Elimination day saw four drivers knocked out one by one, but the day belonged to Truex and the one-car Furniture Row Racing team.
It was as dominating a performance as you will see on a short track as Martin Truex Jr. took the checkered flag at Dover International Speedway a whopping 7.527 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch to win the Citizen Soldier 400 Sunday afternoon.
Truex, who had just three career wins entering the 2016 season, registered his fourth of the year and second in three Chase races to make him and his one-car team, Furniture Row Racing, a favorite to win the championship.
“We’re not messing around I guess,” Truex said after the race. “I don’t know — what else can you say? We are here to get it done and golly I’m telling you just the best bunch of guys you could ever ask for. It’s just amazing to drive their race cars and do what we were able to do. I’m just ecstatic. So many people to thank again. I mean, this is just unbelievable. Especially here I love this race track. It’s been considered a home track for me for a long time. It’s been since ’07 since I won here. Have a lot of heartbreaks here, but all in all just a phenomenal race car again today.
“Barney (Visser, owner) thank you. I haven’t seen him yet today so he must not be here. Everybody back in Denver for Furniture Row. Golly, man, it’s just – I’ve got to pinch myself. It’s unbelievable. Thank you to Sprint and the fans and everybody. What an awesome race today. We’re ready to go to Charlotte.”
It was a pressure packed race for the 14 other drivers who did not have a victory as four drivers would not be able to advance to the next round, which begins next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick had a cushion after winning last week at Richmond and it came in handy. He had to come off the track with car trouble and by the time he returned he was far out of it. He would finish 36th.
Chip Ganassi Racing had two cars that made the Field of 16 and both were eliminated in the same race. The No. 1 of Jamie McMurray saw his chances evaporate when his engine let loose on lap 193. He had been complaining about losing cylinders for most of the race and not long after the restart at 189, the motor finally blew up making him the first to be officially eliminated from advancing.
“I felt earlier in the race that I had a vibration; and I said something about it,” McMurray said in the garage. “And we had some issues with drive shafts and stuff vibrating. That’s what it felt like. And then it went away, oddly enough. And then it started vibrating again; and a few laps later it finally broke.”
Ganassi’s other entry, the No. 1 of Kyle Larson, had an early issue as he lost power while on pit row during the first caution and lost a lap. Unfortunately, while they were trying to get him back out on the track without losing more than one lap, the No. 42 was caught for too many men over the wall forcing a drive through penalty putting him three down on lap 49. He would never recover.
Larson began the day just five points ahead of McMurray for the last cutoff spot.
One driver on the outside looking in was the retiring Tony Stewart who was 15th and figured to be able to capitalize on the Ganassi failures, but Austin Dillon in the No. 3 was able to maintain his edge over the No. 14 eliminating Stewart as well. He would finish a mere 11 points out of 12th.
Chris Buescher had a mountain to climb if he was to head to Charlotte as one of the dozen remaining drivers in the Chase. Starting the afternoon 30-points out of the 12th spot, he would have needed a longshot win or the stars to align knocking numerous cars above him to have bad luck. While he had a better day than Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick and Larson, but it wasn’t enough to even move him out of last place.
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PIT NOTES:
Chase Elliott was one of two rookies to make the Chase, the first time in NASCAR history that has happened since the put the current format into use, and Elliott will advance being seeded sixth.
Due to rain that affected Saturday’s on-track events, NASCAR schedule a competition caution at lap 40 despite an Xfinity race being run late in the morning. It was ultimately changed to lap 33 when Kevin Harvick’s smoking car brought out the yellow flag.
The four drivers that began that day below the cutoff line were Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher.
Michael Annett had to start at the back of the field for a rear gear change.
CAUTIONS:
Lap 33 – Kevin Harvick car smoking. Landon Cassill gets free pass (*Competition Caution)
Lap 105 – Ryan Blaney hits outside wall. Rickey Stenhouse Jr. gets free pass.
Lap 182 – Kyle Larson hits wall. Greg Biffle gets free pass.
Lap 193 – Jamie McMurray engine blew up.
DRIVE FOR SAFETY 300 FINAL RESULTS:
(*Drivers who will advance to the Round of 12)
1 – Martin Truex Jr.*
2 – Kyle Busch*
3 – Chase Elliott*
4 – Brad Keselowski*
5 – Matt Kenseth*
6 – Joey Logano*
7 – Jimmie Johnson*
8 – Austin Dillon*
9 – Denny Hamlin*
10 – Jeff Gordon
11 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12 – Kasey Kahne
13 – Tony Stewart
14 – Carl Edwards*
15 – Kurt Busch*
16 – Aric Almirola
17 – Ryan Newman
18 – Greg Biffle
19 – AJ Allmendinger
20 – Trevor Bayne
21 – Brian Scott
22 – Paul Menard
23 – Chris Buescher
24 – Clint Boyer
25 – Kyle Larson
26 – Casey Mears
27 – Matt DiBenedetto
28 – Danica Patrick
29 – Landon Cassill
30 – David Ragan
31 – Regan Smith
32 – Ty Dillon
33 – Michael Annett
34 – Timmy Hill
35 – Reed Sorenson
36 – Jeffrey Earnhardt
37 – Kevin Harvick*
38 – Ryan Blaney
39 – Josh Wise
40 – Jamie McMurray