Brad Keselowski firmly planted himself as the championship favorite on Sunday at Dover, taking the checkered flag for the second time in three weeks.
Keselowski took the victory at Dover International Speedway in the No. 2 car after outlasting host of other drivers, who were forced to stretch out their limited amount of fuel until the end of the race,
The win gave Keselowski a five-point lead over Jimmie Johnson as the Chase moves to Talladega Superspeedway. Keselowski also won at Chicagoland.
"I can't state loudly enough how much longer this battle is," Keselowski told the Associated Press.
Keselowski was able to hold off Jeff Gordon, who finished second, to tie Denny Hamlin for the season lead with five victories.
Johnson and Hamlin each had solid races, leading a number of laps towards the end, but couldn't outlast Keselowski. Johnson, who has won seven times at Dover, was forced to hold off on his gas as the race winded down and ended up finishing fourth. Hamlin had no choice but to take pit road with 10 laps left, giving Keselowski a chance to take the lead for good.
"They're not going to beat us on the track, that's just plain and simple," Hamlin said. "We're just too fast right now and I feel like everything is going well. These strategy games, and the way these cautions are falling, it's ill-timed."
A caution flag came out just 69 laps into the race, dropping a host of drivers a lap behind. Non-Chase driver Kyle Busch led the race for 302 laps, but also had to deal with fuel issues and eventually finished seventh. Mark Martin finished the race third and Carl Edwards came in fifth.
Apart from the top finishers, the rest of the Chase field had a rough day. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 11th, while Kasey Kahne ended up 15th and Tony Stewart fell back to finish 20th.
Keselowski's crew chief Paul Wolfe was essential to the win, figuring out a way to save enough fuel to make it to the finish line. He was able to keep Keselowski on the track for the last 89 laps without a stop.
"There's always some risk in calls like that," Wolfe said. "We know where we stand. We know what we need to do. We know the guys are racing right now for the championship. I felt like we were as good as anybody on mileage."
Johnson had a solid chance to win the race, but was forced to save fuel with 15 laps to go, or he might not have finished.
"I wish we could have raced for it," said Johnson, a five-time Cup champion. "We finally got control of the race late. But it just didn't unfold like a normal race here."
Gordon is 10th in chase points, but had a strong finish as runner-up two weeks after finishing 35th at Chicagoland.
"We're not going to continue in this championship against those guys up front if they keep running the way they're running," Gordon said. "The only way we're going to get a chance at them is if they have a problem like we had (in the opener). If we keep running like this, we'll get the wins."
With seven races left in the Chase, Keselowski has put himself in a prime position to win it all.
"He didn't make a mistake. We didn't lose any time on the track," team owner Roger Penske said. "He's doing a terrific job and I love the position we're in."
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