NSCS - Autism Speaks 400 5/31

Jimmie Johnson dominated - leading 298 of the 400 laps for his 4th win @ Dover and 2nd this season. It wasn't without some drama. After pitting under caution with 36 laps to go, Johnson's crew changed four tires dropping Johnson back to 9th for the restart. Johnson was back to the front to challenge Tony Stewart for the lead with 2 laps remaining.

"I just had to go," Johnson said in victory lane. "I had one heck of a race with Tony. That's how racing's supposed to be done."



Tony Stewart held on for a runner-up finish. "I mean, you had three guys racing for the lead inside ten laps to go," Stewart said. "I don't know how it gets much more exciting than that. But I would say if I had to pick between the three of us on the racetrack, I'd have to say Jimmie. I mean, when you're the fastest car and you're coming as fast as he was, it was just a matter of getting the opening that he needed, and we did everything we could to take his line away from him as often as we could, but just couldn't do it long enough."

Stewart took over the top spot in the standings and is currently 46 points ahead of 2nd place, Jeff Gordon. One stat they highlighted during the broadcast: Tony is the first driver/owner to lead the points since Alan Kulwicki at the end of the 1992 season, November 15, 1992. To which Stewart replied, "We're excited about it. I mean, you know, it's been a dream season for us up to this point, and you hope that you don't wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden realize that we're just getting ready to go to Daytona or something and it's all been a dream to this point. I'm proud of our organization... Just proud of our guys. I mean, it's something that we probably all lost bets up to this point that we would be this far along. But it's a good bet to lose, I guess."

Jeff Gordon ran about 2 laps down in his back-up car for most of the day. He finished 26th.

Greg Biffle led three times for 41 laps, the 2nd highest amount of laps led in the race. Biffle finished 3rd followed by his Roush teammate Matt Kenseth. Kurt Busch finished 5th ahead of Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Casey Mears and Mark Martin - in the top 10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished 12th with his new crew chief, Lance McGrew.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

There were 10 cautions for 43 laps and 25 lead changes among 11 drivers:

D. Reutimann 1; J. Montoya 2-4; D. Reutimann 5-28; R. Sorenson 29-32; D. Gilliland 33; E. Sadler 34-35; G. Biffle 36-48; J. Johnson 49-115; C. Edwards 116-120; J. Johnson 121-125; C. Edwards 126-129; J. Johnson 130-164; C. Edwards 165; J. Johnson 166-232; C. Edwards 233; J. Johnson 234-239; M. Martin 240; J. Johnson 241-276; C. Edwards 277; M. Kenseth 278-284; J. Johnson 285-331; G. Biffle 332; J. Johnson 333-364; G. Biffle 365-391; T. Stewart 392-397; J. Johnson 398-400.