Just before 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday (May 1), NASCAR officials announced that the final 322 laps of the DuraMax Drydene 400 from Dover Motor Speedway will have to wait for Monday (May 2). Kyle Larson leads over Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney with only 78 laps complete.
As the green flag flew to start the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover, the clouds above the track were as gray as the rubbered-in track surface. Weather radar did not look promising, and just 69 laps into the scheduled distance of 400 the rain started to fall.
NASCAR kept the cars circulating, hoping the light shower would pass by quickly, but Mother Nature wasn’t so friendly. The rain fell harder, so NASCAR put out the red flag and the cars filed down pit road behind Larson’s No. 5.
Cup Series Red Flag Running Order at Dover
Larson, Elliott, Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. hold the top four positions after staying out under the lap 69 caution. So too did William Byron, who has made his way to fifth after starting from the rear due to a practice crash that put the two-time 2022 winner to the back of the field in a backup car. Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola, in sixth and seventh respectively, are the final cars that didn’t stop under caution.
In eighth, the first car to restart tomorrow with four fresh tires, Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 paced the field for 55 laps, the longest the Richmond winner has been up front in any race this season.
Hamlin caught up with FOX’s Jamie Little under the delay:
.@CocaColaRacing's @dennyhamlin has led 55 of 78 laps today at Dover. He is currently 8th under the rain delay.#CocaColaRacing | @MonsterMile pic.twitter.com/hX99yDfoG9
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 1, 2022
Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch finish out the top 10.
Chris Buescher, who started from pole for the first time in his Cup Series career, led the first 18 laps, the first time the RFK Racing driver has led laps at Dover. Buescher is scored in the 13th position after pitting under caution.
The DuraMax Drydene 400 will continue tomorrow (May 2) at 12 p.m. ET on FS1.
Jack Swansey primarily covers open-wheel racing for Frontstretch and co-hosts The Pit Straight Podcast,but you can also catch him writing about NASCAR, sports cars, and anything else with four wheels and a motor. Originally from North Carolina and now residing in Los Angeles, he joined the site as Sunday news writer midway through 2022 and is an avid collector (some would say hoarder) of die-cast cars.