DOVER, Del. - That last thing Martin Truex, Jr. would have wanted was for his No. 78 Chevrolet to be pulled off the grid before the start of an elimination race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
But that’s what happened minutes before cars were set to roll off pit road for the start of the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway Sunday. NASCAR officials deemed that the body of Truex’s car failed to conform to templates.
Accordingly, Truex’s crew had to fix the car before the race, and Truex was sent to the rear for the start. After dodging an early wreck involving Jeb Burton and Josh Wise, Truex worked his way through the field, running as high as third after a two-tire call and ultimately finishing 11th.
The result was good enough to propel Truex into the 12-driver Contender Round of the Chase. It wasn’t a comfortable day for the Furniture Row Racing driver, but the end result was positive.
“Yeah, we had to start last,” Truex said after the race. “It is what it is. We moved on. We did what we had to do. It wasn’t a great day for us. It wasn’t a great weekend. We have been just struggling trying to get the thing turning. All in all, we had good speed when we would get track position.
“We would lose track position, and being in long lines on the restarts, then we couldn’t really go anywhere. It was really difficult to pass today. We had good speed out front—top-five speed—and then just never really could get back there once we got back in traffic.”
According to NASCAR officials, Truex will face no additional sanctions beyond the demotion to the rear of the field on Sunday.
Jeff Gordon Transfers With 12th-Place Finish At Dover
If Jeff Gordon’s final trip around Dover International Speedway appeared drama-free, don’t trust that perception.
After a restart with 24 laps left in Sunday’s AAA 400, Gordon had some nervous moments in his successful bid to qualify for the Contender Round of the Chase. After running in the top 10 for most of the afternoon, Gordon finished 12th after losing ground on that final restart.
But his effort was good enough to land a spot, finishing a mere two points ahead of the tiebreaker for the final spot between Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jamie McMurray. (Earnhardt won the tiebreaker based on best finish in the Challenger Round, his third at Dover versus McMurray’s fourth).
“I wouldn’t call it drama-free,” demurred Gordon, who will retire from full-time Sprint Cup racing at the end of the season. “I was freaking out there at the end. We were pretty solid in the top 10 all day long. I’m really proud of this team and what they’ve accomplished. We’ve gone through a lot, and it hasn’t been pretty.
“That’s kind of the way today was. We knew we needed to be in the top 10 or top 11, or maybe 12th, if we were lucky. We did that, until the end, when that caution came out and people swapped-up their strategy. We just got ate up on that restart and were falling back and I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Crunching Some Very Tight Numbers
The fight for the final six spots in the Chase’s 12-driver Contender Round was amazingly tight. Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski finished the Challenger Round with 2,100 points each to grab positions seven, eight and nine.
Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman left Dover with 2,099 points to claim the next two Contender Round berths. And Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jamie McMurray needed a tiebreaker to settle the final spot after those two drivers tied with 2,098 points, with Earnhardt advancing.
Changes of one or two positions here or there could have made a huge difference for a number of drivers.
And for those who think bonus points don’t matter, consider this: without the three points for each of their regular-season victories, both Kyle Busch (12 bonus points) and Earnhardt (six) would have been in serious jeopardy of elimination.
