2016 Citizen Soldier 400
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The 2016 Citizen Soldier 400 was a
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. ...
race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
that was held on October 2, 2016, at
Dover International Speedway Dover Motor Speedway (formerly Dover Downs International Speedway and later Dover International Speedway) is a race track in Dover, Delaware. The track has hosted at least one NASCAR Cup Series race each year since 1969, including two per year ...
in Dover, Delaware. Contested over 400 laps on the one-mile (1.6 km) concrete speedway, it was the 29th race of the
2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 68th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 45th modern-era Cup series season. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Sprint Unlimited, the Can-Am D ...
season, third race of the Chase and final race of the Round of 16.


Report


Background

Dover International Speedway (formerly Dover Downs International Speedway) is a
race track A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also use ...
in Dover,
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Since opening in 1969, it has held at least two
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
races. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the
Verizon IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...
. The track features one layout, a concrete
oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one ...
, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by
Dover Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, IndyCar Series, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has ...
. The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after
Dover Downs Bally's Dover Casino Resort, formerly Dover Downs, is a hotel, casino, and racetrack complex in Dover, Delaware. It has a harness horse racing track, which is surrounded by Dover Motor Speedway, a concrete track used for NASCAR motor racing ...
Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.


Entry list


First practice

Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champi ...
was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 21.742 and a speed of .


Qualifying

Qualifying for Friday was cancelled due to rain.
Brad Keselowski Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing, a team he also ...
was awarded the pole position as a result.


Starting lineup


Practice (post-qualifying)


Second practice

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...
was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 22.428 and a speed of .


Final practice

Final practice was cancelled due to rain.


Race


First half

Under overcast
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
skies,
Brad Keselowski Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing, a team he also ...
led the field to the green flag at 2:17 p.m. He held the lead for the first few laps until
Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...
passed him going into turn 1 with ease to take the lead on the seventh lap.
Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and part-time ...
powered by Truex in turn 2 on the outside to take the lead on lap 21. Debris coming from
Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champion, ...
's car brought out the first caution of the race on lap 34. The issue was a flat right-rear tire related to a broken track bar mount.
Trevor Bayne Trevor Mitchell Bayne (born February 19, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver, dirt racing driver, team owner, and businessman. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota Supra for Joe ...
was sent to the tail end of the field for speeding on pit road.
Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champi ...
fell down a lap after making a stop to deal with electrical issues. He said after the race that he didn't "know what happened with the battery or whatever. If we didn’t have the (penalty), we probably would have been alright because I was only a lap down. Nice little Christmas present for Austin (Dillon) there with both Ganassi cars going down." The race restarted on lap 40. Busch held the lead for nearly 40 laps before Truex retook it on lap 80, but Busch powered by him to take it back on lap 81. The second caution of the race flew on lap 104 for
Ryan Blaney Ryan Michael Blaney (born December 31, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske. He is the son of former NASCAR driver Dave Blane ...
hitting the wall exiting turn 2. The race restarted on lap 111. Truex worked under Busch in turn 2 to retake the lead on lap 130.
Jamie McMurray James Christopher McMurray (born June 3, 1976), nicknamed Jamie Mac, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and currently an analyst for '' Fox NASCAR''. He raced in the NASCAR Cup Series on a full-time basis from 2003 to 2018 ...
was running 10th when he reported engine issues and started falling back on lap 167. The third caution of the race flew on lap 182 for Larson suffering a right-front tire blowout and slamming the wall in turn 1. He said afterwards that there wasn't much he "could do. I cut the right-front tire down and got in the wall and still had good speed in the race car after that but it just didn’t work out. Our team has come a long way this season from where we started the year. We were pretty awful at the start of the season but then got a win at Michigan to lock ourselves in the Chase. That was good. I know we have the speed to have made it past a couple of rounds but it’s my typical luck I guess, where it just doesn’t work out.” The race restarted on lap 190.
Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...
beat Truex on the restart to take the lead on the ensuing lap. McMurray brought out the fourth caution of the race after suffering an engine failure on the frontstretch. He said afterwards that the engine "vibrated earlier in the race and it went away. And it's weird because engine issues usually don't go away. It felt like it had power and then I don't know about 40 laps before it finally blew up, it just started vibrating real bad. Very unfortunate. It is just the way it goes. The No. 42 had their problem early in the race and then at that point I'm like, ‘Well it's kind of Austin (Dillon) and I that are going to battle this out.’ Our cars are pretty close so this is going to be a pretty good battle down to the end.” He also added that keeping the car out as long as he did with engine issues was "wishful thinking at that point. No one wants to stay out and blow up, not to oil the track down. Also it's hard to diagnose the problem if the motor's blown up. Because you're in a position this weekend where you just have to go for it and what you hope is you've got something as simple as a plug wire or a spark plug that you can replace and the motor's not going to grenade. We came here and looked at it, and actually on the digital dash, we have a little diagnosis page and nothing is showing up, so we didn't know what was wrong. We were just going to salvage as long as we could." He went on to finish 40th.


Second half

The race restarted on lap 199. Green flag stops started on lap 277. Johnson pitted from the lead on lap 279 and handed it to Keselowski. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Greg Biffle. He pitted on lap 287 and the lead cycled to Truex. Johnson was handed a pass through penalty for his crew being over the wall too soon. After the race, he said that what happened was "a unique circumstance on pit road. We had the No. 18 in the pit before us getting ready to pull out, the No. 43 leaving his stall. I got slowed up and had to check up and get behind two cars and unfortunately, I think it just threw the rhythm off of the pit stop." The final round of green flag stops began with 43 laps to go. Truex pitted from the lead with 36 laps to go and handed it to Johnson. He pitted with 34 to go and handed the lead to
Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...
. He pitted with 27 laps to go and the lead cycled back to Truex.
David Ragan David Lee Ragan (born December 24, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing, and is also an analyst for NASCAR on Fox on ...
was handed a pass through penalty for speeding on pit road. Truex drove on to score the victory.


Post-race


Driver comments

Truex said in victory lane that he "can't even believe it man -- it’s just living a dream right now. It’s a fairytale. I don’t even know what to say" and that his team just needs "to go out there each week and try to be as prepared as we can. We’re not going to change who we are. We didn’t do that before the Chase started. We just got hot and we got momentum, and hopefully we don’t lose it. I mean, I don’t know how we got it, I don’t know how to keep it, I just know that we’re going to continue to approach these races the same way, and hopefully it works out for us.” “What an awesome weekend for us, I love this place,” he added in the media center following the race. “I’ve had a lot of heartbreaks since my first win here back in ’07. I’ve had a lot of heartbreaks. I’ve led a lot of laps. I’ve been in position to win multiple times, and it never seemed to work out for multiple reasons. Today I’m just thankful to have a great team, to have been able to lead lap 400 and get back to victory lane at a track that’s so special to me.” After advancing into the Round of 12 with an eighth-place finish,
Austin Dillon Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver and reality TV show actor. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racin ...
said that his team "just stayed focused, and once again, God just blessed us because I'm still awestruck. Things like this just don't happen. I'm proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of keep on moving on.” Following his first top-10 finish in relief for
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, team owner, author, and an analyst for '' NASCAR on NBC''. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving ...
, Gordon said of his 10th-place finish that he "felt like we had a really good race car all weekend long,’’ Gordon told NBC Sports after the race. “I realized real early on we were going to have our work cut out for us, starting 18th. It was really tough getting through traffic. I kind of led them down a path. We were loose that first run and over-tightened it and that didn’t do us any favors. But we got it tuned up and had some great pit stops and got our way into the top 10. I wanted to get a top-10 in this car before my time in the car is over. We got that. Now let’s go get a top-five or something better at Martinsville.’’ "We were much better than we were yesterday
n practice N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
"
Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is ...
said after being knocked out of his final Chase appearance with a 13th-place finish. " 'mreally proud of our team. We kept making it better all day. That is good as we had."


Race results


Race summary

* Lead changes: 6 among different drivers * Cautions/Laps: 4 for 22 * Red flags: 0 * Time of race: 3 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds * Average speed:


Media


Television

NBCSN covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen,
Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed The Mayor, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He scored 21 career victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, including two Coca-Cola 600s in ...
, and
Steve Letarte Steven Letarte (born May 14, 1979) is an American professional NASCAR crew chief and sportscaster who works for NBC Sports as a color commentator on NASCAR on NBC, their telecasts for NASCAR. He also works as a consultant for Spire Motorsports, ...
had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns,
Mike Massaro Michael Massaro (born 1970) is an American sportscaster and journalist who covers auto racing as a pit reporter for MAVTV's ARCA Menards Series coverage. He was previously a studio host and pit reporter for NASCAR on ESPN and NASCAR on NBC. He ...
, Marty Snider and
Kelli Stavast Kelli L. Stavast is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports as a pit reporter for both their NASCAR (in both the Cup and Xfinity Series) and IndyCar Series coverage. She has reported for numerous other forms of motorsports throughout he ...
handled pit road on the television side.


Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on
Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...
.


Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citizen Soldier 400, 2016 2016 in sports in Delaware 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NASCAR races at Dover Motor Speedway October 2016 sports events in the United States