NASCAR Sprint Cup: Truex wins at Dover, the Chase grid shrunk to 12

Martin Truex Jr. scores his fourth win of the season and seventh in a career at Dover International Speedway,winning the Citizen Soldier 400. It was the last race in the Round of 16 of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, so the grid is shrinked to 12 drivers for the next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The four drivers who felt out from the Chase are Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray and Chris Buescher. Twelve drivers who are still in are Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon.

Victory at Dover was Truex’s seventh Sprint Cup win in a career

Truex cruied to his second win at the Monster Mile

At Sunday’s race at Dover Martin Truex cruised to his second victory at the Monster Mile. He led for 187 of 400 laps and beat runner-up Kyle Busch to the finish line by 7.527 seconds. Chase drivers dominated the top nine in the finishing order, with Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon and Denny Hamlin running third through ninth, respectively. All nine drivers advanced to the Chase’s Round of 12, along with Carl Edwards (14th at Dover), Kurt Busch (15th) and Kevin Harvick (37th).

Two Chip Ganassi’s drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson were bounced from the Chase on Sunday, together with Chris Buescher and retiring veteran Tony Stewart.

All advancing drivers will have their points reset to 3,000 and the battle for the title starts from the beginning. There are three races in the Round of 12, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.