Dover Recap

Welcome back to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. Today I recap the weekends action from Dover and Las Vegas. The Truck Series raced at Las Vegas on Saturday night with Ben Rhodes picking up his first career Truck Series victory. Ryan Blaney won the Xfinity race on Saturday afternoon. Max Verstappen took home the Formula One Malaysia Grand Prix. Now onto the Cup race. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The Apache Warrior 400 ran on Sunday with Martin Truex Jr on the pole. Kyle Busch accompanied Truex on the front row. The first and second stages consisted of 120 laps. The final stage made up the final 160 laps. The race was 400 laps in total. Photos courtesy of Google images.

Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Larson swapped the lead a couple of times early in the first stage. Just like they did in the spring race earlier to this year. Photos courtesy of Google images.

As green flag pit stops began, the first caution would be brought out by Jeffrey Earnhardt. Earnhardt spun trying to get onto pit road and hit the barrels on the end of the pit wall. The incident occurred late in stage 1 with 35 to go in the stage. The race was red flagged to clean up the mess. Photo courtesy of Google images.

Brad Keselowski used some pit strategy to win stage 1. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The action heated up late in the second stage as well. Derrike Cope had an engine failure off turn 4 with 74 to go in the stage. I was unable to find a photo for this incident. My source is Google images.

The race had a scare for Kevin Harvick. He pitted with 22 to go in the stage after feeling a vibration in the car. Photo courtesy of Google images and NBC Sports.

Kyle Larson took home the stage 2 victory. It was his 4th stage win of the season. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The final stage had a long green flag run to the finish. Chase Elliott looked to be picking up his first career Monster Energy Cup Series win. However, Elliott was held up by Ryan Newman as he was trying to stay on the lead lap and stay in the playoffs. Elliott was passed by Kyle Busch for the win with 3 laps to go in the race. Photos courtesy of Google images.

Here is the playoff grid heading into round 2. The second round shrinks the field from 16 to 12. The 4 drivers eliminated from the playoffs at Dover were Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, and Kasey Kahne. The races for the second round include the next 3 races at Charlotte, Talladega, and Kansas will be the elimination race. After that, the field will shrink down to 8. Who will crack under pressure and be eliminated? Tune in this weekend at Charlotte to find out. See ya then. Photo courtesy of Google images and NASCAR.