2020 Drydene 311 (Sunday)

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Race 25 of 36 in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series
The 2020 Drydene 311 program cover, featuring Jimmie Johnson's win at the 2012 FedEx 400.
Date	August 23, 2020 (2020-08-23)
Location	Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware
Course	Permanent racing facility 1 mi (1.6 km)
Distance	311 laps, 311 mi (500.399 km)
Average speed	110.994 miles per hour (178.628 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing
Grid positions set by partial inversion of previous race's finishing order
Most laps led
Driver	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing
Laps	223
Winner
No. 4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing
Television in the United States
Network	NBCSN
Announcers	Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nielsen Ratings	1.946 million[7]
Radio in the United States
Radio	MRN
Booth Announcers	Alex Hayden and Jeff Striegle
Turn Announcers	Mike Bagley (Backstretch)

The 2020 Drydene 311 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on August 23, 2020, at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. Scheduled to be contested over 400 laps but shortened to 311 laps because of the doubleheader format on the 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete speedway, it was the 25th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Report

Background

Dover International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1 mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

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 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

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying

Matt DiBenedetto was awarded the pole for the race as determined by the top 20 from Saturday's finishing order inverted.

Starting Lineup

Race

Stage Results

Stage One Laps: 70

Stage Two Laps: 115

Final Stage Results

Stage Three Laps: 126

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 15 among 6 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 7 for 40
• Red flags: 1 for 12 minutes and 19 seconds
• Time of race: 2 hours, 48 minutes and 7 seconds
• Average speed: 110.994 miles per hour (178.628 km/h)

Media

Television

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, 2006 race winner Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and 2001 race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. covered the race from the booth at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman and Dillon Welch handled the pit road duties on site.

Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Kevin Harvick 1,041 2 Denny Hamlin 907 (–134) 3 Brad Keselowski 881 (–160) 1 4 Martin Truex Jr. 845 (–196) 1 5 Joey Logano 836 (–205) 1 6 Ryan Blaney 818 (–223) 3 7 Chase Elliott 809 (–232) 8 Aric Almirola 740 (–301) 9 Kyle Busch 719 (–322) 10 Kurt Busch 700 (–341) 11 Clint Bowyer 685 (–356) 12 Alex Bowman 662 (–379) 13 Matt DiBenedetto 637 (–404) 1 14 William Byron 632 (–409) 1 15 Jimmie Johnson 628 (–413) 16 Erik Jones 582 (–459) Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Ford 933 2 Toyota 880 (–53) 3 Chevrolet 831 (–102) Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings. . – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.