Jimmie Johnson pulled away from Brad Keselowski on the final restart with four laps remaining and won Sunday’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.
Johnson led 272 laps en route to his ninth win at Dover and his second straight win of the season.
“It was an awesome race car. The first run I wasn’t sure we were really 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 said.
Keselowski finished second, Matt Kenseth finished third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Denny Hamlin finished fifth.
“The car was really strong the second half of the race. My guys made great adjustments on it and we drove up to second there. We were pretty equal to Jimmie there but never got a crack at him. I would have liked a shot,” Keselowski said.
“We had a good top-five car. I did an awful job on that last restart. Just got spinning the tires too much and the best car won. We just need to be a little bit better,” Kenseth said of his final restart.
A pothole in the race track red flagged the race for a little over 20 minutes for repairs. A chunk of concrete took out the front splitter of Jamie McMurray’s car. The crew was able to make repairs and McMurray finished 13th.
“Initially I thought I’d blown a tire out. When I hit it, it actually pushed the car to the right and I got into the fence a little bit. And as I slowed down, I couldn’t figure out first off, why I didn’t hit the fence harder, and then what happened. I didn’t see anything. It just hit the front end and ripped the splitter off and it pushed the car to the right. So, I’m not real sure,” McMurray said.
Polesitter Kyle Busch hit the wall after some contact from Clint Bowyer on lap 125. His hopes of doing the entire weekend sweep ended early in the garage.
“I hated to be in that situation with the 18 (Kyle Busch). It’s one of those deals where I thought I was clear obviously and wasn’t and ruined his day and certainly didn’t help mine,” Bowyer said.
Busch also led the first 81 laps and became the 15th driver in NASCAR history to lead 10,000 career laps in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series competition.
Jeff Gordon finished 15th and Kenseth takes the series points lead by two points.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway next Sunday for the Pocono 400.
UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FEDEX 400 BENEFITING AUTISM SPEAKS,
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
JUNE 1, 2014
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Pos. No. Driver Make
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1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
2 2 Brad Keselowski Ford
3 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota
4 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota
5 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota
6 78 Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet
7 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet
8 22 Joey Logano Ford
9 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet
10 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet
11 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet
12 43 Aric Almirola Ford
13 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet
14 99 Carl Edwards Ford
15 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
16 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford
17 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
18 41 Kurt Busch Chevrolet
19 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet
20 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet
21 47 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet
22 66 Brett Moffitt Toyota
23 10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet
24 36 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet
25 13 Casey Mears Chevrolet
26 51 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet
27 26 Cole Whitt Toyota
28 98 Josh Wise Chevrolet
29 38 David Gilliland Ford
30 32 Blake Koch Ford
31 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet
32 83 Ryan Truex Toyota
33 77 Dave Blaney Ford
34 40 Landon Cassill Chevrolet
35 7 Michael Annett Chevrolet
36 34 David Ragan Ford
37 33 David Stremme Chevrolet
38 16 Greg Biffle Ford
39 44 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet
40 23 Alex Bowman Toyota
41 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Ford
42 18 Kyle Busch Toyota
43 55 Brian Vickers Toyota
