[media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”238″]
[/media-credit]Brad Keselowski saved enough fuel and won Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) AAA 400 at Dover Int’l Speedway. Keselowski held off Jeff Gordon in the final laps to capture his first win at Dover and the fifth of the season.
Keselowski also took over the series standings lead by five points over Jimmie Johnson with seven races remaining.
“Just proud of the effort. This has been one of my worse tracks. I ran up front all day. I may not have had the best car but hung around in that top five, just kept creeping around and when you do that, you put yourself in position for good things to happen. That’s what this 2 team has done the last few months. Man, if we keep doing this the next seven weeks it will be an awesome seven weeks. I’m just really, really proud of the effort today.” Keselowski said.
Gordon finished 2nd, Johnson 4th, Martin Truex Jr. 6th, Denny Hamlin 8th, Clint Bowyer 9th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 11th, Kevin Harvick 13th, Kasey Kahne 15th, Greg Biffle 16th, Tony Stewart 20th and Matt Kenseth finished 35th.
Gordon’s second place finish was another strong run for the No.24. He moved up two positions in the standings to 10th, but loses another 3 points to the lead. Gordon is now 48 points behind.
“I saw I was catching those guys, I was just hoping that they were going to have to save fuel. And everybody did but the No. 2. We knew coming into the Chase that the fuel mileage would be a factor and we’ve known that we’ve been behind on that.” Gordon said. “We’re running good. We were running good at Chicago when we had the issue. I’m proud of this team. Just taking a few steps in the points each week. We got seven more weeks to get it done.”
Hamlin’s 8th place finish keeps him third in the standings, -16. But Hamlin came into Dover 7 points out of the lead.
“It’s so frustrating. It’s like all the hard work that you do, it just doesn’t pay off. Same thing at Richmond, we just didn’t have the fuel mileage. We choose to have the horsepower over the fuel mileage and some guys don’t tune that way. When you have a race-winning car you don’t want to give up any of the horsepower. It’s frustrating.” Hamlin said.
Johnson led 43 laps but had to back off with less than 50 laps remaining to save fuel.
“Well, for starters, we’re not very good at fuel mileage races. So, when I heard that, I’m like man, we’re in big trouble. And he asked me to start saving fuel. And I doubled the distance out of the gate just to make sure that I did enough to get us to the end. So, it’s tough; it really is.” Johnson said.
Stewart 20th place finish drops him one spot in the standings to 5th, 32 points behind.
“We just got caught behind the eight ball there. We got a lap down and the next run we pitted, and we came back out and the No. 36 car crashes. It was just a domino effect. Every time you’d try to get a lap back it would run all the way to the end. And as soon as we’d pit, the caution would come out again. So, I don’t know what we’ve got to do to change our luck, but that’s just the story of the day for us.” Stewart said.
Kahne had to pit for a vibration, a possible loose wheel or tire problem. During that stop a lug nut was also left off and Kahne had to return to the pit road. Kahne drops one spot in the standings to 6th, 32 points behind.
“We don’t know what it was yet. We don’t know why I had to pit the first time, but the car just started shaking really bad.” Kane said. “It’s too bad whatever it was. I don’t know we will figure it out and hopefully we don’t have it happen again.”
Biffle suffered a loose wheel, costing him a top-10 finish. Biffle dropped two positions in the series standings to 11th and is 51 points behind.
“We were off a little bit, but we were definitely a top-10 car, probably top-eight, especially with the way it ended up. We were in great position, so to finish where we did and have that happen is pretty remarkable, but that really kind of takes us out of the title hunt.” Biffle said.
Official Chase Standings/Stats
After race 3 of 10
AAA 400, Dover Int’l Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php
| Pos. | Driver | (+/-) | Wins | Top-5 | Top-10 | Bon. | Avg St | Ave Fin | Laps | Ttl Laps | Points | Bnd |
| 1 | Brad Keselowski | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 12.7 | 2.7 | 967 | 967 | 2142 | 0 |
| 2 | Jimmie Johnson | -1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10.7 | 2.7 | 967 | 967 | 2137 | -5 |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 13.7 | 8.3 | 966 | 967 | 2126 | -16 |
| 4 | Clint Bowyer | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 966 | 967 | 2117 | -25 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 18.7 | 11 | 964 | 967 | 2110 | -32 |
| 6 | Kasey Kahne | -1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7.7 | 964 | 967 | 2110 | -32 |
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14.3 | 10.7 | 965 | 967 | 2103 | -39 |
| 8 | Martin Truex Jr. | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 10.7 | 967 | 967 | 2100 | -42 |
| 9 | Kevin Harvick | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21.3 | 12 | 964 | 967 | 2096 | -46 |
| 10 | Jeff Gordon | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 13.3 | 890 | 967 | 2094 | -48 |
| 11 | Greg Biffle | -2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.7 | 15.7 | 964 | 967 | 2091 | -51 |
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13.3 | 22.3 | 937 | 967 | 2070 | -72 |
*Note: These stats consist of only the final 10 chase races.
(http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php)
Biggest loser(s) after race 3: Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. Biffle dropped two positions and Kenseth dropped one in the standings. Biffle is now 51 points behind and Kenseth is 72 points behind.
Biggest gainer after race 3: Brad Keselowski. Keselowski took over the series points lead but more importantly, his fifth win of the season and another strong run.
Biggest movers after race 3 (+/-): Clint Bowyer. Bowyer’s 9th place finish moved him up two positions to 4th, 25 points behind.
