As  the sun rose and the clouds cleared, sixteen drivers walked to their cars, knowing that four of them wouldn’t be leaving Dover in the championship hunt. At the end of this day, 12 will advance, and four shall fall. With qualifying and most of the practices rained out, drivers didn’t really know what to expect of this 400 mile race.

Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin started on the front row, thanks to their points position. When the green flag waved Kenseth claimed the lead and held it for 25 laps. However, Kevin Harvick, who needed a win coming into this race to advance in the Chase, took just 25 laps to driver from 15th, to 1st. Wow. Harvick was destined to stay up front almost all day. However, leading the last lap is what matters.

While Harvick was up front dominating, the Chase race became tight. Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer, both under-dog Chase drivers, struggled most of the day. I will just say it now, they both missed the next round of the Chase. However, that left 2 people who would be eliminated.

On lap 100, the unthinkable happened. Jimmie Johnson, a six-time champion who has never finished worse than 11th in the Chase, had something break in his car. It was in his rear axle. As a result, Johnson fell 37 laps down. He finished 41st, and missed the next round of the Chase. Who would think it possible he would be eliminated this early in the Chase? Guilty.

That left one more person to be eliminated. Well, no other Chase drivers struggled, so it came down to points. As the final laps closed in, eight driver were within 15 points of missing the next round of the Chase. The bottom, were Jamie McMurray, in his first Chase, and fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Throughout the race the two of them swapped spots, each taking turns running behind the other.

When the final caution came out, this was the situation. Harvick was in the lead, and to advance he needed to stay there. McMurray was a couple of spots ahead of Dale Jr. Should everyone finish were they ran, Jr. would be the final driver eliminated. As they restarted Harvick got a jump on the field and pulled away.

While he pulled away, Earnhardt drove like mad, doing everything he could to try to catch McMurray. And he did. Jr. used a slingshot move to get around Jamie. They were now tied in points. Earnhardt had the tie breaker, since he was ahead of Jamie.

Harvick maintained his lead over second place Kyle Busch, and won his third race of the season, his first at Dover, and that win advanced him to round 2 of the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Dale Jr. stayed ahead of McMurray, and thus secured a spot in the next Chase round, and eliminated McMurray. Here are the final results of round one:

Advanced on wins: Kevin Harvick-          Dover

Matt Kenseth-                                          Loudon

Denny Hamlin-                                         Chicagoland

Advanced on points: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Gordon

Kurt Busch

Joey Logano

Brad Keslowski

Martin Truex Jr.

Carl Edwards

Kyle Busch

Ryan Newman

Eliminated: Jimmie Johnson

Paul Menard

Jamie McMurray

Clint Bowyer