2010 AAA 400: Jimmie Johnson Wins at Dover in the Chase

The 2010 AAA 400 was the 28th race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the second of the ten Chase events, the playoff that decides the title. Jimmie Johnson won at Dover International Speedway in Delaware on 26 September 2010, from the pole, and led 191 laps on his way to his sixth win of the season and his 53rd in his career.

Where did the 2010 AAA 400 fit in the season?

The race was the 28th of the 2010 season and the second of the Chase races. Dover is a short track on the NASCAR schedule. Johnson's win moved him into second place in the Drivers Championship, 35 points behind Denny Hamlin.

Dover is one of five short tracks on the NASCAR schedule. Its four-turn oval measures 1.6 km (1 mile), and the turns are banked at 24 degrees. The venue has seats for 135,000 spectators, so the crowd is large even for a track of this length.

Before the race, Hamlin led the Drivers Championship with 5,230 points. Kevin Harvick was second with 5,185 points and Kyle Busch third with 5,168. Johnson was also the defending race champion at Dover, so he arrived with a result to defend as well as a points position to protect.

Chevrolet led the Manufacturers Championship with 197 points, thirty-two points ahead of Toyota. Those team totals mattered as much as the individual standings, because the manufacturer points were still being battled across the season.

Further down the order Johnson held 5,138 points, three ahead of Carl Edwards, while Greg Biffle had 5,122, four ahead of Jeff Burton and sixteen ahead of Tony Stewart. Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer sat eleventh and twelfth.

A late lead, a 2.637 second margin and a Chase standings shake-up made Dover a turning point for Johnson.

How did practice and qualifying set the grid?

Three practice sessions came before the race: 90 minutes on Friday, then a 45-minute session and a 60-minute session on Saturday. Ryan Newman was quickest in the first session, and the third practice ended with Hamlin and Harvick colliding with each other.

Forty-five cars entered qualifying, but only forty-three could race under NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Johnson took his 25th Sprint Cup pole with a lap of 23.116 seconds, and A. J. Allmendinger started alongside him on the front row in second.

Mark Martin qualified third, but his time was disallowed because the right rear shock was over the permitted gas pressure limit. That penalty sent him to 42nd on the grid, since the shock was over the permitted gas pressure limit. Martin Truex Jr. took fourth and Hamlin fifth, while Tony Stewart qualified 26th and Harvick 34th.

In the second practice session Reutimann was quickest, ahead of Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch, with Montoya fourth and Johnson fifth. Carl Edwards was twentieth in that session and Kevin Harvick twenty-sixth. In the third practice Logano was fastest at 23.802 seconds, with Bowyer and Burton close behind.

Ted Musgrave, Josh Wise and Jeff Green failed to qualify. Johnson's team had struggled to set up the car during qualifying, but the pole still gave them a strong start to the race.

Dan Schafer of Calvary Assembly of God gave the invocation, Jessie James sang the anthem and Marke Dickinson of the American Automobile Association gave the start command. The race was televised live on ESPN and began in the early afternoon in partly cloudy weather.

How did the lead change hands in the opening stages?

Johnson kept the lead into the first corner, with Allmendinger second on the front row. Allmendinger took the lead on the 14th lap and then stretched a 1.2 second advantage over Johnson across 28 consecutive green-flag laps. The gap was small, but it showed that the front row could push the pole sitter.

Hamlin started fourth and had fallen to fifth by the second lap, and Juan Pablo Montoya moved into fourth one lap later. Mark Martin gained eleven positions by the 18th lap, while Nemechek fell a lap down on the 31st lap and Bobby Labonte followed him six laps later.

The first caution came after a cover on one of the caution lights came loose. The pace car erased Allmendinger's 1.2 second lead, and the cars regrouped behind it. Tony Stewart changed only two tyres on his stop, which moved him toward the front, but he was losing positions quickly once the race resumed.

The second caution came on the 50th lap, after David Reutimann hit the wall following contact from Ryan Newman. During that caution Harvick's rear tyre changer fell and hurt his wrist, a reminder of the physical risk on pit road for the crews as well as the drivers.

After qualifying Johnson said the session was a step in the right direction for momentum, and he admitted the team had run much better the weekend before than where it finished.

How did the middle of the race play out?

By the 66th lap Allmendinger's laps at the front in this race already outnumbered the laps he had led in his 107 earlier starts put together. He was two.nine seconds ahead of Martin Truex Jr. by the 85th lap, and Johnson had moved into second by the 93rd lap. Johnson had first passed Greg Biffle for fourth, and Montoya took third on the 61st lap.

Allmendinger reclaimed first place on the 122nd lap, extending his lead to more than five seconds after the green-flag stops.

Bowyer and Stewart, both Chase drivers, stayed in the top ten for most of the race, but neither was able to keep a clean run in the closing stages. Edwards moved up to ninth on the 138th lap while Truex remained second, and Edwards later passed Jeff Burton for fourth after moving past Gordon for fifth.

Clint Bowyer hit the wall on the 158th lap but sustained only side damage. Johnson moved into second on the 162nd lap and then reclaimed the lead on the 172nd lap after Allmendinger fell to 27th during a pit stop, so the race turned on a single stop.

Those stops were the decisive moments of the middle stint. Allmendinger's run had been the strongest of the afternoon, but a slow stop removed him from contention and handed Johnson the advantage he needed.

Crew chief Chad Knaus said the car did not react as the team expected when it unloaded, so the team had to make significant changes before qualifying. Burton said the car got happy about halfway through the next-to-last run, and that the team was proud to have the car right at the right time.

Montoya held seventh until lap 145, when Edwards passed him. After 147 laps Hamlin was running sixth and Gordon tenth, and on lap 202 Kyle Busch reclaimed third from Gordon.

Did the pit stops decide the race?

Johnson had led sixty-four laps by the 219th lap, and by the 249th lap his advantage had grown to 3.21 seconds. Pit stops and cautions kept reshuffling the order, but Johnson's car was the one that could pull away once the late stints began.

Truex had a loose wheel after a stop, and his rear axle broke on pit road, ending his run at the front. The third caution came on the 186th lap for a flat tyre on Matt Kenseth's car. Those problems reduced the number of cars that could challenge at the front in the final laps.

The fourth caution came on the 290th lap for debris. Kyle Busch passed Johnson on pit stops to lead the restart, but Logano passed Johnson for second two laps later. Johnson then retook the lead from Kyle Busch on the 327th lap, so the lead changed hands several times on the final stint.

Hornish's car caught fire on pit road on the 371st lap, a moment that added to the tension of the closing laps. Johnson kept his lead through the final stops, and he crossed the line with a margin of 2.637 seconds.

Hamlin and Harvick had collided in practice, and the two teams traded sharp words in the garage over comments about Clint Bowyer's penalty from New Hampshire.

Newman was quickest in the first practice session, with Carl Edwards second, Kasey Kahne third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Greg Biffle fifth. Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Allmendinger, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon completed the first-practice top ten.

Who finished in the top five?

Johnson won, Jeff Burton was second, Joey Logano was third after starting 19th, Kurt Busch was fourth and Carl Edwards fifth after starting tenth. Hamlin finished ninth. The table lists the top finishers and the details that explain each result.

The finish came after three hours, two minutes and twenty-seven seconds of racing. It drew 88,000 people to the track, and 3.966 million people watched on television.

Hamlin kept the points lead with 5,368 points after the race. Harvick finished fifth, and Edwards, Burton, Gordon, Biffle and Stewart filled out the top ten behind him.

How did the Chase contenders fare?

Several Chase drivers had difficult afternoons at Dover. Bowyer and Stewart ran near the front for much of the afternoon, but both suffered spins or other problems in the closing laps. Stewart had started 26th and Harvick 34th, so both began well back in the order.

Hamlin finished ninth and kept the points lead, while Kyle Busch and Johnson were separated by ten points in the standings. Kenseth was eleventh and Bowyer twelfth in the Chase standings after the race, which left several contenders chasing the top of the table.

What did the result mean for the Chase?

Johnson's win lifted him to second in the Drivers Championship, 35 points behind Hamlin and ten points ahead of Kyle Busch. With eight races left in the Chase, the title was still open. Hamlin finished ninth and kept the lead, while Kurt Busch remained fourth on 5,309 points.

Chevrolet extended its manufacturer lead, with 206 points to Toyota's 171 and Ford's 126. Chevrolet was 35 points ahead of Toyota and eighty points ahead of Ford, with eight races still to run.

Johnson said the difference on the day was the driver, once the car changes had not worked out as planned. Burton said his team had worked all day to fix rear grip, and that the car came good at the right moment.

Hamlin called the day mediocre but said he would take a 35-point lead out of Dover. Stewart and Bowyer, both Chase drivers, spun or suffered problems in the closing laps, so the day ended with more ground to make up for them.