faces charges in Brazil for filing a false police report.Hernande

DOVER, Del. -- Martin Truex Jr.?endured season after empty season as other drivers hoisted trophies and celebrated championships, and he wondered if he was running out of time to become a winner.Bad cars, bad teams, bad luck.Whatever the cause, Truex was a journeyman driver seemingly doomed to a mediocre career. Now, what quantifies as a downer in Truexs career rebirth is that he failed to actually sweep the first round of the Chase -- but two of three is pretty dominant.Were not messing around, I guess, Truex said. We are here to get it done.Truexs late-season surge extended Sunday at Dover International Speedway, where he captured his second victory in the first three Chase races. Truex won for the fourth time this season in the No. 78 Toyota and paired this Chase win with his opening victory at Chicagoland.Kind of a bonus win, crew chief Cole Pearn said. We didnt need it all.Well, plenty of other Chase drivers did.Tony Stewart finished 13th, and the three-time NASCAR champion was knocked out of contention in the first elimination race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.Chris Buescher and Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray also dropped out of the Chase. The field was sliced from 16 drivers to 12.Austin Dillon finished eighth and moved from outside the points cutoff of the Chase to a transfer spot and advanced to the next round.Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch joined Truex and Dillon in the next round that opens at Charlotte Motor Speedway.Kyle Busch was second, followed by Elliott, Keselowski, Kenseth and Logano -- the only five other cars that finished on the lead lap.Truex won his first career Cup race at Dover in 2007 and didnt win again until 2013. But his career took off in 2015, his second year at Furniture Row Racing, and he used a win at Pocono last year to make the Chase and become one of four drivers racing for the championship in the finale.His career absolutely exploded with FRR and Toyota this season. Truex led a stunning 392 laps in a Coca-Cola 600 victory and then won at Darlington just two races before the Chase opened. He has led at least 140 laps in three of the last four races.The last month has just been ridiculous, he said.Harvick won last week at New Hampshire and was the only other driver to earn an automatic berth in the second round.Here are other items of note from Dover:SMOKE OUTStewart, the 2002, 2005 and 2011 Cup champion, will retire at the end of the season without a fourth championship.Ill tell you one thing, this one race, whatever happens, is not going to define the season this team has, Stewart told his team over the radio.He fell just short of keeping a drive for four alive.We kept making it better all day. That is as good as we had, he said.GANASSI GAFFESGanassi went from two Chase drivers to none.Larsons race turned into a disaster early when the No. 42 Chevrolet lost power. His Chevy was pushed to pit road and a battery was changed. He then had to serve a pass-through penalty for having too many crew members over the wall during the pit stop.Larson, one of the top young drivers in the sport, had held the final transfer spot entering the race.Jamie McMurray saw his Chase end at Dover for the second straight season. He battled problems in the No. 1 Chevy for most of the race before his engine blew near the halfway point. McMurray was 13th and hoped to race his way into the next round. He held the final transfer spot heading into last years race and lost his spot to Dale Earnhardt Jr.FIRST TO (ALMOST) WORSTHarvick had to take a deep breath and be thankful that he won last week at New Hampshire, or he would have faced sure elimination. Harvicks No. 4 Chevrolet had a broken track bar early in the race that sent the car to the garage. Harvick returned more than 40 laps off the pace and finished 37th. Harvick, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion, has never finished last in a race in his career.JUNIOR AND JEFFEarnhardt watched the race from atop the pit box for the first time because his season ended in July (concussion). Jeff Gordon finished 10th in Juniors regular 88 Chevrolet ride. Gordon, who had retired at the end of last season, has one more race left subbing for Earnhardt later this month at Martinsville.DOUBLE DIPDaniel Suarez won the Xfinity Series, delayed a day by rain, to kick off 600 miles of racing. NASCAR ran its first Xfinity-Cup doubleheader since April 25, 2010, at Talladega Superspeedway.UP NEXTThe second round of the Chase opens at Charlotte and Logano is the defending race winner. Cheap Panthers Jerseys China . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Cheap Adidas Panthers Jerseys . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. http://www.cheapfloridapanthersjerseys.com/ . And when it opened, every player was at his stall. Thats a sure sign that a team is in a slump and is searching for answers. "Its embarrassing to be at home and play the way we did," said defenceman Josh Gorges. Wholesale Panthers Jerseys . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Cheap Florida Panthers Jerseys . Francis told several hundred members of the European Olympic Committees that when sport "is considered only in economic terms and consequently for victory at every cost . Two Olympic gold medalists, a former NFL star and an IndyCar driver have been named to the cast of ABCs Dancing with the Stars.U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, U.S. gymnast Laurie Hernandez, former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson and IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe will join the cast of 13 celebrities for the shows 23rd season.Lochte, 32, is an 11-time Olympic medalist. He won a gold medal earlier this month as part of the mens 4x200 freestyle relay team in Rio de Janeiro. His games were marred by an altercation at a Rio gas station that led to Lochte saying he had a gun pointed at his head during the incident. Lochte has apologized for his remarks, saying he over-exaggerated the incident. He faces charges in Brazil for filing a false police report.Hernandez, 16, won a gold medal as part of the womens all-around team competition in Rio, and a silver medal in the balance beam competition.Johnson, 30, played nine seasons forr the Lions, and in December 2012, broke Jerry Rices single-season record for receiving yards, finishing with 1,964 yards.dddddddddddd He also set an NFL record for consecutive 100-yard games with eight, and consecutive games with 10 or more receptions. He retired after the 2015 season, saying he was tired of playing football.Hinchcliffe, 29, is a Canadian race driver currently competing in the IndyCar series. In 2012 he succeeded Danica Patrick as the driver of the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car. In 2015 he joined Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He suffered serious injuries in a crash at practice for the 2015 Indianapolis 500 and remained hospitalized through the race. He came back, and on May 22 won the pole position for the 100th running of the race.The new season premieres at 8 p.m. ET on Sept. 12 on ABC. ' ' '