The 2016 Citizen Soldier 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that was held on October 2, 2016, at Dover International Speedway 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 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 in Dover, Delaware, United States. Since opening in 1969, it has held at least two NASCAR races. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the Verizon IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 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
First practice
Kyle Larson 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 was awarded the pole position as a result.
Starting lineup
Practice (post-qualifying)
Second practice
Jeff Gordon 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 skies, Brad Keselowski 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. passed him going into turn 1 with ease to take the lead on the seventh lap. Kyle Busch powered by Truex in turn 2 on the outside to take the lead on lap 21. Debris coming from Kevin Harvick'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 was sent to the tail end of the field for speeding on pit road. Kyle Larson 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 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 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.”