Click here to follow us on Twitter @circletrackplus   Click here to like us on Facebook 
 

Heading into Sunday afternoon's AAA 400 Drive For Autism at Dover International Speedway, the 2016 season has been anything but lucky for former Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth.

Kenseth was not caught up in the 18 car pileup which ensued on lap 354 when then-leader Jimmie Johnson appeared to spin his tires and get turned around by the No. 78 Toyota of Martin Truex, Jr.

Kenseth was not collected when future second place finisher appeared to make contact with the No. 19 Stanley Toyota of Kenseth's teammate Carl Edwards sending him into the inside retaining wall.

And most importantly Kenseth was not passed at the end of the race when Larson and Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott appeared to have cars capable of passing him and taking the win. Instead it was the veteran Kenseth finding a way to lead the final 48 laps and take home his 37th win of his championship career, his third career win at Dover and clinch an all-important spot in the Chase.

Kenseth knew it was only a matter of time until the bad luck ran out and he'd be celebrating in victory lane.

"I feel like the way we've been running, eventually law of averages are going to work out, you're going to get your wins, your finishes," Kenseth said. "It's going to happen sooner or later. I would say as good as we have ran, that is probably the longest streak I can remember being on without having any real good finishes. We finished fourth last week, that was the first top five of the season. As good as we've ran all year, like I said, with having cars that fast, not being able to get better finishes or maybe a win or two.

"I have all the confidence in the world in these guys.  Obviously the organization is strong.  Everybody else has won races.  I don't think there's a better crew chief in the garage than the one sitting next to me. I felt like it was a matter of time.  But you can never take it for granted.  I still got to go out and do the work every week and make it happen."

Larson led 85 laps in his most recent bid to grab his first Sprint Cup series win but could not will his car to taking the position from the eventual winner, Kenseth. While Larson did make slight contact with Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota, he knew racing clean at the end was of upmost importance.

"I had gotten close to his bumper a couple times and I may have even got into him once but I didn't want to do anything dirty," Larson said. "I respect Matt Kenseth a lot. He's definitely in my eyes the cleanest racer out there. He always races me with respect. I try to do the same with him.  So I was just going to try and race him as hard as I could without getting into him to beat him. He's sitting in Victory Lane and I'm not, so maybe I need to do something a little bit different, but nothing crazy to take him out or anything.

"It would be nice to be sitting here knowing I'm in the Chase but we'll keep working hard.  We got a lot of points to make up if we don't win a race before the Chase starts. Keep having runs like today and we shouldn't have a problem."

While the top two finishers battled in close quarters for the better part of the race's final ten laps, Chase Elliott put his name in the mix for his first career Sprint Cup win. The third place finish for Elliott is his third top-five finish of the season but the 2014 Xfinity series champion knows it's either put up or shut up.

"I hope I'm close," Elliott said. "Doesn't really matter what I say. Until you go get it done, it really is irrelevant. For me, I think I have a team that's capable of doing it.  The way I see today, we had our shot, we had a chance to do it today, I didn't do it.  It's as simple as that.  

"Either you do or you don't, and we haven't yet."

Elliott's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne drove to a fourth place finish. Kurt Busch finished in fifth place followed by Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, rookie Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex, Jr, and Trevor Bayne rounding out the top ten finishers.

Kevin Harvick, who won the pole and led 117 laps early in the race, suffered from pit road woes and was forced to settle for a 15th place finish. 

At the end of the day Kenseth was complimentary of his young competitors, most notably Larson.

"I think if he would have snuck inside, it would have been over," Kenseth explained. "(Kyle Larson) raced me really, really hard, but clean at the same time. He's a great racecar driver. To me it doesn't even seem right that he hasn't won yet.

"He's got a bunch of victories in front of him for sure.  He's a really, really clean, hard racer, and a fast learner."

Race Results
Dover International Speedway
47th Annual AAA 400 Drive For Autism
UNOFFICIAL    Provided by NASCAR Statistics     Sunday, 5/15/2016 @ 2:15 PM Pacific    UNOFFICIAL
Fin    Str    Car    Driver    Team    Lap    Pts    BPts    Status    TLd    LLd
1    10    20    Matt Kenseth    Dollar General Toyota    400    44    4    Running    2    48
2    23    42    Kyle Larson    Target Chevrolet    400    40    1    Running    3    85
3    13    24    Chase Elliott #    NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet    400    38    Running
4    11    5    Kasey Kahne    Farmers Insurance Chevrolet    400    37    Running
5    9    41    Kurt Busch    Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet    400    36    Running
6    14    2    Brad Keselowski    Wurth Ford    400    36    1    Running    1    49
7    6    11    Denny Hamlin    FedEx Office Toyota    400    35    1    Running    1    15
8    18    21    * Ryan Blaney #    Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford    400    33    Running
9    7    78    Martin Truex Jr    Furniture Row Toyota    400    33    1    Running    2    47
10    25    6    Trevor Bayne    AdvoCare Ford    400    31    Running
11    19    27    Paul Menard    Schrock/Menards Chevrolet    400    30    Running
12    32    15    Clint Bowyer    5-hour Energy Chevrolet    400    29    Running
13    31    10    Danica Patrick    Nature?s Bakery/Autism Delaware Chevrolet    400    28    Running
14    5    17    Ricky Stenhouse Jr    SunnyD Ford    400    27    Running
15    1    4    Kevin Harvick    Jimmy John's Chevrolet    399    28    2    Running    3    117
16    8    31    Ryan Newman    Caterpillar Chevrolet    398    25    Running
17    27    23    David Ragan    Dr Pepper Toyota    397    24    Running
18    30    34    Chris Buescher #    Dockside Logistics Ford    396    23    Running
19    35    38    Landon Cassill    MDS Transport Ford    396    22    Running
20    28    95    Michael McDowell    WRL General Contractors Chevrolet    396    21    Running
21    24    1    Jamie McMurray    McDonald?s/Cessna Chevrolet    395    20    Running
22    22    22    Joey Logano    Shell Pennzoil Ford    391    20    1    Running    2    2
23    20    47    AJ Allmendinger    Bush's Beans Chevrolet    391    18    Running
24    17    44    Brian Scott #    ACME/Shore Lodge Ford    390    17    Running
25    21    48    Jimmie Johnson    Lowe's Chevrolet    387    17    1    Running    1    4
26    26    13    Casey Mears    GEICO Chevrolet    374    15    Running
27    36    98    * Cole Whitt    Vydox Plus Chevrolet    364    14    Vibration
28    4    19    Carl Edwards    Stanley Toyota    359    14    1    Accident    4    27
29    16    16    Greg Biffle    Kleen Performance Ford    355    13    1    Accident    1    6
30    3    18    Kyle Busch    Pedigree Toyota    354    11    Accident
31    15    43    Aric Almirola    Smithfield Ford    354    10    Accident
32    2    88    Dale Earnhardt Jr    Nationwide Chevrolet    354    9    Accident
33    12    3    Austin Dillon    AAA Chevrolet    345    8    Running
34    34    14    Tony Stewart    Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet    342    7    Suspension
35    39    32    Jeffrey Earnhardt #    CorvetteParts.net Ford    334    6    Running
36    40    30    * Josh Wise    Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet    331    5    Running
37    37    46    Michael Annett    Pilot Flying J Chevrolet    223    4    Accident
38    38    55    * Reed Sorenson    World Record Striper Company Chevrolet    204    3    Accident
39    33    7    Regan Smith    APC Chevrolet    139    2    Accident
40    29    83    Matt DiBenedetto    Cosmo Motors Toyota    116    1    Accident

# = Rookie, Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led. (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Average Speed: 109.348 MPH    Time of Race: 03 Hrs, 39 Mins, 29 Secs.    Margin of Victory: 0.187 Seconds
Lead Changes: 19 among 10 drivers    Cautions: 12 for 65 laps