Dover often provides some wild racing, and the end of the Nationwide race Saturday was no exception.

With a tight race between Carl Edwards and Joey Logano, both racing hard in a Green-White-Checkered finish, Logano got loose and major carnage ensued – knocking Clint Bowyer sideways and destroying the cars of Logano, Steven Wallace, and many others.

From his perspective, Edwards described it as follows:
“That was an odd finish emotionally for me to be honest with you. I thought I had bumped him and I thought somebody was hurt there. That looked like a bad enough wreck that I thought somebody was hurt. It was a very different feeling than you normally have in a race car at the end of a race. I am glad that I didn’t hit him and everything was okay. That is a product of what we do. When it comes down to it this race track we were driving so hard and there is so much grip and you are giving everything you can and the cars are so close at the end. Joey was racing as hard as he could and I was racing as hard as I could and that is why they call it the Monster Mile.”

Logano said that while on the track, he couldn’t tell what happened, and that ultimately it was just a product of hard racing.

"It just seemed like I either got tagged or I think just Carl (Edwards) coming up took the air off me enough to make me loose. Those shark fins they got them – you get a car underneath you right about that point you feel the car starting to get loose. It's unfortunate man. I felt like we had something to win this thing with the GameStop car. We had a good day, for sure. Just trying to get that little bit there at the end. Wish we didn't tear up as many cars as we did."

Jack Roush gives update on Bayne
It’s been a few weeks that Trevor Bayne has been sidelined due to an illness, but Jack Roush said Friday at Dover that we might seem him on track soon.
“I can’t say definitely because I don’t have the right pay grade and education for that, but he is making progress and his symptoms are by and large gone,” Roush said. “His blurred vision is by and large gone but we are going to take him to Grisham in Georgia to give him some laps to see if he is comfortable and then report back to the doctors and NASCAR to see what they think.”

Congrats to Bill Lester
Bill Lester, former NASCAR driver and current Grand-Am series competitor, took the checkered flag for the first time in his career Saturday in the Grand-Am series at Virginia International Raceway. It was also the first victory for his teammate Jordan Taylor, and the Autohaus Motorsports team.
“Everything came together,” Lester said. “Don’t let Jordan sell himself short, i mean that guy’s is really a rock star; he can flat drive a car. He brought it home, all I had to do is bring him the car. But it all starts with preparation at Autohaus, they did a phenomenal job.”

Lesson One: Don’t drive into traffic
Young Kevin Swindell was doing a decent job filling in for Trevor Bayne, when 19-year-old Alex Kennedy, who had already wrecked, drove straight into traffic and collected the #16 car.

As Swindell described it: “I was talking on the radio and trying to get a drink and get ready to come down pit road and I guess whoever was wrecked thought they could drive back across and drove straight up the hill. I was coming and at least it was just me and he didn’t wipe out more of us, but it ruins a great opportunity for me. We had finally got our stuff going there and the track was coming back to us. We weren’t too good at the beginning with the green track but we were getting better and finally getting back and passing some cars. It is frustrating what happened. It tore up a great Roush Fenway Ford and this may have been my only opportunity and it gets ruined by somebody being an idiot.”

Kennedy tried to defend himself by saying his car wouldn’t turn like he thought it would, but the fact here is pretty simple – Kennedy’s spotter should have told him to stay down low until all cars passed. It was yellow anyway, and his car was wrecked so there was no hurry. And more importantly, he should have seen the cars coming himself and known not to try and turn around when he did.

These kind of unexpected accidents can be deadly (this one kind of reminded me of the fatal accident when Deborah Renshaw hit a stopped Eric Martin on the track in an ARCA race), and Kennedy and his spotter should be penalized for their dangerous decision-making.

Lineup set by practice times for the first time
In the past, when qualifying was rained out, the field was set by owner points. Today, it was set by practice time at Dover, per the new NASCAR rules this year.
One big beneficiary was A.J. Allmendinger, who will start 2nd based on his practice time, right nextto Jimmie Johnson.

“For me, I used to be down in the 20’s in points so this actually worked out well. It was good. I feel like we came here and did the Goodyear tire test and this is my favorite track and the one I am best at. We unloaded good yesterday and worked on it a little bit. You really have to figure out when the right time to do a Q run is. We went out there and felt like we put up a really good lap. We were right there with Jimmie and unfortunately he had to cheat and do one extra run to beat my lap. I would like to have gotten qualifying in, but I think with the new system all we want is to control our own destiny instead of having something determined by stuff that was in the past like points. As long as you can control your own destiny you can’t complain. Starting second I am happy with. I feel like the Best Buy Ford is really good in race trim. Hopefully Jimmie and I will duel it out again.”



Become a fan of the Facebook page NASCARBeyond

https://twitter.com/MattMyftiu