Jimmie Johnson wins at Dover for the tenth time

Thanks to a series of late cautions, Jimmie Johnson was able to take the lead late and then hold off the other leaders on restarts to win his fourth Sprint Cup race of 2015, and his tenth at Dover International Speedway. The win came as he and his team are preparing to appeal a penalty given due to a rules violation at Charlotte last week. Before Johnson pulled away from the rest of the field, Kevin Harvick in the #4 Chevrolet led some laps. The leader of the most laps once again was Martin Truex Jr. in the #78 Chevrolet, but he fell back to sixth on the final two-lap green-white-checkered run to the finish.

Many drivers encountered problems including polesitter Denny Hamlin, who led during much of the opening green-flag run, but got caught up in a late wreck with the #41 Chevrolet of Kurt Busch. Hamlin's Joe Gibbs teammate, Matt Kenseth in the #20 Toyota, suffered mechanical problems as did the #17 Roush Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Another one of Hamlin's teammates, Kyle Busch (#18) wrecked with Brian Scott after a long late green run. Stenhouse's teammate Trevor Bayne (#6) also got caught up in a wreck along with the #51 Chevrolet of Justin Allgaier. Bayne was called to the NASCAR hauler for walking onto the track under yellow flag conditions with cars still passing by on the track.

One driver who had a particularly interesting day was Dale Earnhardt Jr. He changed the rear gear on his #88 Hendrick Chevrolet and had to move from 16th to the rear for the start, worked his way up to 26th and then got lapped by Truex, then got back on the lead lap when he was the last to pit during green flag stops only to have to pit under yellow from the lead when Stenhouse brought out the caution. Earnhardt then got from 22nd all the way to seventh before being penalized during the next set of green flag stops for entering pit road to fast (Carl Edwards in the #19 Toyota was also penalized). Earnhardt got back down to about 25th place and lost two laps, before finishing a lap down in 14th place behind the #55 Toyota of David Ragan. Next week the series heads to Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway, where Earnhardt swept both Cup races in 2014.

Race Results:

1. (14) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 405 laps, led 23 laps
2. (6) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 405 laps, led 91 laps
3. (3) 42-Kyle Larson - Chevrolet - 405 laps
4. (25) 5-Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 405 laps
5. (23) 43-Aric Almirola - Ford - 405 laps
6. (2) 78-Martin Truex Jr. - Chevrolet - 405 laps, led 131 laps
7. (11) 1-Jamie McMurray - Chevrolet - 405 laps
8. (18) 27-Paul Menard - Chevrolet - 405 laps
9. (20) 15-Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 405 laps, led 1 lap
10. (22) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 405 laps