Kevin Harvick wins, Jimmie Johnson eliminated at Dover

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series headed to Dover global Speedway for the third race of the Chase.

The key to surviving the first two rounds of the Chase is simple.

Here is the simple math: Busch’s 37th-place finish in New Hampshire left him 13th in the Chase standings, heading into today’s first-round elimination race.

But when it came to securing a place in the 2015 Contender Round of NASCAR’s playoffs, the six-time premier series champion and his team were literally unable to seal the deal on Sunday.

Last year, Harvick scored two do-or-die victories to win the title. “Believe me, I knew good and well going over there that he wasn’t going to be in the best of moods”. After firing a testy payback salvo at Kenseth – “He won’t win this championship” – Harvick rallied to win in Phoenix and advance to the next round.

Harvick was unstoppable. Nothing, no one, no quirk of fate could keep him from winning. The No. 48 team came back, and finished the race, but in 41st. It was one for each of his team members. When asked about the demise of Johnson – with whom he’s been at odds since the Chicago incident – Harvick claimed innocence.

Still, a rear end seal was one of the last things on Johnson’s mind at Dover. In the limited practice that was available due to inclement weather, he struggled to find the balance in the auto, posting the 19th-quickest time in the opening session. You just try to focus on the things that concern you.

“We didn’t have to win that race in order to move on, we just needed to have a solid day”, Gordon said. Harvick then opened up a two and a half second lead over Kenseth by Lap 34.

Harvick dominated the race from start to finish, leading a total of 353 laps. Hamlin won the Chase opener at Chicagoland and Kenseth won last week at New Hampshire to earn automatic berths in the next round.The rest of the Chase grid looks like this: Jimmie Johnson is fifth, followed by Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Jeff Gordon. You’ve always got to fight through the Chase and there’s been no give-up in this 18 all year long and there’s none right now. “Well, you do the math, because you’re probably better at it than we are”. We’ll see what happens. The other element of Sunday: Who didn’t make cut.

Harvick is likely to continue to have fast cars.

The Contender Round is set to begin at Charlotte on Saturday night.

He anxious the cold temperatures would result in a concrete surface without spent rubber giving the groove traction. “I think for us, we all knew what we had to do, and it was really no different preparation than what we would do on a weekly basis”.

It turned out well. Harvick was dominant on that green flag run, as by Lap 100, he had opened up a five-second lead over Kyle Busch.

Beyond the considerable speed discrepancy, what has to further unnerve the competition is even if Harvick does stumble again and place himself in another unenviable position of needing a victory to advance, the expectation has become that he will be flourish. He was still in his zone.

“It does remind me of how much Dover and the state of Delaware has meant for me personally and for our team”, Gordon said. “I wonder if they’re watching my wife and kids in the motorhome lot”.

There might not have been any self-imposed pressure felt by Harvick, but Sunday’s race was filled with drama most everywhere else.