{"id":22262,"date":"2018-10-07T18:58:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T23:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22262"},"modified":"2018-10-08T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T22:34:32","slug":"nascar-sunday-dover-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/07\/nascar-sunday-dover-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Sunday Dover Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Late accident ruins Aric Almirola\u2019s winning chances at Dover<\/b><\/p>\n

DOVER, Del. \u2013 It was a case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Aric Almirola didn\u2019t want to see again.<\/p>\n

Almirola was leading Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway with eight laps left. Right in front of him was his first victory of the season and a guaranteed transfer into the Round of 8 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.<\/p>\n

But Bowyer\u2019s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer, smacked the Turn 4 wall on Lap 392 of a scheduled 400, and Almirola restated sixth on Lap 397 behind three cars that stayed out during the caution for Bowyer\u2019s accident and two others that took only two tires during the stop.<\/p>\n

After exiting Turn 2 on the restart lap, Almirola tapped the outside wall on the backstretch and triggered a five-car accident\u2014involving only Playoff contenders\u2014that ended his winning chances. Almirola rolled home in 13th place and fell into a tie for ninth in the standings with Bowyer.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, in July race at New Hampshire, Bowyer also caused the final caution when Almirola had a good-sized lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had so many opportunities and been so close and had the car to win and been in position, and I don\u2019t know, it just seems to not come through,\u201d a disconsolate Almirola said after the race. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m frustrated and mad and angry. I don\u2019t know. I could have been conservative and probably finish third or fourth like Kurt (Busch).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just track position is so tough, and it\u2019s so hard to pass here. On that restart, I tried to at least go where they weren\u2019t to the top, and the 11 (runner-up Denny Hamlin) moved up to kind of block me, and I just got really tight off of (Turn) 2, and I bounced off the fence and got into Brad (Keselowski) and tore up a lot of race cars along the back straightaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate that for everybody that was involved, but it kind of killed our day, too. I don\u2019t know. I feel like we should be over there in Victory Lane celebrating, but we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

KEVIN HARVICK COMES UP EMPTY IN A DOMINANT CAR AT DOVER<\/b><\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick did everything right\u2014until a fluke occurrence on pit road cost him a chance to win Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Harvick had led 286 of the first 321 laps before a lug nut knocked the valve stem off his left rear tire during a green-flag tire change. Harvick had to return to pit road two laps later and lost a lap in the process.<\/p>\n

Though he eventually regained the lost lap as the highest-scored lap car under caution for debris on Lap 339, Harvick couldn\u2019t climb higher than sixth place before the race ended in overtime with Chase Elliott the winner.<\/p>\n

Harvick did manage to dodge a late wreck that collected five less fortunate Playoff drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just lucky there and wound up dodging and weaving and being in the right place, so maybe that makes up for the bad luck on losing the race with an absolute dominant car,\u201d Harvick said.<\/p>\n

Harvick won the first and second stages of the race and left the Mosnter Mile with the series lead\u2014by five points over Kyle Busch. But that was little consolation after Sunday\u2019s disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really care about points,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cI\u2019d rather win.\u201d<\/p>\n

JIMMIE JOHNSON CAN\u2019T ANSWER THE BELL IN DOVER DEBACLE<\/b><\/p>\n

After last week\u2019s close call at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Jimmie Johnson was a logical choice to contend for a victory at Dover International Speedway, where he has accumulated 11 of his 83 career victories.<\/p>\n

But when the green flag waved at the Monster Mile, Johnson\u2019s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wasn\u2019t even on the track.<\/p>\n

With what was eventually diagnosed as a lower ball joint failure, Johnson took his car to the garage for repairs and didn\u2019t reappear on the concrete until the Gander Outdoors 400 was 10 laps old. After a subsequent pit road penalty, he finished 36th, 17 laps down.<\/p>\n

The mechanical failure was a continuation of the ill fortune the seven-time champion had suffered at Charlotte, where his attempted pass of martin Truex Jr. on the last lap ended in an accident that knocked Johnson out of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

Truex\u2019s crew chief, Cole Pearn, suggested that Johnson could atone for the Charlotte wreck by giving Truex\u2019s crew road bikes, so Johnson went shopping, bought a trove of girls\u2019 bicycles and placed them on the No. 78 hauler before the crew arrived.<\/p>\n

But the frivolity quickly turned to frustration when Johnson failed to start Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Late accident ruins Aric Almirola\u2019s winning chances at Dover DOVER, Del. \u2013 It was a case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Aric Almirola didn\u2019t want to see again. Almirola was leading Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway with eight laps left. Right in front of him was his first victory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[222,16],"class_list":["post-22262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dover-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5N4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MENCS_FrontRow.jpg?fit=3896%2C2304&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22264,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22262\/revisions\/22264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}