Carl Edwards Showed what it takes to win at Dover. The “King of Concrete” proved that he still had the stuff to win on concrete tracks this season. There was a bit of controversy though, Carl’s number 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion failed post race inspection. The car was found to be too low on the right rear. Edwards will still be credited with the win but there will be penalties handed down by Nascar as early as Tuesday afternoon.

Lets recap for you -

  • The average speed of the race was 101.846 MPH.
  • Carl Edwards won by .617 seconds.
  • There were 14 lead changes and a boat load of cautions.
  • A race record 13 cautions in Sundays race.
  • The “Bud Pole Award” went to Jimmy Johnson
  • The “Direct T.V. Crew Chief Of The Race” went to Bob Osborn, Crew Chief Of Carl Edward’s Office Depot Ford.
  • The “Raybestos Rookie Of The Race” went to Juan Pablo Montoya.

There were a lot of cautions in this race, thirteen in all as I mentioned, making for one exciting race. I don’t know anybody who isn’t happy with the car of tomorrow’s performance. I can’t wait to see these cars at The Talladega Super Speedway in October. Dover, or “The Monster Mile”, as it is known, provides exciting racing and chain reaction wrecks. I know we don’t wish for wrecks but they are exciting when they happen and deep down inside each race fan is the burning desire to get your money’s worth by seeing a wreck at the track.

Excitement case in point? How about lap number 386 when something broke on Kurt Busch’s Number 2 Dodge sending him into the wall then into his teammate Ryan Newman, Then the melee started. Race cars started careening off each other and the wall causing so much carnage that the race had to be red flagged to clean up the debris. It’s action like that, that sells seats at the race track.

Here is how they finished at Dover

1   99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 190/5 400 Running 229,250
2   16 Greg Biffle Ford Nintendo Wii 175/5 400 Running 172,275
3   8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 165/0 400 Running 173,583
4   01 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 165/5 400 Running 124,425
5   5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST 155/0 400 Running 117,725
6   25 Casey Mears Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC 150/0 400 Running 118,025
7   31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 146/0 399 Running 123,166
8   26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 142/0 399 Running 92,775
9   20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet The Home Depot 138/0 399 Running 126,411
10   42 Juan Montoya * Dodge Texaco / Havoline 134/0 399 Running 121,800
11   24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 130/0 399 Running 121,461
12   07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet DIRECTV 127/0 399 Running 90,825
13   1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 124/0 399 Running 103,170
14   48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 126/5 398 Running 137,311
15   55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 123/5 398 Running 89,183
16   83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 115/0 397 Running 73,075
17   19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW 112/0 397 Running 91,120
18   00 David Reutimann * Toyota Dominos.com 109/0 397 Running 88,508
19   7 Robby Gordon Ford Jim Beam Black 106/0 397 Running 72,075
20   29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 103/0 396 Running 119,811
21   15 Paul Menard * Chevrolet Pittsburgh Paints / Menards 100/0 396 Running 71,650
22   78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing 97/0 396 Running 67,900
23   88 Kenny Wallace Ford Snickers 94/0 396 Running 103,233
24   38 David Gilliland Ford M&M’s 91/0 395 Running 98,214
25   6 David Ragan * Ford AAA 88/0 394 Running 107,550
26   21 Ken Schrader Ford U.S. Air Force 85/0 394 Running 90,039
27   43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 82/0 394 Running 107,161
28   12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 79/0 386 Accident 102,050
29   2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 81/5 385 Accident 103,983
30   41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 78/5 385 Accident 91,833
31   66 Jeff Green Chevrolet Comcast 70/0 384 Accident 86,158
32   9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW 67/0 384 Accident 113,516
33   18 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 64/0 383 Accident 95,033
34   10 Scott Riggs Dodge Valvoline / Stanley Tools 61/0 383 Accident 74,000
35   17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT NANO Technology 68/10 374 Engine 113,716
36   96 Tony Raines Chevrolet DLP HDTV 55/0 360 Accident 73,625
37   49 John Andretti Dodge Paralyzed Veterans of America 52/0 358 Accident 75,047
38   11 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet FedEx Ground 54/5 308 Running 89,650
39   40 David Stremme Dodge Halo 3 / Target 46/0 287 Engine 65,225
40   45 Kyle Petty Dodge Wells Fargo 43/0 200 Accident 65,050
41   44 Dale Jarrett Toyota UPS 40/0 141 Engine 64,855
42   70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Haas Automation 37/0 11 Accident 64,730
43   84 A.J. Allmendinger * Toyota Red Bull 34/0 4 Engine 64,588

Points Chase
I’m just showing the top twelve as that is really all that matter at this point in the season.

RANK +/- DRIVER POINTS BEHIND STARTS POLES WINS TOP 5 TOP 10 WINNINGS
1 +1 Jeff Gordon 5340 Leader 28 6 4 16 22 5,672,310
2 +1 Tony Stewart 5338 -2 28 0 3 10 20 5,321,790
3 +5 Carl Edwards 5337 -3 28 0 3 8 12 3,677,060
4 -3 Jimmie Johnson 5336 -4 28 2 6 14 17 5,605,430
5 – Kyle Busch 5330 -10 28 0 1 8 16 3,720,090
6 -2 Clint Bowyer 5322 -18 28 2 1 3 13 3,232,340
7 -1 Martin Truex Jr. 5294 -46 28 0 1 6 11 3,956,520
8 +3 Jeff Burton 5265 -75 28 0 1 7 13 4,934,690
9 +1 Kevin Harvick 5225 -115 28 0 1 4 11 6,403,430
10 -3 Matt Kenseth 5224 -116 28 0 1 8 17 4,892,830
11 +1 Kurt Busch 5189 -151 28 1 2 5 10 4,138,110
12 -3 Denny Hamlin 5182 -158 28 1 1 10 15 4,007,990

Next week Nascar heads to The Kansas Speedway for the “Lifelock 400″.
The Kansas Speedway is a 1.5 “D” shaped oval that some call a “Cookie Cutter Track” because it is pretty much the same design as Chicago, Charlotte, and Atlanta. There is 15 degree’s of banking in the turns and 10.4 degree’s on the front stretch, with a relatively flat, 5 degree back stretch. The track holds 81667 seats and I guarantee it will be sold out.

Television Coverage of the “LifeLock 400″ begins Friday with Bud Pole Qualifying on ESPN 2 at 4 P.M. eastern time. And race coverage is at 1 P.M. eastern time Sunday on ABC. Look for me on Monday with the results of Sunday’s Race and a preview of the next race in “The Chase For The Nextel Cup”.

Until then stay safe out there.