Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Johnson claims perfect score at Dover

Jimmie Johnson claimed a perfect score and brought his NASCAR Cup title defence back on track with a commanding victory at Dover on Sunday

The reigning champion started from pole, led the most laps and went on to win for the sixth time at the track known as the 'Monster Mile', moving to second in the Chase standings after a poor race at Loudon last week.

While two of the main title contenders, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, had altercations both on and off the track during the weekend, Johnson and his team placed all their focus on the job at hand and ended up taking all the points they needed to get back in championship contention.

AJ Allmendinger proved to have the measure of Johnson in the first part of the race and led plenty of laps before being forced to make an early pitstop for a deflating tyre.

After that, Kyle Busch looked as the only real threat to Johnson once he stole the lead from him in the pits, but despite a modest day for the Hendrick Motorsports crew, Johnson did enough to make up for it and went on to reclaim the lead and hold it until the checkered flag.

"I'm excited about what we have ahead," said Johnson. "Last weekend; anything can happen. I know Talladega is out there. We did a great job today. We're in the right position but we've got to keep this Impala fast and be there after Talladega. That's the goal. So we did the best thing possible [today]. I'm very, very excited about today."

Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton finished second but his team-mates were unable to get in contention at the front following poor qualifying efforts. Bowyer struggled with balance, hit the wall, got a pit speeding penalty and finished 25th. Meanwhile Harvick never quite managed to get the proper handling on his #29 Chevrolet and finished 15th.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano was third behind Burton, while his team-mate Kyle Busch dropped down to sixth place after looking a contender for victory. Hamlin was ninth and scored well enough to remain in the Chase lead by 35 points, the biggest margin ever held after two races in the play-off.

"It was a decent day," said Hamlin. "I said in my head today that the number was eight. We missed it by one, but it was a good fight for the team. We didn't have the best car today, but we fought through and made something of it. This is what we needed to do to get by this weekend and we feel like we can run with them from here on out."

Penske's Kurt Busch recovered from a pit speeding penalty to finish fourth ahead of Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards, whose team-mate Matt Kenseth looked set for a good result until he locked up the brakes while trying to enter the pits under green, causing the left-front tyre to explode and massively damage the bodywork on his #17 Ford.

Tony Stewart was another Chase contender to hit trouble with an early pit speeding penalty which put him off the lead lap. He was unable to recover after that and just managed a 21st place in the end

Allmendinger recovered in the final two stints of the race to finish inside the top 10, while his team-mate Paul Menard rounded a good showing for Richard Petty Motorsports taking seventh at the flag.

"It was fun to lead, no wonder Jimmie is smiling so much. It's actually a lot of fun to lead," said Allmendinger. "The car was dialed in and just a stupid five-cent washer got inside the tyre. I'm not sure when. It must have been right when we pitted and left the pits. I knew the right-rear was going down and after that you're just fighting back the rest of the day."

After two Chase races Greg Biffle, Stewart, Kenseth and Bowyer - whose appeal against his Loudon penalties is pending - are already more than 140 points off from points leader Hamlin.

Pos  Driver              Car        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  400
 2.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  400
 3.  Joey Logano         Toyota     400
 4.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      400
 5.  Carl Edwards        Ford       400
 6.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     400
 7.  Paul Menard         Ford       400
 8.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  400
 9.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     400
10.  AJ Allmendinger     Ford       400
11.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  400
12.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  400
13.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  400
14.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Chevrolet  400
15.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  400
16.  Reed Sorenson       Toyota     400
17.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       399
18.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       399
19.  Greg Biffle         Ford       399
20.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     399
21.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  398
22.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      398
23.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  397
24.  David Ragan         Ford       397
25.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  397
26.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  397
27.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  397
28.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       396
29.  Casey Mears         Toyota     395
30.  David Gilliland     Ford       395
31.  Tony Raines         Ford       394
32.  Scott Speed         Toyota     393
33.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       388
34.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     383
35.  David Reutimann     Toyota     373
36.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      349
37.  Kevin Conway        Toyota     129
38.  Landon Cassill      Chevrolet  126
39.  Michael McDowell    Dodge      71
40.  Mike Bliss          Toyota     60
41.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     58
42.  JJ Yeley            Dodge      43
43.  Dave Blaney         Chevrolet  29

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Hamlin unflustered by Harvick feud
Next article Bowyer's Loudon appeal denied

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe