to be able to hold him off.”
The finish was set up by a pair of jarring wrecks over the final 44 laps. The first saw an 18-car crash on the frontstretch that sidelined a host of contenders, followed by Carl Edwards crashing on the backstretch.
On Lap 354, Jimmie Johnson was positioned second and to the outside of leader Kenseth when his car stalled out coming to the start/finish line. What ensued was a pileup on the frontstretch with Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch among those who sustained significant damage.
“As soon as I went from second (gear) and tried to go to third, I kind of got up into the neutral gate of the transmission and didn’t even go to third,” Johnson said. “It stopped before it ever went to third. And then I tried fourth and third and fourth and eventually I got hit from behind. There was a long pause there where I was trying to, I thought maybe I missed a shift, but it wouldn’t go in gear.
“Unfortunately I lost a shot at winning, and I hate to see all those cars tore up.”
After the damage was cleaned up, the race resumed on Lap 359. But one lap later Edwards slammed viciously into the inside backstretch wall following contact with Larson. Edwards was not injured.
That caution set up one final restart and what was an enthralling battle between Kenseth, Larson and at times Elliott, who even passed Larson and appeared poised to do the same to Kenseth before Larson got back around.
Looking for his first career victory, Larson tried passing Kenseth high and low to no avail. Larson said Elliott’s presence prevented him from focusing fully on Kenseth, who gave Joe Gibbs Racing it’s seventh win in 12 races this season.
“I was trying to do all I could do to get by (Kenseth) without getting into him,” Larson said. “I probably could have bumped him a little bit there in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2, but it was a lot of fun racing with Matt, there. I was just trying to be patient.”
For Kenseth, Dover ended what had been a vexing start to the season. Although he’s had fast cars in nearly every event — Kenseth has led in all but one race — mistakes and bad luck have combined to him having just a lone top-five finish entering the weekend.
The veteran figured eventually his fortune would take a turn for the better. On Sunday, that pendulum seemed to swing toward Kenseth’s favor.
“It was one of those days where everything lined up for us at the end of the race,” Kenseth said. “... It all worked out for us, kind of the opposite as I feel like it’s been going the last couple months.”
Brad Keselowksi recovered from colliding with a lapped car while running second that ripped the right front fender off the No. 2 Ford to finish sixth. Denny Hamlin overcame a pit road penalty to place seventh. Ryan Blaney was eighth, Truex ninth and Trevor Bayne completed the top 10
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