Matt Kenseth survived a wild day on the Monster Mile, winning Sprint Cup “AAA 400 Drive for Autism” at Dover International Speedway.
Kenseth took the lead after a major 18-car wreck with 44 laps to go, then held off Kyle Larson with a little help from third place finisher Chase Elliott.
Kenseth held off Kyle Larson down the stretch – with a little help from Chase Elliot.
“I wasn’t very confident that I would be able to hold them off to be honest with you. He was all over me and luckily Chase caught him, got side-by-side and that drug him back a couple of seconds and gave me a little breathing room,” said Kenseth.
Kenseth's third career victory at Dover is his first win this season. He says for the first time this year things fell his way.
“It all worked out for us, kind of the opposite of the way I feel like its been going the past couple of months. We‘ve had some really fast cars and we’ve been in position to win. This wasn’t our fastest car by any means this year, but we were able to do the right things and be there at the end of the race and pull it off," said Kenseth.
The wild race features 12 cautions and 19 lead changes.
Pole sitter Kevin Harvick led 117 laps, but was among those caught in the late wreak. He finished 15th. 10-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson started the wreck when his transmission locked up on a restart. He wound up finishing 25th.
NASCAR returns to Dover September 30 through October 2. The Sprint Cup race Sunday October 2 will be the third race of the Chase for the Championship and the first elimination race of this year’s battle for the title.
