NASCAR’s rain shortened fall race weekend in the First State wraps up Sunday with the Sprint Cup “AAA 400”.
Points leader Matt Kenseth has the pole for the first knockout race in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship after rain canceled qualifying Friday.
The field of 16 drivers contending for the title shrinks to 12 following this week’s race – as the four drivers with the lowest point totals are eliminated.
Kyle Busch is one of the drivers on the bubble. He’s run well in Dover before and hopes he can do so again this afternoon
“Essentially, we’ve just got to make sure that we do what we’ve always done here in Dover and that’s to run strong, run up front and collect a good finish here," said Busch. "And hopefully the points will take care of themselves.”
Today’s 2:30 pm race is also the final one on the Monster Mile for four-time Sprint Cup champ Jeff Gordon, who is completing his final full season of racing. Gordon, a five-time winner at Dover, says having DuPont as a long-time sponsor made the First State a special place to race.
“Coming here to Wilmington every single year and visiting with all the employees at DuPont that was our sponsor for so many years, it’s always been special coming here," said Gordon. " You always want to have success in your sponsor’s home and backyard and we did that from the beginning – and it always made coming here that much more special.”
DuPont sponsored Gordon’s #24 car from 1992 through 2012.
Saturday, the weather in Dover held up well enough for two races to be run. Collin Cabre won the K&N Pro Series East “Drive Sober 150,” while Regan Smith took the XFINITY series “Hisense 200.”
