Take 5: Milestones and playoff tension from Dover’s double to Daytona

A weekend NASCAR Cup Series double-dip at Dover International Speedway produced familiar results and some playoff cut-off drama in the Saturday-Sunday twin bill. With the regular season now down to a pivotal final race next weekend, here are five story lines to unpack from the two Drydene 311 events.

DOUBLE H: NASCAR's revised schedule after the COVID-19 shutdown included three instances where the Cup Series ran two races in as many days on the same track. In those three weekend doubleheaders, Kevin Harvick won four times and Denny Hamlin took two -- reaffirming their season-long dominance. At Dover, Hamlin pulled even in the series' win column with a Saturday victory, but Harvick secured a 7-6 edge in the category with a Sunday answer. "That really has been fun to kind of go back and forth with Denny and his team because we all get along really well but we all want to beat each other on the race track," Harvick said, "and when you have that type of rivalry that is really making you perform at the top of your game, it brings out the best in everybody."

MILESTONES MET: Harvick's hoisting of the Miles the Monster trophy in Sunday's weekend capper marked a pair of landmark moments. For one, his victory romp gave Ford its 700th Cup Series victory; Harvick contributed 21 of those wins, achieved since his Stewart-Haas Racing team switched from Chevrolet to Ford for the 2017 season. Harvick also moved up another peg into a tie for ninth place on NASCAR's all-time win list, matching Kyle Busch -- still winless in 2020 -- with his 56th career victory. "You know, it's an honor just to be up there on that list, and as I've said before, I feel like it's definitely a huge responsibility to be up there and be around those guys," Harvick said. "Hopefully we can keep this thing rolling and make up some ground on the next gap."

PLAYOFF PICTURE: Jimmie Johnson's best weekend of the season came at an optimal time, helping to erase the deficits from a disqualification in the Coca-Cola 600 in May and a one-race absence in July after a positive COVID-19 test. Johnson's string of three straight top-10 finishes, plus a redemptive top-five effort from teammate William Byron on Sunday, created a much tighter race for the 16-driver postseason field. Thirteen drivers have clinched, either with regular-season wins or insurmountable points totals. Clint Bowyer is a virtual lock based on his points cushion. That leaves Matt DiBenedetto just five points ahead of Byron and nine points ahead of Johnson in the contest for the final two berths, with the possibility lurking that a wild-card entrant from outside the bubble could lock in with a surprise win in Saturday's regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. "Studying, worrying – any of that isn't going to make a difference," Johnson said of the series' next race. "So, go down there, say a few prayers, maybe say a prayer per lap and see how that plays out, I guess. We'll race hard and if it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

DON'T SLEEP ON MTJ: Martin Truex Jr. ended one streak at Dover, then promptly started another. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 driver had finished third in five consecutive races heading into the weekend doubleheader, then left the Monster Mile with two straight runner-up efforts to show for his two days' work. "It's good to be consistent," Truex's post-race remarks read in part, but he also gave a note of warning when asked if he had a message for Hamlin and Harvick, who have dazzled with their victory totals relative to his one win this season. "I think the results speak for themselves. For us I think if they forget about us, that's fine, because we're right there. We're ready to pounce," Truex said. "Again, we're close. We obviously haven't won as many races as I think we should have, but we're ready, and hopefully the momentum will swing our direction and they'll forget about us and we'll go beat them all."

RIGHT ON TIME: NASCAR officials marked their own milestone during the weekend, getting the 36-race season back on track to finish the 10-race playoffs on schedule -- a major rally after events were shut down from mid-March to mid-May because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Competition officials played catch-up with creative measures that included midweek races, one-day shows and weekend doubleheaders -- all without practice and qualifying in an effort to limit cost, travel time and the disease's spread. With two Cup Series races in the books at Dover, the circuit is back on schedule to finish the season Nov. 8 at Phoenix. "It's been a huge deal for all of us," said Martin Truex Jr. "To think we took off two months of the season, with the playoffs coming up in just two weeks, we've just about made up the whole schedule, two months' worth of races. I think it's been great to not have to extend the season and go further on into the winter. Just hats off to everyone. ... The teams have really done a good job, mine included. Really happy about it."