Sunday at Dover the best race of the year so far
After watching both the NASCAR Camping World and the NASCAR Xfinity races at Dover on Friday and Saturday, I was a little concerned what kind of race we were going to have on Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. I just didn't see a lot of movement in either of those races that got me excited about the prospects for Sunday. Needless to say, what I witnessed Sunday at Dover almost had me literally yelling from the TV booth. I probably was yelling more for the lapped traffic to move out of the way and let those leaders race.
Basically we had it all Sunday at Dover. We had incredibly hard racing. We had guys banging on each other. We had guys racing for the lead. We had different drivers who were strong at different parts of the race. Yes, we even had the "Big One" at Dover which as you know we normally associate with Daytona or Talladega. We ended the day with 27 out of the 40 cars with damage. These are all the things I have been hearing from the fans that they wanted and by golly they got it all in one day.
The storylines Sunday were incredible. How about the veteran Matt Kenseth battling those two kids and barely holding them off for his first win of the season? Also think of the irony of Matt and rookie Chase Elliott. Matt's first start was at Dover subbing for Chase's dad Bill in 1998. Matt got a top 10 finish that day. Chase at the time was two years old and there he was Sunday battling Matt for his first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.
Based on the way he's run but hadn't had the finishes to show for it, I was happy to see Matt finally close the deal. With that said, there was also a part of me that would have loved to have seen either Kyle Larson or Chase get their first wins Sunday instead of Matt. Trust me, those two kids are going to win some races. Again, you simply cannot run that well and not put it all together to end the day in Victory Lane.
Sunday definitely was a day of comers and goers. The first part of that race shaped up to me to be a race for second. Kevin Harvick was so dominant. The only person I think could have beat Kevin at one point was Kevin himself. Unfortunately, he ended up getting involved in a wreck. I also loved seeing the different strategies come into play Sunday. We had drivers staying on the track when others pitted. We had drivers only taking two tires and some taking four.
Who would have ever believed that the driver who has won at Dover 10 times, would have parts failures his last two trips there especially including Sunday. You never hear of a rear axle seal and a transmission failing anymore, but it's happened to Jimmie now. What I saw all day long was simply incredible. Honestly, I'd put Sunday at Dover as the best race of the year so far. The racing was simply that phenomenal.
