DOVER, del. — Matt Ken- seth held off Kyle Larson in a thrilling run down the stretch to win a wreck-filled race Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
Kenseth snapped a 17-race winless skid with his 37th career victory — and denied Larson his first win.
“I got digging the best I could and just tried to hold him off,” Kenseth said.
Kenseth and Larson battled door to door for part of the final five laps, and the 2003 NASCAR champion picked all the right lines and pulled away at the end. Chase Elliott made a late push and finished third. Larson matched his career-best finish, while Elliott had the top finish of his rookie season.
Kenseth joined his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in Victory Lane for 2016. Kenseth, 44, is older than the combined ages of Elliott, 20, and Larson, 23. Larson said he had too much respect for Kenseth to bump him out of the way when they closed within a few inches of each other.
“I was trying to do all I could do to get by him without getting into him,” Larson said.
Longtime star Jimmie Johnson triggered a late-race crash that eliminated several contenders. He was responsible for a pileup straight out of a Talladega Superspeedway highlight reel that knocked out a slew of drivers who competed up front all race and brought it to a halt with less than 50 laps left.
Johnson, a 10-time winner at Dover, failed to jump off the restart because of a faulty transmission in the No. 48. The six-time series champion could not shift his Chevy into third gear, and 18 cars — stacked and off at full speed — were collected in the melee.
Dover soon looked like a gnarly demolition derby.
“In my career,” Johnson said, “I’ve never had a transmission do that to me.”
Kasey Kahne finished fourth. Kurt Busch was fifth.
How truex fared
• Driving for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing in the Sprint Cup event at Dover (Del.) International Speedway on Sunday, Martin Truex Jr. led 47 laps and seemed in position to collect his first victory of the season. But Truex, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were among the drivers who saw their cars piled up on the concrete in a series of wrecks caused by Jimmie Johnson’s struggling No. 48 car.
• “I want to get out and punch somebody. Seriously. Hard. Like, as hard as I can,” Truex said over the radio after wrecking.
• Truex finished ninth after starting seventh.
• “I don’t know when our luck will change. All I know is that we’re bringing really fast cars to the track and contending for the win,” he said after the race. “It has to turn around. We’re too good a team not to have a victory by now.”
