NASCAR fans were treated to a wild finish at Dover Sunday.
Tony Stewart passed Juan Pablo Montoya with three laps to go and held on to take the Sprint Cup Series “FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks” at Dover International Speedway. Jeff Gordon finished third.
"It was literally a mindset of trying to figure out in a lap whether its was worth risking losing second and finishing third to Jeff [Gordon] if I moved around trying to find a spot to win the race," said Stewart. "[I decided] it was worth the risk of either winning the race or falling back to third because we chose the wrong line, but we tried."
Stewart’s first win of the 2013 season snapped a 30 race winless streak. It's also his first victory in Dover since he swept the two races on the Monster Mile in 2000. He admitted afterward he didn't see it coming after struggling through practice and qualifying Friday and Saturday.
"This means more to me, going from where we were Friday to where we are today, than having a weekend where we show up and we're quickest in practice, sit on the pole and everything goes right all weekend," said Stewart. "It's much harder the way we had to do it over the last 48 hours."
Points leader Jimmie Johnson had a record eighth career Dover victory in his sights, but was black-flagged for jumping race leader Montoya on a restart with 19 laps remaining. That penalty took him out of the running and he wound up finishing 17th. Despite that finish, he remains the Sprint Cup points leader.