Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — Christopher Bell won the battle that counted by a few feet — and that small victory launched him to his third NASCAR Xfinity Series triumph of the season in the Allied Steel Buildings 200 at Dover International Speedway.

Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was first off pit road after a Lap 155 stop under caution, narrowly beating Cole Custer, who had led the first 155 laps of Saturday’s race. The work of Bell’s pit crew proved decisive, as the 24-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, controlled the race through two more restarts and beat Justin Allgaier to the finish line by 1.745 seconds.

RELATED: Race results | Xfinity Series schedule

Bell had already crossed the stripe before Zane Smith and John Hunter Nemechek wrecked coming to the checkered flag.

In addition to a gold Miles the Monster trophy, Bell collected a check for $100,000 as the final Dash 4 Cash winner of the season.

“Over the last couple of races, we’ve had great cars, but we haven’t been able to capitalize on it,” said Bell, who won for the second straight time at Dover and the 11th time in his career. “This one is really thanks to my pit crew, man. They did a great job, getting me out front where I could control the restarts.

“I knew if I could get out front, we’d be tough to beat. This place, you can pass on long green-flag runs, and it’s one of my favorite race tracks because you can move around and try to find different lines and get going. But over the short run, it’s pretty difficult to make something happen because there is so much grip on the bottom.”

After losing the lead on pit road, Custer was shuffled back on three successive restarts, drawing the bottom lane each time. He finished fourth behind Bell, Allgaier and series leader Tyler Reddick and expressed his disappointment after the race.

“It’s really frustrating when you lead that many laps,” Custer said. “You just can’t give up your track position here. Everybody wants to win at Dover. It’s about the hardest track to pass that we go to … It’s just so frustrating. We were so good, and we couldn’t take advantage of a great car today.”

For Allgaier, who suffered late contact with the outside wall and with Reddick’s Chevrolet, the runner-up finish was a welcome result in an inconsistent season that has produced an average finish of 14.7.

“The car took a beating and kept going,” Allgaier said. “Our Camaro was good today, but it wasn’t great. I wanted to be able to battle there with Christopher at the end, but we were just off a little bit all day.”

Chase Briscoe ran fifth as the highest-finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, followed by Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones, Nemechek, Smith and Michael Annett.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Chase Elliott will start from the Busch Pole in Monday’s Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway (Noon ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Does the most recent race winner at the 1-mile track and last weekend’s Talladega victor merit a spot in your Fantasy Live lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Once the final stage starts, your roster is locked in.

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race day at Dover:
1. Chase Elliott
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Kyle Larson
4. Daniel Suarez
5. Clint Bowyer
Garage: William Byron

Cars to the rear: Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece, Matt Tifft and Alex Bowman for multiple pre-race inspection failures.

RELATED: Odds for Dover | 10-lap averages | Podcast: Fantasy Fastlane

Analysis: Let’s start with who is staying in my lineup. Elliott is on the pole, won at Dover in the fall, is riding high after last weekend’s win and has the third-most points in the last four Dover races. Harvick has the most points in the last four Dover races, is the defending race winner and won every stage contested here last year. Suarez is a perfect four-for-four in top 10s at Dover and had the sixth-best 10-lap and 20-lap averages (h/t @mikejoy500 for the 20-lap numbers). On top of that, I’ve yet to use him and he seems to have settled into a nice spot at Stewart-Haas Racing.

On the Fantasy Fastlane Podcast, I said I wanted to see the Larson of old before I put him in my lineup. I had two checkboxes for him to hit — a top five starting spot and a top-three 10-lap average in a Saturday practice. He hit both of those boxes, and Larson looks to be back to himself at a place that he has run very strong at in recent years. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has the fourth-most points in the past four Dover races. I know the 2019 numbers aren’t great — two top 10s, 20th in Fantasy Live points. He has the best 10-, 15- and 20-lap averages, however. He’s in the lineup.

The last spot in my lineup came down to Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson. The Dover history favors Johnson, without question, with 11 wins at the “Monster Mile.” Hamlin has had the strongest start to the season among the threesome with the third-most Fantasy Live points. Bowyer’s numbers have been strong on short tracks and 1-mile venues with an average of 40.25 points in those four races. The 10- and 15- lap averages favor Bowyer as well, so I’m giving him the slight nod. I don’t mind saving Hamlin for the next couple of races. Johnson did top final practice but his 10-lap time was the lowest in the Hendrick camp and they didn’t make a long run, which is a bit concerning.

I had Truex in the garage, but since he’s going to the rear, I’m taking him out. It just feels that’s too much ground to cover. Instead, I am plugging William Byron into the garage. I think he’s worth the flyer starting second, especially since I haven’t used him.

For the bonus picks, I think it’s going to Chevrolet’s day. I like Elliott to win Stage 1 while I have Larson for Stage 2 and the race win.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Play the Props Challenge today

1. Chevrolet drivers have won eight of the last 12 Dover races. Will a Chevrolet driver go to Victory Lane on Sunday? I believe the answer to this is yes. Chevrolet has four cars starting in the top five and that does not include the manufacturer’s most consistent car all year — Kurt Busch — or the driver that has won 11 times here and topped the board in final practice in Jimmie Johnson. The Bowtie brand only has one win this year and it came at Talladega but the speed shown this weekend makes me think win No. 2 is coming this weekend.

2. O/U 15.5 stage points for Kevin Harvick in Sunday’s race. I’m going with the over here because I like the long-run speed Harvick showed in final practice and Dover typically gets some lengthy green-flag runs. The margin of error is low here — if Harvick finishes sixth in the opening stage, he can’t hit the over. That said, I think starting sixth he can score top-three stage points in both stages and for that reason I’m taking the over but it will be close.

Posted on by Marissa Fuller

DOVER, Del. — He has had success at Dover International Speedway in all three NASCAR national series and Erik Jones hopes to see that same success on Monday in the Gander RV 400, especially if the new rules package delivers the same type of racing we’ve seen at the 1-mile mile track in the past.

Jones, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, won in 2016 at Dover in the Xfinity Series, the year before he became a full-time driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He was also a contender in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Dover and the 2015 champion.

RELATED: Erik Jones driver page | Standings

With the new rules package in full effect, Jones hopes that the racing will be much like it was during those races.

“It reminds me a lot of the old Xfinity cars here with the high downforce,” he said. “At that time, I had a really good idea of how to get around this place and kind of knew what my car needed to be good and really had a good feel for this track. I think it’s going to bring some of that back for Sunday.”

This weekend marks Jones’ fifth start at the track in the Cup Series, where he has one top-five finish. That came in the fall of 2018, when he started 16th and finished fourth.

“It’s an adjustment, coming back and having a new rules package, you kind of have to relearn what you had in the past and adjust and figure out what it’s going to take to be competitive again,” Jones told NASCAR.com. “We just have to take what we had and adapt to a new rules package and continue with what we had in the past, as well. I think we know what it takes to be good here at Dover, we just have to apply it to a new package and a new mindset and really put that into the race.”

Jones made a qualifying lap of 162.999 mph and will start 15th for Sunday’s race. Like a lot of the other drivers, Jones took notice of the fastness of his car and is looking forward to what those speeds can produce. Chase Elliott topped the board with a track-record mark of 165.960 mph in qualifying.

“We’re just really fast,” Jones said. “I don’t know how much faster we can go in the sense of tires and what the tires can take. I think we’re getting close to the limit of that. But as far as going out and going fast, we’re race car drivers, we want to go fast and we definitely got that this weekend.”

But going fast comes with its difficulties and it will definitely take a toll on the drivers’ bodies, possibly making it tougher than ever before due to the high speeds.

“Physically, yeah. It’s going to be more challenging,” Jones said. “It’s a long race and those corners are hard on your body. I think in that way, it will be tougher. As far as driving the cars, it’s just different. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily more challenging, it’s just a different way of getting there and a different mindset of how you need to approach it.”

Ten races into the 2019 season, Jones has two top fives and three top 10s, and knows that the beginning of his season has been a lot of preparation and educating himself on the new package.

“It’s been a learning process, especially the mile and a half tracks with the new downforce motor package, you have to relearn what you did in the past,” Jones said “It’s a totally different style of racing and I think most of our focus and preparation is just trying to figure out how to race on those mile and a halfs and how to be really good at them. That’s been a lot of my year and I think it changes each week.”

Crew chief Chris Gayle has been with Jones since his Cup Series debut in 2017 and that longevity has been an added bonus to the learning process.

“Me and Chris have a really good relationship and he’s able to really pinpoint the things we need to work on and figure out our weaknesses and where we can be stronger,” he said. “He’s a good team leader. It’s been nice to have him here to help with that stuff and see as we go through the years, the growth.”

Keeping his eye on the prize, Jones and his No. 20 team are hopeful that their time is coming and that Dover might be the place for it.

“We need to have a good weekend here in Dover and really get it turned around and in the right direction and I think we can do that,” Jones said.

Posted on by Staff Report

Jimmie Johnson made the most of Saturday’s final practice, heading the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard at Dover International Speedway.

Johnson drove the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet to a best lap of 161.863 mph in the 50-minute session. Johnson tops the 1-mile track’s all-time list with 11 wins, but heads into Monday’s Gander RV 400 (Noon ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) with a 69-race losing streak that dates to his most recent Dover win in June 2017.

RELATED: Final practice results

“It went well,” Johnson said. “You know, the track changed so much from the start of practice to the end. I think all the teams are pretty smart to know that you need to keep changing every time you go out, even if the run before was really strong.  We kind of kept that philosophy and stayed with the progression of the track and continued to have a lot of pace in the car.

“So, it’s amazing how fast we are going after 15-20 laps still. There is not much drop off. There is a lot of drop off when you get to a pack of cars in front of you. I think that tall spoiler gives us a lot of confidence by ourselves, but in traffic I think we are going to have less available air and some issues there.”

Martin Truex Jr. secured the second-fastest lap (161.718 mph) in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, putting him just ahead of JGR teammate Erik Jones (161.435), who was third-fastest in the No. 20 Toyota.

Kyle Larson took fourth on the practice leaderboard with Aric Almirola finishing out the top five. Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford team served a 15-minute penalty at the end of final practice after failing Friday’s pre-qualifying inspection twice.

MORE: No. 10 car chief ejected

Daniel Suarez scuffed the right side of his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford early in the session, scraping the outside retaining wall on the exit of Turn 4. He continued with cosmetic damage and claimed the sixth-fastest speed in final practice.

Chase Elliott, who won the Busch Pole in Friday’s qualifying, was 10th-fastest in final practice in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet. He’ll be vying for his second consecutive victory in the series, plus his second straight at Dover after prevailing at the Delaware oval last October.

Monday’s 400-miler is the 11th of 36 points-paying races for the Monster Energy Series. The tour returns to Dover on Oct. 6 in the NASCAR Playoffs.

Fog cancels Saturday’s early practice

Saturday’s early Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice was canceled by fog at Dover International Speedway.

RELATED: Full schedule for Dover

The second tune-up session of the weekend was scheduled for 50 minutes, but poor visibility kept cars off the 1-mile track after the scheduled start time of 9:05 a.m. ET. A light drizzle that began at 9:30 a.m. ET compounded the inclement weather and forced a delay to Xfinity Series qualifying, which was scheduled for a 10:10 a.m. ET start.

A breakdown of the track-drying equipment on hand at the Monster Mile: six Air Titans, four conventional jet dryers, two track vacuums and two tractor brooms.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — You can call him the Dover Dominator.

With a No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford that was strongest at the end of Saturday’s Jegs 200 at Dover International Speedway, Johnny Sauter beat pole winner Brett Moffitt to the finish line after a late restart to win his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race of the season and his third straight at the Monster Mile.

The former series champion, who returned to ThorSport this season after a less-than-amicable split with GMS Racing, could hardly contain himself after taking the checkered flag .603 seconds ahead of Moffitt, the reigning series champion, who signed with GMS during the offseason.

RELATED: Race results

“When you get kicked to the curb, you feel like you have a lot to prove,” Sauter said in Victory Lane. “I have to thank (owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson most importantly — a couple months ago I didn’t know if I’d be racing.

“To get three in a row here is extra special. I have to thank these guys. I was highly motivated. I shut the motor off earlier today in the race and it wouldn’t re-fire and I was like, ‘Oh well.’ Track position was so important, but experience paid off.

“It’s so special. This ranks up there as one of the biggest wins of my career. We’ve got to keep it going—that’s the main goal here, not to get complacent. I knew after Atlanta (where Sauter finished second on Feb. 23) we’d have a shot to win races. I felt like we gave one away at Martinsville but got it today.”

RELATED: Sauter: ‘One of the best wins of my career’

Moffitt won the first 45-lap stage wire-to-wire and held the lead with nine laps left in Stage 2. But Sauter charged from third to first in two laps, passing Moffitt for the lead — and ultimately the stage win — on Lap 82.

Saving fuel during the final run, however, Sauter was turning his ignition off and on under caution, but the engine wouldn’t re-fire. Eventually he let the clutch out and the truck started, but Sauter fell to eighth for a restart on Lap 160.

Systematically, he worked his way back through the field, aided by a subsequent caution. He restarted sixth on Lap 166 after an accident that KO’d the No. 2 truck of Sheldon Creed. On Lap 170 Sauter navigated around both Moffitt and third-place finisher Harrison Burton to take the lead.

WATCH: Creed crashes in Dover

From that point on, Moffitt pursued Sauter to the finish line.

“It’s all about track position, really,” Moffitt said. “When we were out front, we could lead and won the first stage, but it was just a lot of traffic cost us track position that we never got back.”

ThorSport teammates Grant Enfinger, Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes finished fourth, fifth and sixth, followed by Austin Hill, Derek Kraus, Tyler Ankrum and Ross Chastain, who recorded his sixth top 10 in six races this season.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. – Even though Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship on the strength of his final-race performance at Homestead-Miami Speedway last year, he concedes that Christopher Bell, driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was the class of the Xfinity field.

“Last year, I thought he was just in another zip code whenever we were racing together,” Reddick said Friday at Dover International Speedway, site of Saturday’s Allied Steel Buildings 200 (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Four drivers get set to compete in Dash 4 Cash finale

After a switch from JR Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing and a new pairing with crew chief Randall Burnett, Reddick feels more competitive with the top cars in the series this year. And well, he should.

With last Saturday’s victory at Talladega, Reddick leads the series standings by 32 points over Bell. In the first nine races of the season, he has seven top fives and has finished no worse than fourth in the six events since Las Vegas in March. That translates to a series-best average result of 4.9.

“We enjoy being in the points lead right now,” Reddick said of the No. 1 ranking. “I know the 18 and the 20 (Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas) really like having that spot. It’s cool to be in their spot, and we’re trying to make the case that it’s our spot.

“We want to keep that points lead going. We want to keep scoring stage points. But we want to try and learn some things that are going to help us over the summer stretch — and definitely in the playoffs.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — In a battle of Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott knocked William Byron off the pole for Monday’s Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway (Noon ET, FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), stealing the top starting spot late in Friday’s single-car qualifying at the 1-mile concrete track.

As expected with a new competition package that features a taller rear spoiler and consequent added downforce, Elliott set a track record at the Monster Mile, covering the distance in 21.692 seconds (165.960 mph) to eclipse Brad Keselowski’s 2014 track record mark of 21.892 seconds (164.444 mph).

RELATED: Qualifying results | Full schedule for Dover

In winning his first Busch Pole Award at Dover, his second of the season and the sixth of his career, Elliott was .053 seconds faster than Byron (165.555 mph), whose time stood up until Elliott, who drew the 30th qualifying position, ran his pole-winning lap.

Grabbing the top spot on the grid only added to an excellent week for Elliott, who claimed his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Team Hendrick is 1-2, which is awesome,” Elliott said. “Thanks to Chevrolet power and everybody that contributes to our car — they’ve been working hard. Hopefully, we can back it up on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a really tough race, so you better eat your Wheaties these next couple days and hydrate, because I think Sunday is going to be tough, especially if the sun’s out like it is right now.”

In fact, the sun made a huge difference in the speeds the Cup cars ran during qualifying. True, the top five qualifiers (Elliott, Byron, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman) all broke Keselowski’s previous track record, as Chevrolets swept the top three starting spots and four of the top five.

That was a far cry, however, from opening practice on Friday morning, when 23 cars eclipsed the record and Kurt Busch topped the speed chart at 168.445 mph in cooler conditions under overcast skies.

Elliott was more concerned about the pick of the No. 1 pit stall, closest to the exit from pit road. At Dover, that’s a distinct advantage.

“I think track position’s going to be key, and hopefully we can use it to our advantage,” Elliott said.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola qualified sixth and seventh, respectively, as NASCAR returned to the single-car format versus the group qualifying structure used earlier this year.

Denny Hamlin was eighth in the fastest Toyota, and Keselowski and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10 in their Fords, giving that manufacturer five of the top 10 starting spots.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials ejected the car chief for the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 team after encountering issues in Friday’s pre-qualifying inspection at Dover International Speedway.

RELATED: Full schedule for Dover

The No. 10 Ford to be driven by Aric Almirola this weekend at the Monster Mile failed inspection twice ahead of Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying. As a result, competition officials ejected car chief Chad Haney, sidelining him for the rest of the race weekend.

Almirola sits in a tie for 10th place with SHR teammate Clint Bowyer in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. He was 12th-fastest in Friday’s opening practice at the 1-mile track. He later qualified seventh for Monday’s race.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion, an 18-year veteran of the sport and an 83-race winner. And with 11 previous Dover International Speedway trophies, he is also the winningest driver in history at this week’s venue.

All that good juju in his corner and an omnipresent competitive desire for victory and most would assume Johnson is a perennial favorite for Monday’s Gander RV 400 (noon ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s hard to believe, but a triumph this weekend would be Johnson’s first points-paying trophy hoist since Dover’s Victory Lane two years ago.

The 2018 season marked the first time the champion has gone a full season without a victory and Johnson is long tired of predicting when his ship will right its course. Every week he feels it is possible.

RELATED: Drivers to win at least nine races at a track | Analyzing Jimmie’s concrete history

Of course a record 11 victories, a record 3,105 laps led at this week’s track certainly makes this weekend a good option in furthering Johnson’s certain NASCAR Hall of Fame-bound trajectory.

As is so typically the case, Johnson showed up in the Dover media center Friday afternoon looking settled and sounding optimistic.

“Clearly, I’m very biased about this race track,” Johnson said smiling. “I think it’s the best one out there. I think all drivers appreciate just the challenge that comes with this track, the banking, the speed, the transitions from the straightaways through the corners.

“I noticed on social media before we got here that drivers and crew members and crew chiefs were all talking about how much they love coming here. It’s just a very unique challenge and a totally different race track than anything else we race on.”

Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was 10th fastest in opening practice on Friday and all three of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were also among the top-10. It’s a good sign going forward as is the momentum in general for Chevrolet and the team.

RELATED: Opening practice results | Early odds for Dover

Johnson brings an enviable record to Dover – an 10.9 average finish and 9.9 average start. He has maintained that average with 34 starts. He won the first two races he ever competed on at the track and has won back-to-back trophies three different times in his career.

Since his victory in the Spring, 2017, Johnson has a pair of top-10 finishes on Dover’s “Monster Mile,” including a third place in the Fall of 2017 and a ninth place in this spring race – won by Kevin Harvick – last year.

Johnson has four top-10s – including a season best of fifth at Texas Motor Speedway, where he also won the pole position. He suffered his worst finish of the season last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway after running over debris and getting a flat tire less than 30 laps into the race.

However, he had to leave Alabama feeling encouraged. Johnson’s teammate Chase Elliott led a Chevrolet 1-2-3 sweep at Talladega – the first win for the manufacturer this season. Elliott is also the most recent winner at Dover, claiming the Playoff win here last October.

“I think we’re all trending in the right direction and getting better each and every week,” Johnson said.  “Hendrick Motorsports has improved and is doing better. So, I’m optimistic and certainly very happy to be at the track that I love so much and I feel like we can hopefully string together a couple of really strong weeks here.”