Matt Kenseth Beats the Monster Mile to Win at Dover [VIDEO, PHOTOS]

The Sprint Cup series saw a wild race Sunday (5/15) at Dover International Speedway as Matt Kenseth got his first win of the 2016 NASCAR Season in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism.

The race weekend at Dover was over a time period that included Friday the 13th. Many might think that Dover’s “Miles the Monster” might have made a deal with the “bad luck spirits” from Friday the 13th to spread their “bad luck mojo” through the entire race week in Dover.

Some of it began with the first Sprint Cup practice session when a part broke in Danica Patrick’s car causing her to have a fiery crash and causing her teammate-owner Tony Stewart to also crash his car.

More bad luck for the whole Sprint Cup series when qualifying was rained out and the starting field was set by top speeds in that first practice.

Fast forward now to race day. Kevin Harvick dominated and won the 2015 fall race at Dover. Starting from the pole position he looked as though he would repeat that effort as he led the vast majority of laps over the first 100 plus laps of the 400 lap race. In fact, Matt would end the race with the most laps led at 117 laps at the front of the field. However, the bad luck spirits would attach themselves to his pit crew causing Matt to lose spots on the track every time they came to the pits under caution.

Several mechanical failures would make drivers and teams feel like they had been beaten by the “bad luck mojo” that “Miles the Monster” seemed to be handing out freely through the weekend at Dover. The one that appeared to be the most notable came after Tony Stewart had a track bar break and puncture a hole in the oil pan of his car.

After the caution period to clean the track of the fluid, 10-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson came out of the pits with the lead. He led the field to the green flag on the restart, but that is when the monster bit him. Something broke in his transmission gear box that would not allow him to get his car in any gear. The result was that he simply could not go anywhere, stacking up the entire outside line of cars and causing a wreck that involved in some way a total of 18 cars. Some of the best cars of the day had their chances of a win end with that incident. You can watch a video of that wreck here.

There would be one more caution after that monster sized melee for a total of 12 yellow flags in the AAA 400.

Matt Kenseth led the field to green flag on the final restart of the race. He and Kyle Larson had several battles for the lead as the laps wound down. However, Matt was able to hold Kyle off and capture his first win of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Kyle Larson held on to finish second with rookie Chase Elliott in third place. Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete race results for the AAA 400 Drive for Autism here.

Following the NASCAR action at Dover, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch hold steady in first and second in the point standings with Kevin in the top spot. Kurt Busch jumps up two spots to take over third as Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson both slip a spot to fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

With his first win of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Matt Kenseth becomes the seventh driver to add the phase “all but guaranteed” behind his name on the Chase Grid. Some of the drivers without wins this season lost ground on the grid in the top 16 with their bad luck at Dover. See the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Grid here.

After a wild weekend on the “Monster Mile” of Dover, the Sprint Cup drivers will not be racing for points this week. It will be all about the money. The Sprint Showdown will take place Friday night, May 20th with the Sprint All-Star Race Saturday night, May 21st. Both will take place at Charlotte Motor Speedway. There will be only one goal for all of the drivers that get to participate in the Sprint All-Star Race, win and collect ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

By: Buck Stevens