Sunday, June 2, 2013

Tony Stewart wins FedEx 400 at Dover

Tony Stewart wins at Dover for first time since 2000
Tony Stewart, who had gotten off to a terrible start to the 2013 season, spoiled an upset bid by Juan Pablo Montoya to win Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Dover.

Both of them took advantage of a late-race penalty to Jimmie Johnson, who dominated the race but was black-flagged after jumping the final restart.

Montoya beat Johnson out of the pits during the final caution period and held the lead for the final restart on Lap 20, but Johnson jumped the restart to take the lead and was black-flagged. He had to serve a pass-through penalty, handing the lead to Montoya with 14 laps remaining.

But Stewart, who had just two top-10 finishes this year, closed on Montoya and finally passed him for the lead with three laps to go.

Montoya finished second followed by Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer.

Denny Hamlin, who is trying to fight his way back into Chase contention after missing four races with a back injury, started on the pole, led early and was running sixth when he had a flat tire and hit the wall with just 24 laps remaining. He finished 34th, further damaging his hopes of getting back into the top 20 to become eligible for a Chase wild card.

Johnson dominated the second half of the race and was leading when Hamlin hit the wall to bring out the final caution flag. Johnson, Montoya, Stewart and others took just two tires on their pit stop, and Montoya led Johnson off pit road.

Read More Here...Sporting News

FedEx 400 Results


Johnson disagrees with penalty

DOVER, Del. —Moments after losing what appeared to be a sure victory Sunday, Jimmie Johnson put on a hat, had a few sips of a sports drink and then calmly talked about the race that got away.

Perplexed and disappointed that NASCAR penalized him for jumping a restart with 19 laps remaining, Johnson dealt with his 17th-place finish matter-of-factly just minutes after screaming on his radio that he should not have been penalized.

“It happens and not much I can do about it,” the five-time Cup champion said in the garage at Dover International Speedway. “If I was sitting here bitching and complaining with 60-something wins, I don’t think anybody would feel sorry for me, either.”

Read More Here...Sporting News

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