In the first race of round two of the playoffs for the Monster Energy Cup Series, the teams travel to Dover, Delaware and the Monster Mile to take on Mile the Monster in the Drydene 400.

This year Miles the Monster celebrates 50 years of racing and the 100th NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series race. The winner of the race will receive a golden Miles the Monster trophy.

After single car qualifying, in a new track record with a time of 21.599 seconds Denny Hamlin wins the pole and will bring the field to green. Kyle Larson will start alongside Hamlin on the front row just three thousands of a second behind Hamlin. This will be Denny Hamlin’s 500th Monster Cup start.

After failing the pre qualifying inspection process twice, the Joe Gibbs Racing number 19 car driven by Martin Truex Jr had one of their engineers ejected from the track for the remainder of the weekend. While Truex will have to forfeit 15 minutes of practice next week, he does get to keep his third place starting spot for the race.

The starting lineup for the Drydene 400:
Denny Hamlin
Kyle Larson
Martin Truex Jr
Kevin Harvick
Chase Elliott
William Byron
Aric Almirola
Erik Jones
Kurt Busch
Ryan Blaney
Jimmie Johnson
Alex Bowman
Paul Menard
Joey Logano
Daniel Suarez
Brad Keselowski
Clint Bowyer
Kyle Busch
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Matt DiBenedetto
David Ragan
Chris Buescher
Matt Tifft
Ryan Newman
Ty Dillon
Bubba Wallace
Austin Dillon
Michael McDowell
Corey LaJoie
Landon Cassill
Daniel Hemric
Ryan Preece
BJ McLeod
Ross Chastain
JJ Yeley
Joe Nemechek
Garrett Smithley
Reed Sorenson

Stages one and two of the race are 120 laps each with stage three lasting 160 laps for a total of 400 laps around the one mile concrete track. With a fuel load of around 80 or so laps, the drivers cannot complete any of the stages on a single fuel load.

Even before the race began, Joey Logano had to bring his number 22 car down pit road and to the garage with a mechanical issue. After repairing the rear axle, Logano returned to the track 23 laps down.

Denny Hamlin brings the field down for the green flag start of the race from the outside laneand gets out in front for the lead.

Martin Truex Jr is reporting radio issues…for the second week in a row.

Lap six, Denny Hamlin has a half second lead on Kyle Larson.

Chase Elliott brings out the first caution flag of the race on lap eight when he leaves fluid on the track. Elliott reports that his car blew up but there is an axle on the track. Chase Elliott takes his car to the garage and is out of the race.

Denny Hamlin brings the field down for the green flag restart on lap 13 with Hamlin holding on to his lead with Kyle Larson in second.

Lap 22, Denny Hamlin has a lead of over half a second on Kyle Larson.

Lap 23, Joey Logano returns to the track.

Lap 28, Kyle Larson has caught up to Denny Hamlin and is challenging for the lead, but Hamlin held off Larson and begins pulling away.

LOL, when Jeff Burton makes it to the broadcast booth after his joyride around the track segment, he asks his fellow broadcasters what did he miss.

Denny Hamlin has encountered lapped traffic once again, while Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr battle for position.

Ryan Blaney is reporting some issues with his engine, saying that it doesn’t sound right.

Denny Hamlin has led every lap so far.

Lap 48, Denny Hamlin has pulled out to a lead of nearly a second and a half on Kyle Larson. The Busch brothers are battling for the ninth place spot.

Lap 52, Martin Truex Jr gets around Kyle Larson to take over second place.

Lap 60, Martin Truex Jr has closed the gap on leader Denny Hamlin to just under a second.

Lap 64, there are 19 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 76, Corey LaJoie has to come down pit road with a loose roof.

Lap 78, drivers begin making green flag pit stops.

Jimmie Johnson is having radio issues in his car.

Aric Almirola was caught speeding on pit road and has to serve a pass through penalty with speeds of only 35 mph on pit road.

Once green flag pit stops have cycled through, Denny Hamlin retakes the lead and has a lead of nearly two seconds on martin Truex Jr.

Ryan Newman, Bubba Wallace, and David Ragan were also caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a pass through penalty. With the pit road and on track speed differences,drivers are going a lap down when serving a pass through penalty.

Lap 88, there are only 16 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 92, Denny Hamlin has increased his lead on Martin Truex Jr to two and a half seconds.

Lap 98, there are 14 cars on the lead lap. Martin Truex Jr has closed the gap on leader Denny Hamlin to just under two seconds. Kyle Larson is in third over six seconds back.

Lap 108, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the race with a one second lead over Martin Truex Jr.

Kevin Harvick adds his name to the growing list of drivers who are having radio issues.

There are 14 cars on the lead lap.

After leading over 110 laps, Denny Hamlin wins stage one.

The top 10 at the end of stage one:
Denny Hamlin
Martin Truex Jr
Kyle Larson
William Byron
Kevin Harvick
Alex Bowman
Jimmie Johnson
Kyle Busch
Erik Jones
Ryan Blaney

Denny Hamlin wins the race off of pit road.

Paul Menard was charged with having an uncontrolled tire on pit road. Kyle Busch was caught speeding on pit road. Alex Bowman had a tire issue on his pit stop.

Denny Hamlin brings the field down for the green flag start of stage two and jumps out in front while Martin Truex Jr and Kevin Harvick battle for second.

Lap 133, Demny Hamlin has a lead of over half a second on Kevin Harvick with 18 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 141, Danny Hamlin holds on to his half second lead over Kevin Harvick.

Lap 154, Kevin Harvick has closed in on leader Denny Hamlin as they encounter slower traffic. There are 17 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 157, Denny Hamlin has pulled out to a lead of over a second on Kevin Harvick.

Lap 166, Kevin Harvick has once again closed in on leader Denny Hamlin.

Lap 180, Denny Hamlin is in the groove and has a lead of over half a second on Kevin Harvick.

Lap 183, drivers begin making their green flag pit stops.

William Byron was caught speeding on pit road and has to serve a pass through penalty.

Once green flag pit stops have cycled through, Denny Hamlin retakes the lead with Martin Truex Jr in second over a second back.

Lap 200, halfway, Denny Hamlin continues to dominate the race with a lead of over half a second on Martin Truex Jr.

Lap 207, Denny Hamlin has led 196 of them.

Lap 228, Martin Truex Jr passes Denny Hamlin to take the lead.

Kyle Larson challenges Martin Truex Jr for the lead as Denny Hamlin begins falling back in the field.

Martin Truex Jr wins stage two for his sixth stage win of the season.

The top 10 at the end of stage two:
Martin Truex Jr
Kyle Larson
Denny Hamlin
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Alex Bowman
Erik Jones
Ryan Blaney
Brad Kesekowski
Clint Bowyer

Kyle Larson wins the race off of pit road.

Kyle Larson brings the field down for the green flag start of stage three with Kyle Larson getting out in front for the lead with Denny Hamlin in second.

Lap 253, Kyle Larson has a lead of a second on Denny Hamlin with Erik Jones in third.

Lap 263, Kyle Larson has pulled out to a lead of two and a half seconds on Denny Hamlin.

Denny Hamlin radios his team saying that he thinks the car is blowing up. He is running the fastest times on the track.

Lap 274, Kyle Larson has increased his lead to three and a half seconds on Denny Hamlin. There are 14 cars on the lead lap.

Ryan Blaney makes an unscheduled trip down pit road with no brakes.

One hundred to go, Kyle Larson is looking to erase a 75 race losing streak, he has a lead of over five seconds on Denny Hamlin.

Lap 307, Martin Truex Jr finally gets around Denny Hamlin for second.

Lap 319, drivers begin the final round of green flag pit stops.

Erik Jones was caught speeding on pit road and will have to serve a pass through penalty.

Once green flag pit stops have cycled through, Kyle Larson retakes the lead by five seconds over Martin Truex Jr.

Lap 342, Kyle Larson has a five second lead on Martin Truex Jr with eleven cars on the lead lap.

Mired in traffic, leader Kyle Larson is losing his big lead over Martin Truex Jr; a six second lead is now only two seconds.

Thirty five laps to go, Kyle Larson has a lead of nearly three seconds on Martin Truex Jr. There are only eight cars on the lead lap.

Twenty four to go, Kyle Larson’s lead has grown to over four seconds on Martin Truex Jr.

Ten to go, Kyle Larson’s lead is down to three seconds on Martin Truex Jr.

Kyle Larson takes the white flag.

In his first ever Dover win, Kyle Larson has secured his spot in the next round of the playoffs…and the first roind of eight playoff spot for Penske Racing.

The unofficial results of the Drydene 400:
Kyle Larson
Martin Truex Jr
Alex Bowman
Kevin Harvick
Denny Hamlin
Kyle Busch
Matt DiBenedetto
Jimmie Johnson
Kurt Busch
Clint Bowyer
Brad Keselowski
Paul Menard
William Byron
Daniel Suarez
Erik Jones
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Aric Almirola
Austin Dillon
Ryan Preece
Bubba Wallace
Daniel Hemric
Ryan Newman
Ty Dillon
Michael McDowell
Matt Tifftt
Landon Cassill
David Ragan
Corey LaJOie
BJ McLeod
Joe Nemechek
Ross Chastain
JJ Yeley
Garrett Smithley
Joey Logano
Ryan Blaney
Chris Buescher
Reed Sorenson
Chase Elliott

 

feature photo credit: By Sector001 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21545910