Martin Truex Jr. wins action-packed first stage at Dover

"It's been a little bit long, a lot of cautions," Truex said. "We'll see how it all plays out. You have to play it calm here. We'll keep working on it here, see what we've got."

Kyle Larson was second — passing Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps for the runner-up spot. Harvick was third followed by Kenseth and Johnson, who came from the rear of the field following a gear change prior to the start of the race.

Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez all scored stage points in the first segment.

Kyle Busch led the field to green in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway.

Loose wheel for Busch

Ryan Sieg spun out in Turn 2 to ignite the first caution. Busch led the first 18 laps, however, when he came to pit, the rear tire changer’s air gun was in reverse and the wheel was not secure on the No. 18 Toyota. Busch was the first car off of pit road but didn’t clear Turn 2 before the wheel rolled off the car. Busch returned to the pits for repairs and restarted 35th.

"Left rear came off all together," spotter Tony Hirschmann told the No. 18 team.

”I’m pretty sure that's six weeks,” replied Kyle Busch.

Stenhouse's good day goes sour

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stayed out and led the field on the Lap 21 restart, but Truex quickly blew the No. 17 Ford to take the lead. Joey Logano restarted Kyle Busch broke into the top 30 in the first four laps. On Lap 33, Kurt Busch passed Stenhouse for second followed by Daniel Suarez, Larson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick.

Stenhouse was running third when he blew a right front tire entering Turn 3 off the backstretch on Lap 47. Truex brought the lead lap cars to pit road followed Kurt Busch, Suarez, Larson, Keselowski, Jones, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott, Harvick, Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Johnson and Ryan Blaney. 

The Nos. 11 and 24 cars received penalties on their stops. Hamlin had an uncontrolled tire and dropped to 31st. Elliott received a speeding penalty and restarted 30th.

Restart carnage

Kurt Busch, who restarted second behind Larson, got loose entering Turn 2, saved it the first time then spun around and collected Brad Keselowski. 

The No. 2 car was running fourth at the time. Keselowski retired to the garage after telling the team, “My steering wheel is off half of a turn.”

Busch pitted multiple times for repairs and restarted 35th with Larson retaining the lead and Truex challenging. Kenseth, Harvick, Suarez, Johnson, Kahne, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10.

“I got loose on a restart,” Busch said. “It’s my bad as a driver. My bad. We had good speed in our Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford and just couldn’t finish. You can’t make mistakes out here and we did.”

On Lap 80, Truex nudged Larson out of the lead on the backstretch. Although Larson held onto second, Harvick and Johnson rolled past the No. 42 Chevy in the next three laps.

Kurt Busch became loose on the outside of his brother Kyle and exploded into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 95 for the fifth caution. While Harvick had moved up to second behind Truex, Bowyer, who had climbed to fourth, ended up in the garage with an oil leak.

Truex retained the lead on the restart followed by Harvick, Johnson, Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher, Landon Cassill, David Ragan, Timmy Hill, Austin Dillon and Matt Kenseth on Lap 105.