After stinking up the show for most of the day, Jimmie Johnson made things interesting late in the going by beating Tony Stewart in late-race duel for the checkers. When the field hit pit road for the final time of the day on Lap 365, Johnson took four tires while others opted for just two. The No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Chevrolet restarted the race with only 32 laps to go from the ninth spot. Stuck in traffic for one of the first times all day, Johnson set out to make up the lost ground.

While Greg Biffle tried to hold on to the lead, Tony Stewart and a hard-charging Johnson began to put the pressure on the No. 16 Ford Fusion with ten laps to go. Stewart got a great run off Turn 4 with just nine laps remaining to dive under Biffle and capture the top-spot. From there on out, Stewart and Johnson put on one heck of a show while the Hardcore Race Fans in the stands came to their feet.

Working hard to get past Stewart, Johnson took his No. 48 Chevrolet to the high side in an attempt to capture the lead. The driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet tried to take Johnson’s line away lap after lap for the final eight circuits. Putting on a great show for the fans, Johnson finally got a run into the third corner and took the advantage with only two laps to go.

Scoring the victory, Johnson earned his fourth win at the Dover International Speedway and second of the 2009 season. The three-time defending series champion led nine times for a race-high 298 laps.

“Great race car, so much fun today, we had an awesome, awesome race car,” Johnson said in Victory Lane. “Those guys stayed on with two and I just had to go. Running around the top and had one heck of a race with Tony. That’s how racing is supposed to be done. Big thanks to the fans for their support; hopefully we put on a great show for them.”

Coming home second, Stewart earned his sixth top-5 finish and took the points lead from Jeff Gordon. Moving atop the series standings, Stewart became the first owner/driver to lead the points since Alan Kulwicki in 1993.

“Just pretty excited about the end of the day there,” Stewart said. “It was fun racing with Jimmie like that.  Definitely the fastest car.  They've been the fastest car all day, so there's no shame in running second to a guy that led the most laps all day.  So pretty excited about it. 

“He was like a freight train coming,” Stewart said of Johnson. “I was surprised I could hold him off as long as I did, I was pretty happy that we were able to do it for that long.

“I hope the fans [enjoyed the finish],” Stewart added. “You had three guys racing for the lead within ten laps to go, so I don’t know how it gets more exciting.”

After losing the battle with Stewart and Johnson, Biffle brought his No. 16 Ford Fusion home in the third-spot. Starting fifth on the day, Biffle showed his strength early in the going, but was caught on pit road when a caution flew during the opening round of green-flag stops.

“We had a great car,” Biffle said following the race. “What really probably screwed our day up was getting caught on pit road. We were running second I was catching the 48. I went through the green flag cycle and got a lap down and the 48 was still the leader with four new tires. I’m not sure how that played out. We spent the rest of the day getting back all the way to the front, so we were in traffic all day.”

Once he got to the clear of the traffic, Biffle explained his car got loose and the problem only got worse when he got to the lead – so loose he couldn’t drive it. With little pressure coming from behind him, Biffle was able to hang on and score his ninth top-10 in fourteen races at Dover.

Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth scored the fourth-place finish after leading one time for seven laps.

"It was a good run for the whole DeWalt team," Kenseth said. "We were kind of up and down all day. We didn't have anything that could compete with Jimmie. He had everybody covered, but we had a pretty good car and came home fourth. We couldn't quite get it right, but it was pretty decent."

Kurt Busch showed strength late in the going, but slipped back to fifth when the checkered flag fell.

“This place is always tough and to come out of here with a fifth-place finish is really awesome,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge explained. “I think that we can hold our heads high and be proud of our effort.”

The 400-mile event featured twenty-five lead changes among eleven drivers. The race was slowed by ten yellow flags, six of which were for debris.

Next week the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series head to the Pocono Raceway and HardcoreRaceFans.com will be there to bring you all of the action from mountains of Pennsylvania.

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