Despite qualifying back in 29th for Sunday's Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott was able to rally for yet another top-five finish at the one-mile race track. Chase now has 10 top-five results in 14 career starts at Dover, and his 9.5 average finish at "The Monster Mile" is only bested by one other driver's: his teammate, Kyle Larson's average finish of 8.2 there. With this solid run at Dover, Elliott now sits third in the points standings through the first 11 races of the season and has the second-best average finish (10.3) of all drivers this year.

Denny Hamlin scored his third win of the season at the Wrth 400 at Dover this past weekend, a win that was forecasted by many models, including our own Jordan McAbee's algorithm-predicted finishing order two days ago. Hamlin's win shouldn't have come as a surprise because many observers expected that the tire wear at Dover would be similar to that at Bristol, a race where Hamlin dominated. Although the Dover race ended up not being much like Bristol, Hamlin still won, led the most laps, posted the fastest average speed, and took the lead from the other leading favorite, Kyle Larson, on the lap 329 restart shortly before the race's biggest crash. With his win, Hamlin ties William Byron in wins with 3 this season and extends his lead in most races with an on-track pass for the lead to 8. Denny continues to rank second in speed for the season to his teammate, Martin Truex, Jr.

Alex Bowman had a solid points day at Dover Motor Speedway this past weekend, scoring a total of 41 Championship points after finishing eighth in Stage One, second in Stage Two, and eighth at the checkered flag for the end of the race. However, the day could have been much better for Bowman, who came into Dover having five top-five finishes in his last six starts at the track. After the race, the Hendrick Motorsports driver stated, "But all in all, an okay day for our Ally No. 48 team. Eighth here is pretty bad for me, but I mean it's still a good point and a step in the right direction. A little more consistency than we've seen so hopefully we can keep plugging away at it."

Kyle Larson finished a close second to Denny Hamlin in this past weekend's Dover race. He led 39 laps after first beating Martin Truex, Jr. on a green flag pit cycle to win Stage 2 and again took the lead on a caution-flag exchange of pit stops on lap 325. In both cases, Larson eventually lost the lead to Hamlin, first in the pits under caution and later on the penultimate restart when Hamlin took the lead immediately before the crash that took out Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, and William Byron. Although he failed to pass Hamlin for the lead, Larson's finish was deserved as he also ranked second in speed and third in driver rating (only barely behind Martin Truex, Jr.) It was a strong run for Larson, but ultimately he could not overcome Hamlin's successful aero-blocking in a race where it was difficult to pass except on restarts.