Jimmie Johnson walked away a winner again at the Monster Mile, taking Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup “FedEx 400” at Dover International Speedway.
It’s Johnson’s second straight win at Dover and pushes his record for career wins at the track to nine.
Johnson led 272 laps in the 400-lap race to win for a second straight week on the Sprint Cup circuit. He says his car got better as the race went along.
"At the end we really honed in on the balance of the race car I was after and what adjustments to put under it and that thing was awesome," Johnson said.
Johnson, a six time Sprint Cup champ, moved up two spots in this year’s standings with the victory and is now fourth, and says he and his team may not be finished yet.
“We can get on a roll. We got some got tracks ahead for us," said Johnson. "I think tracks really build momentum for teams and drivers and going to Charlotte [last week] was a great track for us. Pocono next week is [crew chief] Chad [Knaus'] favorite track. And I think you can look ahead at the summer months and see who historically runs well at certain track and kind of pick the favorites."
Brad Keselowski finished second and Matt Kenseth third. Kenseth’s effort allowed him to take over the points lead from Jeff Gordon, who finished 15th. But Kenseth says at Dover and beyond you always need to be watching Johnson.
"For sure when you come to Dover, it's always the 48 car. They're just unbelievable here. If you're going to have a shot to win here, you know that's the car you're going to have to beat every time, unless they break," said Kenseth. "It's not unexpected here and I don't know if you guys have noticed, bit he's pretty good at all the tracks. So, i always think they're one of the favorites."
Kyle Busch’s hopes of pulling off a sweep of the weekend races in Dover ended early when he went to the wall on lap 124. Bush had won the Truck Series race Friday and Saturday’s Nationwide series race.
NASCAR returns to Dover Sept. 26-28, with the Sprint Cup "AAA 400" Sunday Sept 28th serving as the third race in the Chase for the Championship and the final race in the opening round of the new Chase format with four drivers being eliminated for contention for the title after the "AAA 400."
