2019 Drydene 400

The 2019 Drydene 400 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race that was held on October 6, 2019 at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. Contested over 400 laps on the one-mile (1.6 km) concrete speedway, it was the 30th race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the fourth race of the Playoffs, and the first race of the Round of 12.

Background
Dover International Speedway (formerly Dover Downs International Speedway) is a race track in Dover, Delaware, United States. Since opening in 1969, it has held at least two NASCAR races. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the Verizon IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1 mi concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway was owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

Entry list

 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.
 * (R) denotes rookie driver.

First practice
Joey Logano was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 22.056 seconds and a speed of 163.221 mph.

Final practice
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 22.126 seconds and a speed of 162.705 mph.

Qualifying
Denny Hamlin scored the pole for the race with a time of 21.559 and a speed of 166.984 mph.

Stage 1
During the warm-up laps, Joey Logano(22) brought his car to the pits. A broken axle and differential gear problems sent his car to the garage for repairs. He missed the green flag.

Hamlin drove off into Turn 1 with the lead as cars settled into position rather quickly. Eight laps into the race, Elliott’s engine let go and he dropped out of the competition. Two playoff contenders in the garage after the first 10 laps of the event. Logano’s crew was able to repair the rear end in his car and he returned to the track 23 laps down.

Hamlin began lapping cars after a third of the laps in Stage 1 had been completed. The slower traffic allowed Kyle Larson(42) to close and attempt a pass for the lead. Larson led for a lap before Hamlin was able to retake the top spot. Almost 60 laps in, it was Larson that got boxed in by slower cars allowing Truex to close up. Ultimately Truex was able to pass Larson and begin to track down Hamlin for the lead.

Larson was the first of the leaders to pit on Lap 76. Hamlin followed one lap later. Not wanting to lose track position to drivers with fresher tires, most of the field began heading for pit road.

After pit stops cycled through it was Hamlin back out front. Followed by Truex, Larson, William Byron(24), and Kevin Harvick(4). Hamlin held on for the Stage win picking up the 10 bonus points and another playoff point.

Stage 2
Hamlin exited the pits first and held onto the top spot. Truex restarted 2nd and Harvick 3rd. Harvick got a great jump at the drop of the green flag and passed Truex for 2nd. Everyone settled into position and appeared content to just make laps.

With 55 laps to go in Stage 2, most of the leaders hit pit road. Truex, who had pitted a couple of laps earlier was looking for the lead. Hamlin retained the top spot, Truex replaced Harvick in 2nd. Byron was caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive-thru penalty dropping him 2 laps behind the leaders.

Hamlin had led 219 laps until Truex passed him with 12 laps to go in Stage 2. Logano, 23 laps down, would not yield to the leaders as they were battling for position. Truex won the Stage, Hamlin lost the 2nd position to Larson and Harvick finished 4th just ahead of Jimmie Johnson(48)

The Final Stage
Truex had trouble on his Stage ending pit stop. His rear tire changer slipped coming back to the left side of the car and knocked the air gun out of its locked state. The #19 car exited the pits in the 6th position. Larson came out in 1st with Hamlin 2nd, Harvick in 3rd, Erik Jones 4th, and Alex Bowman(88) in 5th.

Attesting to the importance of clean air, Truex tried to make an aggressive move on the restart to get back upfront. He could not make it stick and dropped back into position. Jones passed Harvick for 3rd and the race settled into what was expected to be a long run to the next pit stop. Cautions, if they occur, may determine the pit strategy of one or two stops to get to the end of the race. Only 14 cars remain on the lead lap for the run to the end of the final Stage.

With 100 laps to go in the race Ryan Blaney(12) came to pit road complaining of no brakes. His crew took a quick look and sent him to the garage to see if the problem could be repaired.

Larson built his lead to over five seconds. But, the fastest car all day, Martin Truex Jr., moved to second with just under 100 laps to go to the finish.

Green flag pit stops began with 80 laps to go. After service on all the cars was complete, Larson was still in the lead and had built his advantage over Truex to six seconds. With 40 laps to go Larson got stuck in lapped traffic and Truex cut the lead to under two seconds.

The Finish
When Larson cleared the lapped traffic he began to rebuild his lead on Truex. With 20 laps to go the interval was over four seconds. With 10 laps to the end, Truex had cut it to under three seconds. He was able to get within a second and a half, but ran out of laps as Larson took the win and the automatic advancement to the next round of the playoffs. The first time a Chip Ganassi driver has made it to the round of eight.

Playoff Implications
The big loser at Dover was Ryan Blaney, his brake issue cost him dearly as he sits in 12th place 22 points behind the last advancement position. Logano’s axle problem cost him a lot of points, the 29 playoff points he brought with him into the round kept him in it. He’s tied on the bubble.

Stage results
Stage One Laps: 120

Stage Two Laps: 120

Final stage results
Stage Three Laps: 160

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 14 among 9 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 3 for 17
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 56 minutes and 49 seconds
 * Average speed: 135.734 mph

Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, 2006 race winner Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and 2001 race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.

Radio
MRN had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and 3 time Dover winner Rusty Wallace had the call for MRN when the field raced down the front straightaway. Mike Bagley called the race from a platform outside turn 3 when the field raced down the back straightaway. Winston Kelley, Steve Post, and Kim Coon called the race for MRN from pit lane.

Standings after the race

 * Manufacturers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.