Catchfence

Sunday afternoon at Dover International Speedway, it was Kurt Busch keeping the NSCS defending champion, Jimmie Johnson, behind him (by 0.908 seconds) at the drop of the checkered flag to win the AAA 400.

This was Busch’s 2nd series win of the 2011 season, his 24th series career win and his 1st series win at “The Monster Mile.”

Coming in third behind Busch and Johnson (who led the most laps – 157 of 400) was Carl Edwards, followed by Kasey Kahne finishing fourth and Matt Kenseth finishing in fifth.

Rounding out the top-ten finishers were Kyle Busch finishing in sixth, AJ Allmendinger seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Marcos Ambrose ninth and Kevin Harvick finishing in the tenth position.

Third-place finisher, Carl Edwards, is now tied with Kevin Harvick in the points for the lead, but has fewer wins and is credited with being in 2nd-place in the NSCS point standings.

Last week’s race winner and was the series points leader coming into Dover, Tony Stewart, finished in 25th and now sits 9-points behind Harvick and Edwards for third-place (also tied in the points with race winner Busch, but has a better season record).

RACE NOTES:

Best Finish for Chase Driver: Kurt Busch, 1st
Worse Finish for Chase Driver: Tony Stewart, 25th
Average Speed: 119.413 MPH
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 30 Mins, 59 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.908 Seconds
Lead Changes: 24 among 13 drivers
Cautions: 10 for 44 laps
Attendance: 83,000

Unofficial Top-12 in the Point Standings: 1. Kevin Harvick – 2122 (Leader) 2. Carl Edwards – 2122 (-0 Points Behind the Leader) 3. Tony Stewart – 2113 (-9) 4. Kurt Busch – 2113 (-9) 5. Jimmie Johnson – 2109 (-13) 6. Brad Keselowski – 108 (-14) 7. Matt Kenseth – 2108 (-14) 8. Kyle Busch – 2107 (-15) 9. Jeff Gordon – 2103 (-19) 10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2088 (-34)
11. Ryan Newman – 2081 (-41) 12. Denny Hamlin – 2054 (-68)

Next Up: The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 9th, with ESPN beginning their (pre-race) coverage at 1:00 PM (EDT).

2011 NSCS AAA 400 Race Results

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Lap	Pts	BPts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	2	22	Kurt Busch	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	400	47	4	Running	5	90
2	6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools Chevrolet	400	44	2	Running	5	157
3	4	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	400	42	1	Running	3	116
4	9	4	Kasey Kahne	Red Bull Toyota	400	40		Running
5	18	17	Matt Kenseth	Crown Royal Ford	400	40	1	Running	2	3
6	5	18	Kyle Busch	Interstate Batteries Toyota	400	39	1	Running	1	1
7	7	43	A J Allmendinger	Best Buy Ford	400	38	1	Running	1	8
8	27	33	Clint Bowyer	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet	400	36		Running
9	12	9	Marcos Ambrose	Stanley Ford	400	35		Running
10	22	29	Kevin Harvick	Rheem Chasing the Cure Chevrolet	400	35	1	Running	1	10
11	13	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	400	34	1	Running	2	8
12	34	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet	400	32		Running
13	14	0	David Reutimann	Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota	400	31		Running
14	30	83	Brian Vickers	Red Bull Toyota	400	30		Running
15	23	1	Jamie McMurray	McDonald's Chevrolet	400	29		Running
16	3	27	Paul Menard	Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Chevrolet	400	28		Running
17	16	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet	400	27		Running
18	11	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Office Toyota	400	26		Running
19	17	5	Mark Martin	GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	400	25		Running
20	15	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	400	25	1	Running	1	2
21	19	6	David Ragan	UPS Ford	399	23		Running
22	24	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	398	22		Running
23	20	39	Ryan Newman	US Army ROTC Chevrolet	398	21		Running
24	21	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet	398	20		Running
25	28	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot / Mobil 1 Chevrolet	398	19		Running
26	8	47	Bobby Labonte	grilling.com / Kingsford Toyota	398	18		Running
27	10	16	Greg Biffle	3M / Cubitron Ford	397	17		Running
28	36	34	David Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports Ford	397	16		Running
29	33	20	Joey Logano	The Home Depot Toyota	397	15		Running
30	1	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	396	15	1	Running	1	2
31	25	51	Landon Cassill(i)	PhoenixConstruction/ThankATeacherToday Chevrolet	395	0		Running
32	41	36	Dave Blaney	Golden Corral Chevrolet	395	12		Running
33	37	71	Andy Lally #	Interstate Moving Services Ford	394	11		Running
34	43	38	J J Yeley	Drive Sober. Arrive Alive Ford	390	10		Running
35	39	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Toyota	366	9		Running
36	40	32	Mike Bliss(i)	Street King Ford	346	0		Accident	1	1
37	26	37	Josh Wise(i)	MaxQ Motorsports Ford	56	0		Brakes
38	38	7	Reed Sorenson(i)	SPEED Energy / MAPEI / Menards Dodge	52	0		Electrical	1	1
39	42	87	Joe Nemechek(i)	AM FM Energy Toyota	49	0		Clutch
40	35	66	Michael McDowell	HP Racing Toyota	44	5	1	Fuel Pump	1	1
41	31	30	David Stremme	Inception Motorsports Chevrolet	31	3		Vibration
42	29	46	Scott Speed(i)	Red Line Oil / International Ford	24	0		Brakes
43	32	55	Travis Kvapil(i)	Front Row Motorsports Ford	12	0		Ignition

(i) Ineligible for Points in this Series
# Denotes Rookie