NASCAR Dover 2016 recap: weird race facets a deserving winner

After time and again coming close all season, Matt Kenseth broke through Sunday to win his first race of 2016.

all over a season when victories perpetually slipped away, it could were effortless for Matt Kenseth to query and element fingers at himself and those round him.

via all of it, even though, Kenseth, knew eventually situations would finally work in his want. He and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing group had been effortlessly too talented and their vehicles too quick to now not eventually win.

for that reason, Kenseth did not bemoan when teammate Denny Hamlin defied an agreed upon game plan and instead passed Kenseth for lead on the final nook of the last lap of the Daytona 500. right here week, when a pit highway penalty took away a superb possibility to win, Kenseth did not criticize his group for the infraction, simplest the inability of communication that stored him uninformed that a penalty had been committed.

When yet another teammate, Kyle Busch, prioritized his own self-hobbies first at Martinsville Speedway, Kenseth understood. a possible win hung within the balance and Busch obligatory to do what became most useful for himself and his group. this is racing.

There become no despair when crashes ended potent runs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway or Bristol Motor Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway. Racing can regularly be cruel, a reality Kenseth, the 2003 Cup series, absolutely comprehends.

And so it was more than appropriate that within the strangest race of 2016, the place calamity constantly struck and bizarre occurrences had been the norm, that it became Kenseth who emerged effective Sunday at Dover foreign Speedway.

"I think just like the way we have been operating, at last legislations of averages are going to determine, you might be going to get your wins, your finishes," Kenseth pointed out. "or not it's going to turn up in some unspecified time in the future."

not like many different instances this season, Kenseth didn't have some of the most appropriate cars at Dover. Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick appeared poised to blitzkrieg the field, main 116 of the first 117 laps and constructing multi-second gaps on 2nd-region. Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. every asserted themselves within the core ranges, as did Kyle Larson.

but simply as fate had conspired against Kenseth all through the season, on Sunday he became the beneficiary of others' misfortune.

Harvick had the quickest motor vehicle, except he stored robotically dropping spots on pit street, which charge him effective track place and without delay attributed to getting swept into a pair of accidents. Keselowski hit a backmarker whereas working 2d, ripping the entrance fender off his Ford. Truex, whose hardships in 2016 surpasses even Kenseth's, changed into victimized when Jimmie Johnson's motor vehicle inexplicably slowed on a restart triggering an 18-motor vehicle pileup that eradicated several contenders.

presented with golden possibility, Kenseth capitalized.

"It become a type of days where everything lined up for us at the end of the race," Kenseth stated. "... it all labored out for us, variety of the contrary as I feel like it be been going the ultimate couple months."

last even keel amidst the inevitable highs and lows of the recreation is a Kenseth forte, a characteristic that has served him well.

"To have what came about to Matt at Daytona, to look the manner he handled that, I suppose that claims an awful lot about him because you might with no trouble be upset about that," group owner Joe Gibbs talked about. "but Matt's had a fine attitude via every little thing."

Of route, taking the respectable with the dangerous is less complicated to do if you're aligned with NASCAR's most dominant drive over the past twelve months.

The organization has considered its four drivers (Kenseth, Hamlin, Busch and Carl Edwards) mix to win seven of 12 races this season and 19 of the past 37 normal. A sustained degree of excellence that comprises victories on every variance of song on the sprint Cup collection schedule, triumphs in all 4 of NASCAR's marquee pursuits and capped with Busch profitable the championship ultimate November.

For his part, Kenseth won 5 times a year ago. A figure that is now not unrealistic to expect him to equal or surpass in 2016 as, with the exception of a pair of road lessons, the summer stretch of events are all on tracks that he's gained prior to now and evident via JGR's superiority, the caliber of machine is rarely a concern.

no longer that Kenseth will presume the rest.

"which you could not ever take it without any consideration," Kenseth pointed out. "I nevertheless got to exit and do the work every week and make it turn up."

simply as he did Sunday at Dover.