CUP: Kenseth Wins Dover With Tire Gamble

Sprint Cup

CUP: Kenseth Wins Dover With Tire Gamble

Roush Fenway driver becomes third to score two seasonal wins…

Mike Hembree | Posted May 15, 2011 Dover, DE

A two-tire gamble on the last round of pit stops paid off for Matt Kenseth Sunday as he won the FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

Carl Edwards , Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer appeared to have the day’s stoutest cars, but the winning decision wound up on pit road.

When Juan Pablo Montoya lost control of his car and caused the sixth and final caution of the day with 40 laps to go, virtually everybody in the lead group pitted.

Some took two tires, some took four, and one – Mark Martin – didn’t pit, moving him from 14th position to first.

Kenseth’s crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, decided to bring in his driver for two tires, putting him back on the track behind Martin. Kenseth, who hadn’t been a threat at the front all day, moved past Martin and led the final 32 laps.

“We were going to do four tires but decided to do two, and that was the key,” Kenseth said. “We won with a two-tire stop and by having a fast car. We had so much horsepower today it made our job so much easier.”

The victory was Kenseth’s second of the year, allowing him to join Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick in that category, which could be critical in Chase qualifications.

Following the second-place Martin at the finish were Marcos Ambrose, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers.

Bowyer, who wrestled at the front much of the day with Edwards and Johnson, finished sixth, followed by Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Johnson and Harvick.

Edwards increased his point lead by one over second-place Johnson.

Harvick and Kyle Busch, competing in their first Sprint Cup race since being placed on probation last week, steered clear of each other and of trouble.

For Dover, which typically produces inflated caution numbers, the race was sedate. With 60 laps to go, there had been only five cautions, and there had been no sensational wrecks like the one on the last lap of Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.

Edwards and Johnson dominated the opening section of the race. Edwards led at lap 164 when NASCAR put the field under caution because of a rain shower.

Matt Kenseth does a victory burn-out after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Fed Ex 400 at Dover International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The field pitted under that caution, and Johnson rolled out of the pits first to take the lead. The caution ended six laps later.

The day’s fifth caution appeared with 69 laps to go after Kasey Kahne’s Toyota stalled on the track with engine trouble. That sent the lead group to the pits for the final time, and Bowyer roared off pit road first to take the lead.

Bowyer kept first place after the ensuing green flag, and Johnson and Edwards began pursuing him. Bowyer had built a lead of about one-half second when Montoya caused the sixth – and most important – caution.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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