If the first race in the 2007 Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship was relatively kind to the 12 remaining title hopefuls then the second, at Dover's infamous 'Monster Mile' was positively nightmarish, even for eventual winner Carl Edwards.
Edwards scooped his third win of the season in his #99 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford in Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400 after overcoming a throttle linkage problem and a slew of incidents and accidents that either delayed or eliminated the majority of the Chase contenders.
Bud Pole winner Jimmie Johnson, who entered Sunday's 400-lap race tied for the points lead with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, led the 43-car field to the start of a sun-baked 400-lap event but his lead lasted all but a lap before Saturday's Busch race winner Denny Hamlin, who led both Saturday practice sessions in his #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet, forged through.
He may have been dominant in practice, but Hamlin wasn't set to enjoy the type of imperious form that characterised his Busch Series win for although he led for the next 40 laps and was then able to retake the lead from tenth place starter Matt Kenseth thanks to a fast pitstop under the third caution flag of the day on lap 54, it was Kenseth who emerged as the car to beat as the race wore on.
Kenseth initially took the lead from Hamlin on lap 42 but then lost it in the pits during the first round of stops. Some early race pit strategy from the #2 Penske Racing Dodge of Kurt Busch during the second round of stops on lap 75 briefly handed the 2004 Champion top spot but by lap 98 Kenseth had made his way back into second place and was soon through into the lead.
With the race settling down for the first time Kenseth was able to stretch his legs, opening a three second lead before the caution flag waved again on lap 147 in order to allow an ambulance to cross the track following an earlier incident on pit road when an errant tyre clouted the Gasman on Michael Waltrip's team which necessitated a precautionary trip to a nearby hospital for the unfortunate crewman.
Although the caution was not what Kenseth and his #17 Roush-Fenway team had wanted it was a blessing for the #99 part of the stable as it allowed them to go to work on a broken throttle linkage that had left Edwards having to pick the pedal off the floor with his foot whilst trying to hold on to second place on the track. The crew was able to fix the problem, but Edwards would take the subsequent restart in 23rd position.
Once the race resumed Kenseth pulled away again from the rest of the pack, now being headed by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch. By lap 165 the gap between first and second was nearly four seconds and Kenseth appeared to be the class of the field.
However cracks in the armoury began to show just a few laps later just as Kevin Harvick suffered the first of two tyre related problems, the reigning
Daytona 500 champion having to pit under green to replace a loose wheel, dropping two laps behind the leaders to 37th. While Harvick was ruing his misfortune Kenseth's alternator began to fade, forcing the leader to change to his back-up battery.
