Jimmie Johnson takes record eighth career win at Dover

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Jimmie Johnson made both headway in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and history at Dover International Speedway after holding off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the final laps to win the AAA 400, scoring his record eighth career triumph at the Monster Mile.

A debris caution with 31 laps to go triggered one last round of pit stops, which saw Johnson retain the lead after taking two tires. Joining him in the two-tire camp were Jeff Gordon and Chase leader Matt Kenseth, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. took four tires for the last stint.

When the green flag came back out with 26 to go, Earnhardt quickly shot past Gordon and Kenseth to move to second position but couldn’t quite reel in Johnson, who was able to make the the two-tire stop work out handsomely.

“When they lined up right behind me, I thought I was gonna have my hands full and I did,” Johnson told ESPN after winning on a day where he led 243 laps. “Junior drove a whale of a race but the track position really gave me the advantage I needed to hold him off.”

With the victory, Johnson moved to second in the Chase at just eight points behind Kenseth, who fell back at the end to a seventh-place finish. Kyle Busch dropped to third in the Chase at 12 points behind Kenseth despite finishing fifth in the race.

And with seven races to go, it appears that the predictions of this being a three-horse race are coming true after all. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon are tied for fourth in the Chase, but at a whopping 39 points behind Kenseth.

“All these teams are great and when you put the 18 [Kyle Busch] and the 20 [Kenseth] up there, it’s going to make this a very difficult deal,” he said. “I think it’ll be fun for the fans to watch. We came to a good track and we got what we needed to get it done. I know that 20 is going to be awfully strong for the rest of the stretch and I look forward to racing him.”

As for Earnhardt, a strong afternoon wound up just short of what would have been a popular win among his army of fans. Afterwards, he admitted disappointment after he had thought four tires would have been the right call.

“That’s real disappointing there, but Jimmie’s just really that fast,” Earnhardt said. “He’s that good around this place and I thought I might be able to get to him. I was definitely going to do whatever I could to win if I could get him within reach, but I couldn’t even get to him.

“Just real disappointed…Running second is no better than running 10th to me. I’d like to get a trophy here soon.”

Joey Logano turned in a quiet but solid third-place effort ahead of Gordon in fourth and Kyle Busch in fifth.

More to come through the evening…

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.