Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race from Dover's Monster Mile saw its first 325 laps dominated by Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards. Yet when the checkered flag waved on the 400 lap event, neither driver was a factor.
Matt Kenseth used a great pit call by his crew chief Jimmy Fennig to score his second win of the 2011 season. His former teammate and mentor, Mark Martin, used an even bolder pit decision to score a second-place finish, his first top-five of the season.
The story of the day for much of the race at Dover was the grip on the race track. Or the lack thereof in most drivers cases. Terms like 'slick,' 'greasy' and 'black ice' were being thrown around as drivers fought all race long to get a handle on the slippery Dover surface.
In the end, the main story was pit strategy.
With 39 laps to go, a spinning Juan Montoya brought out the race's sixth and final caution flag. At the time there were 19 cars on the lead lap, led by Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer. Those three drivers had been the class of the field all race long.
When pit road opened, the leaders hit pit road. All three of the lead cars did what was expected, they took four tires and fuel and were back on their way.
What wasn't expected was the number of cars that elected to take just two right side tires, to try and gain some track position.
Matt Kenseth was the first of those cars off pit road. He was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose and a handful of others who opted for the two-tire strategy.
Meanwhile, still out on the race track was the 52-year-old Martin, whose team tried a whole different pit strategy. They elected to skip the tires altogether and just stay out on the track.
As the field came around for what would be the final restart of the day, Martin's no-tire strategy paid off for a few laps. He had a great restart and shot out to a couple car-length lead.
After a couple laps though, the two new tires of Kenseth proved to be superior, as he slipped underneath Martin to take the lead.
Behind Martin, Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Busch raced side by side for third place for a handful of laps. This allowed both Kenseth and Martin to pull away, and secure their positions for the time being.
While all this was going on, Johnson and Edwards, the two cars that had been class of the field all race long, were now mired back in traffic, and making very little headway.
As the laps clicked away, Kenseth's lead stabilized to just over one second over Martin. Meanwhile, Martin's decision to stay on the track under the previous caution was looking better by the lap. Ambrose, who had gotten around Busch for third, was only able to match Martin's lap times, and never really challenge him for the position.
Finally, the checkered flag was in the air. Matt Kenseth came across the line first, giving him his second win of the year, and pretty much assuring him that he will be one of the 12 Chase contenders later this season.
Mark Martin crossed the line second, and scored his best finish of the 2011 season. Ambrose held on for third, also a season's best finish for him.
Carl Edwards came home in seventh, while Jimmie Johnson finished ninth. The two drivers that combined led 324 of 400 laps were left to wonder what could have been.
Sunday's race at Dover, with the one-two finish of Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin once again showed that the fastest cars don't necessarily always win, and that sometimes, good luck and good pit strategy are far more important than having the best race car.
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