Kenseth grabs Dover victory

Kenseth took the lead from birthday boy Jamie McMurray with just two laps to go after a 25-lap fight between the Roush Racing teammates.

Having fought back from being a lap down early on, McMurray took the lead for the first time on lap 302 of 400 when he chose to stay out on track when the majority of the field came into the pits following a caution.

He superbly held on to the place through a flurry of caution periods, but Kenseth proved too fast at the death and ducked underneath McMurray to take the win. Kenseth himself had gambled by staying out on what proved to be the final caution period 53 laps from home.

"I felt like I was faster than the cars in front of me at that time," Kenseth said. "It was an awesome race. Nobody wanted to give an inch. It was still hard to pass even though there was a lot of room at this racetrack but everybody raced fair. I feel bad for Jamie but it was a great win for my team."

McMurray still hasn't won since he took victory in only his second race back in October 2002, but was pleased by his return to form.

He said: "I thought I had the win and once I lapped the 21 car [of Ken Schrader] I got a gap and I thought we could we win. But we have struggled all year and we've got better this weekend and that's good."

Kevin Harvick finished third after himself failing to pass McMurray in the closing laps and also succumbing to Kenseth's pace.

Last night's Busch Series race-winner Jeff Burton also caught up to the leading runners at the end, but had to settle for fourth, ahead of Kyle Busch.

Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson put in the drive of the race coming back from repeated adversity to finish sixth.

Following the qualifying spin that meant he started at the rear of the field, he was quickly 'locked' a lap down after a caution came out when he had already been lapped while he was struggling with an ill-handling race car.

Thanks to a sequence of long green-flag runs, Johsnon was unable to get the 'lucky-dog' pass (where the first car a lap down is put back on the lead lap at a caution period) because the race leader was constantly lapping traffic around the one-mile track and putting more cars ahead of Johnson a lap down.

He was then tapped into a spin by a wayward David Stremme, who then ran into his rear and damaged his rear fender. However, Johnson saved the car and kept it out of the retaining wall.

But he got back on the lead lap after a gutsy pitcall at three-quarters distance. Johnson stayed out on track when others didn't and then he passed then-leader McMurray to unlap himself. In the closing laps he was one of the fastest cars on the track and worked his way back up the order up to finish sixth.

"This feels like a win," Johnson said. "We just fought and fought and fought and kept working on the car and making it better. I was catching them in front of me at the end. That was one heck of race right in front of me."

Ricky Rudd helped Tony Stewart's championship aspirations by finishing a steady 25th. As expected, Stewart started the race but gave way to planned relief driver Rudd at the first caution, 39 laps in. Stewart fractured his shoulder in two accidents at Charlotte last week but chose to start the race so that he could earn any points that Rudd then scored.

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       400
 2.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       400
 3.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  400
 4.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  400
 5.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  400
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  400
 7.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      400
 8.  Greg Biffle         Ford       400
 9.  Mark Martin         Ford       400
10.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  400
11.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  400
12.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  400
13.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      400
14.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      400
15.  Carl Edwards        Ford       400
16.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      400
17.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  400
18.  Jeremy Mayfield     Dodge      400
19.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      400
20.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      400
21.  Casey Mears         Dodge      400
22.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  399
23.  Brian Vickers       Chevrolet  399
24.  Dale Jarrett        Ford       399
25.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  398
26.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  398
27.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      398
28.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  398
29.  Travis Kvapil       Chevrolet  398
30.  Dave Blaney         Dodge      398
31.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  398
32.  Michael Waltrip     Dodge      397
33.  Ken Schrader        Ford       397
34.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  396
35.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  396
36.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet  394
37.  Derrike Cope        Dodge      393
38.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  378
39.  Kevin Lepage        Dodge      299
40.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       296
41.  David Stremme       Dodge      290
42.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  286
43.  Hermie Sadler       Chevrolet  136