Jimmie Johnson scored his first win of the 2014 on May 25th in Charlotte and a week later was celebrating his second with a dominating victory at Dover International Speedway Sunday. The six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion led a race high 272 of the 400 laps in route to his 68th career win.
In a race that featured two red flag periods, Johnson led seven times and survived five restarts including the final one with four laps to go. Brad Keselowski started from the pole but faded early and recovered to finish second. Matt Kenseth was third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.
“It was an awesome race car,” Johnson said. “The first run I wasn’t sure we were really going to have the normal Dover magic here. Once the track ‘rubbered’ in our car came to life and it was so good. It’s amazing that we can stay on top of things here with the different generation car, different rules, different tires. This place just fits my style and (crew chief ) Chad Knaus’ style.”
The most bizarre incident of the race, and the season to date, came on lap 155 when Jamie McMurray hit a piece of concrete exiting turn 2 and ended up in the wall. The field was put under the second red flag of the day, the first was for an accident on lap 134 involving Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. that left debris scattered along the backstretch that lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds. For the second one track workers spent 22 minutes repairing the damage left when the concrete came loose from the track. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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