Alex Bowman conquers the Monster Mile, wins at Dover (5-16-21)
By: Becca Cottingham
Headline Photo Credit: NASCAR Twitter Page
We head to the Monster Mile for what is sure to be a fun event. Hopefully not as eventful as yesterday with another car on top of a car. However, with “the Monster Mile” you never can tell what may happen. Martin Truex Jr brings us to the green flag and will keep the lead the first several laps of the race. Then William Byron will take over until we come to the competition caution. Kyle Larson will win the race off of pit road and will gain the lead. All drivers are trying everything possible to catch up to Kyle Larson to even pose a possible threat to his current lead. Kyle Larson will take over the entire first stage with over a seven-second lead on the second-place driver. This is one of the largest leads seen so far and truly dominates the first stage.
Kyle Larson will win the battle off of pit road once again and bring us to the green for stage two. This time, however, Kyle Larson has his teammate Chase Elliott right there with him. Ryan Blaney has an issue and brings out the first regular caution of the race and maybe this will help shake things up as everyone must go back through the restart. Kyle Larson gets another great restart and Chase Elliott does his best to keep up with him. With thirty laps to go Hendrick Motorsports has all four cars taking up the first four positions. Joe Gibbs Racing, Penske Racing, Richard Childres Racing, and Stewart Haas Racing make up the rest of the top ten heading into the end of stage two. Kyle Larson will continue his lead and hold off his teammates to win stage two.
As we come to the third and final stage of the race with just over a hundred and fifty miles to go a lot of things can happen. Kyle Larson will bring us back to green with his teammates right beside and or behind him. Aric Almarilo will hit the wall hard again after his hard crash this week. As he exits the car this week it appears that he is trying to catch his breath due to the impact of the crash. In the pits, Alex Bowman’s crew won the race off pit road and Kyle Larson started second. We barely get back to green before another caution comes out for debris on the track. Alex Bowman will continue to lead the field with his teammates right behind. Alex would keep the lead until the end of the race and will become the unofficial winner. As long as they can pass technical inspection, it would be a first for the group in a long list of accomplishments.
