ThatsRacin.com: Texas Motor Speedway

'Step-Mom' billboards axed after Kelley Earnhardt Elledge objects

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:33 EST

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage has agreed to change billboards featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. after the original message drew objections from Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, Earnhardt Jr.’s sister and business manager.

Originally, the billboard read “Reason #88: Step-Mom” with Texas Motor Speedway, the NASCAR logo and the April 3-6 dates for the Samsung 500 weekend.

Earnhardt Jr. left Dale Earnhardt Inc., which is led by his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, following the 2007 season. He will drive the No. 88 Chevrolets for Hendrick Motorsports this year.

NASCAR Scene magazine said Elledge called the billboard “completely inappropriate” earlier this week.

The new wording, which will take about a week to changet, will say “Reason #88: New Car Smell.”

The billboard is one of four being used to promote the upcoming race. Tony Stewart’s reads “Reason #20: Road Rage!” Jeff Gordon’s says “Reason #24: 81 Cup Wins. Zip at Texas!”

And Jimmie Johnson’s says: “Reason #48: Twice as Good as 24!”

Gossage told SceneDaily.com that the campaign has “done what it was supposed to do, causing people to talk about it and news folks doing stories about them. It's taken a life of its own, and that's what you want out of an advertising campaign.”

Texas race TV ratings down 14 percent

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:27 EST

TV ratings from last Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway were down 14 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Sunday's Dickies 500 received a 3.7 rating on ABC, down from a 4.3 the race received last season on NBC. The race ranked No. 7 among the top 10 sports programs of the week, behind four NFL games and two college football games.

Last Saturday's Busch race at Texas received a 1.3 rating on ESPN2, down slightly from the 1.4 it received last season on TNT.

The Truck series race at Texas received a 0.6 rating on Speed, down from a 0.7 for the same race a year ago.

Every race in the Chase for the Nextel Cup this season has been down in ratings from a year ago.

| Edwards locks up driver title, but owner race still undecided

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:52 EST

Carl Edwards wrapped up his first NASCAR Busch Series championship last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

That was only half the battle.

The series’ car owner championship is still up for grabs and Edwards’ No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing team is quickly falling out of contention.

Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 team, using drivers Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer, leads the owner’s standings by 113 points over Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 team. Edwards’ No. 60 is third, 259 points behind the No. 29.

“The Childress organization did a great job putting great drivers in the Busch cars and they had good fortune to go with that. They’ve just done a great job,” said team owner Jack Roush. “And Carl’s done a great job.”

Only two races remain this season, including Saturday’s Arizona.Travel 200 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. (4:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2).

The split title has happened only once before – in 2003, when Brian Vickers won the driver’s title but RCR won the owner’s title with drivers Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter.

Wimmer will drive the No. 29 this weekend, making his final start of the season. Burton will close out the year driving in the season finale at Homestead, Fla.

“I was fortunate in 2002 to win the Busch Series race at Phoenix and have had some pretty good runs there,” Wimmer said.

“I’m excited to see what we can do this weekend and, hopefully, we can pick up some more ground in the owner’s championship.”

The No. 29 can clinch the title of it leaves Phoenix with at least a 196-point lead over the No. 20 JGR team, which will use Cup driver Denny Hamlin this weekend.

Notes

Brad Coleman, the 19-year-old Houston native, makes his final start for Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend. He’ll move to Brewco Motorsports and a full-time ride in 2008. He earned his first career pole at Talladega in addition to three top-five and five top-10 finishes.

Front Row Motorsports, which has competed in the Cup series for the past three years, will field a full-time Busch entry next season with driver Eric McClure.

Roush Fenway Racing officials confirmed that driver Todd Kluever will not return to the organization next season. He competed in 16 races this season with one top-10 finish.

Smith spars for gas rights in Texas

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:49 EST

The low roar coming from Texas Motor Speedway isn't a race getting warmed up. There's also a rumble over who owns the mineral rights under the 1,450-acre facility -- rights that could ultimately be worth tens of millions of dollars.

For more than a year, the city of Fort Worth and Charlotte-based Speedway Motorsports have been in talks to determine which party has the rights to get paid for drilling beneath the property to tap the vast Barnett Shale natural gas deposits, people involved in the talks said last week.

Bruton Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports operates Texas Motor Speedway, said Friday that he is certain that his company, not the city of Fort Worth, holds the mineral rights for the land at the racetrack and the right to develop the natural gas under the property.

The Fort Worth Sports Authority owns the property and leases it to Speedway Motorsports, which has an option to purchase it.

Smith made it clear Friday that he considers the matter settled.

"We're not going to share our gas with anyone," he said, responding to a question about whether the company expected to participate in developing the property's natural gas reserves. "There's no doubt in my mind" that the company holds the mineral rights, he said.

Smith made his comments at a news conference at Texas Motor Speedway. Speedway Motorsports is a publicly traded company that reported a profit of $111 million last year on revenue of $567 million.

Smith is butting heads with local government leaders closer to home as well. After Concord's city council temporarily halted construction of a drag strip at Lowe's Motor Speedway in October, Smith said he would consider moving the track to another location in the metro area. Concord relented on the drag strip, but so far Smith says he hasn't stopped looking for another speedway site.

Back in Fort Worth, members of the Sports Authority have said they interpret their contract with the speedway as reserving the mineral rights for the city.

At stake is millions of dollars in lease bonuses and royalty payments that would be made over two or three decades.

The exact value is unclear because of divided mineral-interest ownerships at the property.

A spokeswoman for the city had no comment.

Councilman Sal Espino, president of the Fort Worth Sports Authority, said in a statement that the authority and TMS "have enjoyed an extremely fruitful relationship. To the extent that this relationship has been portrayed as contentious or litigious does not represent the sentiment" of the authority's board.

TMS President Eddie Gossage said that Smith's views on the mineral rights question represented "his heartfelt response" but noted that Smith has not attended any of the meetings between the speedway and the authority.

Gossage described those meetings as "very preliminary."

John Baen, a real estate professor at the University of North Texas and a mineral rights consultant, said he estimates that with 100 percent ownership of the mineral rights under all 1,450 acres and full access to drilling sites, the minerals' present value -- what they could be sold for today -- is about $60 million.

Baen said he expects documentation of the agreements between the authority and Speedway Motorsports will say who owns the mineral rights, but even that might not necessarily settle the issue.

Fort Worth controls drilling permits within city limits, he said, while the speedway has genuine claims to what constitutes acceptable use of the surface of the property.

And owners of minority portions of the mineral rights, he said, could further complicate the matter.

| Power of 9 victories

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:19 EST

That’s Racin’s David Poole ranks the top 40 teams in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series following the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. (Rankings based on team performance and potential. Each team’s previous week’s ranking in parentheses:)

1. (1) Jimmie Johnson -- car No. 48
He’s run in each of the 38 Chase races held so far, and now he’s won nine of them.

2. (2) Jeff Gordon -- car No. 24
If this team wants a championship, it’s going to have to figure out how to beat the 48.

3. (3) Clint Bowyer -- car No. 07
Team seems destined for a third-place Chase finish and that’s not going to be too bad.

4. (5) Kyle Busch -- car No. 5
Has led 336 laps in the past three races but its best finish in that span has been fourth.

5. (6) Tony Stewart -- car No. 20
Third in the first Chase at Loudon, but hasn’t done anything special in it since then.

6. (4) Carl Edwards -- car No. 99
It took ABC about 250 laps to notice but this car was awful much of the day at Texas.

7. (7) Kurt Busch -- car No. 2
Hammered away despite raft of Texas troubles and pulled out another top-10 finish.

8. (11) Matt Kenseth -- car No. 17
Owed all the credit in the world for racing Johnson as hard and clean as can be done.

9. (9) Jeff Burton -- car No. 31
This car was shedding sheet metal early at Texas, but he came back for a solid day.

10. (12) Martin Truex Jr. -- car No. 1
Had the most to gain if Johnson-Kenseth battle at Texas had turned into a big wreck.

11. (10) Kevin Harvick -- car No. 29

12. (8) Denny Hamlin -- car No. 11

13. (15) Ryan Newman -- car No. 12

14. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- car No. 8

15. (13) Casey Mears -- car No. 25 16. (14) Greg Biffle -- car No. 16

17. (17) Kasey Kahne -- car No. 9

18. (22) Jamie McMurray -- car No. 26

19. (21) Bobby Labonte -- car No. 43

20. (19) Juan Pablo Montoya -- car No. 42

21. (20) Mark Martin -- car No. 01

22. (18) Reed Sorenson -- car No. 41

23. (24) Ricky Rudd -- car No. 88

24. (26) Elliott Sadler -- car No. 19

25. (25) Tony Raines -- car No. 96

26. (23) J.J. Yeley -- car No. 18

27. (28) Dave Blaney -- car No. 22

28. (32) Paul Menard -- car No. 15

29. (28) Robby Gordon -- car No. 7

30. (29) David Stremme -- car No. 40

31. (30) David Ragan -- car No. 6

32. (33) David Gilliland -- car No. 38

33. (35) Scott Riggs -- car No. 10

34. (31) Kyle Petty -- car No. 45

35. (40) Brian Vickers -- car No. 83

36. (36) Johnny Sauter -- car No. 70

37. (37) Bill Elliott -- car No. 21

38. (38) Jeremy Mayfield -- car No. 66

39. (39) David Reutimann -- car No. 00

40. (34) Michael Waltrip -- car No. 55

| How the top-12 teams fared at Texas

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:01 EST

Breaking down the results for the Chase competitors at Texas Motor Speedway:

1st - Jimmie Johnson (6,382 points)

If Jimmie Johnson had decided not to fight so fiercely with Matt Kenseth for the win and finished second, instead of leading Jeff Gordon by 30 points with two races left he would have been half that far ahead.

"I knew I needed every point I could get and I had to go for it," Johnson said. "That's really the position Jeff and I are in. Every spot counts. You've got to go for it and that's what I was doing."

2nd - Jeff Gordon (30 behind) Jeff Gordon was fast in practice on Friday and qualified second fastest, but he and his team struggled a bit in Saturday's practices and struggled to get the car right after that.

"We just never hit it the rest of the way," Gordon said. "We could run pretty good for a couple of laps and we just struggled from there. ... We've got to look at it and evaluate some things."

3rd -Clint Bowyer (181 behind)

Clint Bowyer had to pit twice late in the race for a pair of two-tire stops to correct a loose wheel. After spending most of the race in the top 10, he ended up 19th.

"Not starting up front has killed us the last three weeks," said Bowyer's crew chief, Gil Martin. "It has just taken us all race long to get there." Bowyer started 29th in Sunday's race.

4th - Kyle Busch (339 behind)

Kyle Busch lost the lead with a slow stop on the final trip to the pits. His four new tires helped him gain back a lot of ground, but he couldn't get closer than fourth after leading more laps (153) than any other driver.

5th - Carl Edwards (357 behind)

One day after clinching the Busch Series championship, Edwards found himself struggling in the Cup race, getting quickly lapped early in the race. He finished three laps down in 26th.

6th - Tony Stewart (373 behind)

On Lap 218, Casey Mears nudged the left side of Tony Stewart's No. 20 Chevrolet, sending him into a lazy spin off Turn 2. Stewart avoided any serious damage in the incident and salvaged an 11th-place finish.

7th - Jeff Burton (431 behind)

Jeff Burton finished sixth, best among the Richard Childress Racing entries, despite having several pieces of sheet metal peel off his car in the early going.

8th - Kevin Harvick (439 behind)

Kevin Harvick's pit crew had a race of fast stops, helping him pick up positions as he fought an ill-handling car. He managed a 10th-place finish, his third top-10 in the Chase.

9th - Kurt Busch (453 behind)

Kurt Busch fought back from several problems with tires and was as high as fourth before finishing eighth for the second straight race.

10th - Matt Kenseth (454 behind)

Matt Kenseth's side-by-side battle with Jimmie Johnson provided some of the best racing of the season. His second-place finish was his best finish of the Chase. "I saw him (Johnson) coming, did everything I could to hold him off," Kenseth said. "I was too loose anyway, and those two tires just couldn't hang on to it."

11th - Denny Hamlin (524 behind)

Denny Hamlin had a good race going until he and Kenseth locked up in a battle for the lead. Hamlin made a crossover move to keep the lead on Lap 270, but he and Kenseth made contact on Lap 272 and Hamlin hit the wall. That led to a 29th-place finish.

12th - Martin Truex Jr. (524 behind)

Martin Truex Jr. got a little redemption for his late-race wreck at Atlanta with a third-place finish. "We have had good cars every race and we just haven't been able to finish where we have ran, so it feels good," Truex said.

| Late-race skirmish rides to the top

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:37 EST

Riding the racing elevator, wrapping up the Texas race weekend:

UP - The final 30 laps

Points racing? Not in this one. Jimmie Johnson put it all on the line to get this victory.

UP - Jimmie Johnson's crew

Once again, when it came time to make the money stop, this crew got the job done.

DOWN Clint Bowyer

What fading championship hopes he might have had disappeared with his 19th-place finish.

| 'Deserving?' The guy with the most points

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:33 EST

Some observations on Sunday's race from David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com:

Please don't tell me Jeff Gordon "deserves" a championship more than Jimmie Johnson this year because of how the old system might have worked. Champions perform when everything is on the line, and in the past three weeks the No. 48 team has been incredible. If Gordon wants his fifth championship, he has to come get it.

At one point late in the race, an ABC announcer said Johnson was trying to take an "insurmountable" points lead over Gordon. For goodness sake, it's 30 points.

I didn't get to see the finish of the NFL game between New England and Indianapolis, but I understand it was riveting. NASCAR, though, can't do it any better than the way Sunday's race wrapped up. If the race gets killed in the ratings, there's not a lot NASCAR could have done - aside from starting two hours earlier.

| Some of the bigger moments in Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:26 EST

Some of the key moments in Sunday's running of the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway:

Lap 248

Clint Bowyer comes to pit road with a loose left-rear wheel. Since he'd taken only right-side tires on his previous stop, the team believes the problem is on the right. But the time Bowyer gets the problem resolved, he has lost a lap and seen his long-shot championship hopes virtually disappear.

Lap 303

Jimmie Johnson's crew gives him four tires on the final pit stop and gets him off pit road ahead of Martin Truex, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch, who also take four. Johnson is behind three cars that change only two tires, but there's enough racing left that four tires will be a big advantage.

Lap 324

With Johnson and Kenseth battling side-by-side for the lead, Kenseth's Ford wiggles badly as he comes off Turn 4. Had Kenseth not been able to catch the car, he and Johnson both might have wrecked. But Kenseth did hold on and the great finish kept building.

Lap 333

Johnson had been a nose ahead when he and Kenseth crossed the line on Lap 332, but it wasn't until the No. 48 Chevrolet managed to clear Kenseth's Ford that the lead - and Johnson's third straight victory - was secure.

| Complete driver standings

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:11 EST

The full NASCAR Nextel Cup driver standings after the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway:

UNOFFICAL	Provided by NASCAR Statistics-	Sunday, 11/4/2007 @ 7:00 PM Central	UNOFFICAL
Pos	Driver	BPts	Points	Ldr	Nxt	Starts	Pole	Wins	T5s	T10	DNFs	Money Won	PPos	G/L
1	Jimmie Johnson	120	6382	0	0	34	3	9	19	22	4	$7,243,674	2	1
2	Jeff Gordon	150	6352	-30	-30	34	7	6	20	28	1	$6,842,650	1	-1
3	Clint Bowyer	75	6201	-181	-151	34	2	1	5	17	0	$4,061,119	3	0
4	Kyle Busch	105	6043	-339	-158	34	0	1	11	19	2	$4,499,493	6	2
5	Carl Edwards	60	6025	-357	-18	34	0	3	10	14	3	$4,390,787	4	-1
6	Tony Stewart	120	6009	-373	-16	34	0	3	10	22	4	$6,127,879	5	-1
7	Jeff Burton	35	5951	-431	-58	34	0	1	9	16	3	$5,780,836	8	1
8	Kevin Harvick	60	5943	-439	-8	34	0	1	4	14	0	$7,243,546	7	-1
9	Kurt Busch	125	5929	-453	-14	34	1	2	5	13	3	$4,914,705	9	0
10	Matt Kenseth	100	5928	-454	-1	34	0	1	11	20	4	$5,953,397	11	1
11	Denny Hamlin	100	5858	-524	-70	34	1	1	11	17	1	$4,650,889	10	-1
12	Martin Truex Jr.	85	5858	-524	0	34	1	1	7	12	4	$4,738,266	12	0
13	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	95	3840	-2542	-2018	34	1	0	7	12	7	$5,006,372	13	0
14	Ryan Newman	85	3772	-2610	-68	34	5	0	6	14	9	$4,764,084	16	2
15	Casey Mears	45	3705	-2677	-67	34	1	1	5	10	2	$4,006,750	14	-1
16	Greg Biffle	35	3697	-2685	-8	34	1	1	4	10	5	$4,136,430	15	-1
17	Kasey Kahne	35	3355	-3027	-342	34	2	0	1	8	5	$4,925,737	17	0
18	Jamie McMurray	25	3336	-3046	-19	34	1	1	3	9	4	$3,636,732	19	1
19	Bobby Labonte	35	3314	-3068	-22	34	0	0	0	3	3	$4,374,509	18	-1
20	J.J. Yeley	15	3265	-3117	-49	34	1	0	1	3	5	$4,134,984	21	1
21	Juan Pablo Montoya	15	3257	-3125	-8	34	0	1	3	6	4	$4,608,658	20	-1
22	Reed Sorenson	30	3067	-3315	-190	34	1	0	3	6	6	$3,921,038	22	0
23	David Ragan #	5	3045	-3337	-22	34	0	0	2	2	4	$4,501,324	23	0
24	Elliott Sadler	40	3009	-3373	-36	34	0	0	0	2	1	$3,806,972	25	1
25	David Stremme	10	2930	-3452	-79	34	0	0	0	3	7	$3,039,738	24	-1
26	Robby Gordon	35	2841	-3541	-89	33	0	0	1	2	2	$2,954,729	26	0
27	Mark Martin	30	2822	-3560	-19	23	0	0	5	10	2	$4,011,953	27	0
28	Tony Raines	10	2792	-3590	-30	32	0	0	0	1	3	$3,140,572	30	2
29	David Gilliland	5	2778	-3604	-14	34	1	0	1	2	5	$4,146,110	29	0
30	Johnny Sauter	15	2717	-3665	-61	33	0	0	1	2	2	$3,005,614	31	1
31	Jeff Green	20	2704	-3678	-13	32	0	0	0	3	4	$3,394,931	28	-3
32	Dave Blaney	35	2579	-3803	-125	31	1	0	1	4	8	$3,417,331	32	0
33	Ricky Rudd	10	2464	-3918	-115	29	0	0	0	1	6	$3,510,059	33	0
34	Paul Menard #	15	2341	-4041	-123	28	0	0	0	0	3	$2,301,074	34	0
35	Kyle Petty	40	2175	-4207	-166	27	0	0	1	1	5	$2,709,963	35	0
36	Scott Riggs	0	2135	-4247	-40	27	0	0	0	1	5	$2,671,041	36	0
37	Joe Nemechek	5	2068	-4314	-67	27	0	0	0	1	8	$2,331,717	37	0
38	Brian Vickers	35	1928	-4454	-140	21	0	0	1	5	4	$1,976,151	38	0
39	David Reutimann #	10	1790	-4592	-138	25	0	0	0	0	9	$2,293,614	39	0
40	Sterling Marlin	15	1600	-4782	-190	19	0	0	0	0	4	$1,928,740	40	0
41	Dale Jarrett	0	1472	-4910	-128	23	0	0	0	0	8	$2,041,107	41	0
42	Bill Elliott	20	1439	-4943	-33	18	0	0	0	0	2	$1,888,312	42	0
43	AJ Allmendinger #	5	1165	-5217	-274	17	0	0	0	0	2	$1,316,982	44	1
44	Michael Waltrip	15	1149	-5233	-16	14	1	0	0	2	3	$1,461,084	43	-1
45	Kenny Wallace	10	1066	-5316	-83	15	0	0	0	0	3	$1,411,828	45	0
46	Jeremy Mayfield	15	995	-5387	-71	15	0	0	0	0	3	$1,245,502	49	3
47	Ward Burton	5	939	-5443	-56	16	0	0	0	0	8	$1,284,972	46	-1
48	John Andretti	5	932	-5450	-7	15	0	0	0	0	8	$1,210,283	47	-1
49	Ken Schrader	10	932	-5450	0	13	0	0	0	0	4	$1,519,346	48	-1
50	Regan Smith	5	516	-5866	-416	7	0	0	0	0	0	$648,051	50	0
51	Boris Said	5	510	-5872	-6	5	0	0	0	1	0	$671,083	51	0
52	Mike Bliss	0	325	-6057	-185	4	0	0	0	0	1	$399,667	52	0
53	Ron Fellows	5	283	-6099	-42	2	0	0	1	1	0	$215,875	53	0
54	Aric Almirola	0	272	-6110	-11	5	0	0	0	0	3	$423,025	54	0
55	P J Jones	0	267	-6115	-5	3	0	0	0	0	0	$237,816	55	0
BPts - Bonus Points, -Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, PPos = Previous Position, G/L = Points standing gain/loss
Pos	Driver	BPts	Points	Ldr	Nxt	Starts	Pole	Wins	T5s	T10	DNFs	Money Won	PPos	G/L
56	Mike Wallace	0	266	-6116	-1	2	0	0	1	1	0	$724,066	56	0
57	Terry Labonte	0	204	-6178	-62	3	0	0	0	0	1	$307,469	57	0
58	Chad McCumbee	0	128	-6254	-76	2	0	0	0	0	0	$151,308	58	0
59	Chad Chaffin	0	125	-6257	-3	2	0	0	0	0	0	$149,450	59	0
60	Patrick Carpentier	5	102	-6280	-23	1	0	0	0	0	0	$72,850	60	0
61	Jacques Villeneuve	0	100	-6282	-2	1	0	0	0	0	0	$73,325	61	0
62	Kevin Lepage	0	95	-6287	-5	2	0	0	0	0	1	$187,107	62	0
63	Butch Leitzinger	0	79	-6303	-16	1	0	0	0	0	0	$69,800	63	0
64	Jon Wood	0	76	-6306	-3	1	0	0	0	0	0	$131,933	64	0
65	Johnny Benson	0	70	-6312	-6	1	0	0	0	0	0	$64,875	65	0
66	Scott Wimmer	0	70	-6312	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	$139,450	66	0
67	Marc Goossens	0	55	-6327	-15	1	0	0	0	0	0	$68,760	67	0
68	Mike Skinner	0				1	0	0	0	0	0	$118,308	98	25
69	Derrike Cope	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$20,008	75	6
70	Frank Kimmel	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,958	87	17
71	Eric McClure	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,833	89	18
72	Kirk Shelmerdine	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,808	95	23
73	Stanton Barrett	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,350	72	-2
74	Brandon Whitt	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,275	99	24
75	James Hylton	0				0	0	0	0	0	0	$19,200	86	10
BPts - Bonus Points, -Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, PPos = Previous Position, G/L = Points standing gain/loss

Yellow flies enough to qualify for bonus miles

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:06 EST

The yellow flag was flying early and often during the Dickies 500.

Four cautions slowed down the pace in the first 39 laps. By the time Greg Biffle blew an engine on the 298th of 334 laps to bring out the yellow flag for the 12th time, the track record for cautions was matched. There were 52 laps run under caution.

The first four cautions came in a span of 23 laps.

Paul Menard got loose going into the third turn on the 15th lap and hit the wall, then three laps after the restart from that caution, AJ Allmendinger went high and scraped the wall in the second turn. The other cautions were both because of debris, some from the car of Jeff Burton, who won the spring race to become the only two-time Cup winner at Texas.

After those four early cautions, the yellow flag didn't come out again until the 119th lap when J.J. Yeley got loose coming off the fourth turn and spun into the infield.

Starting spot no advantage for Allmendinger

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:04 EST

Good starts haven't translated into good finishes for Cup rookie AJ Allmendinger.

After qualifying fifth at Texas for his best career starting spot, Allmendinger was only three laps into the race when he made contact with Denny Hamlin and hit the wall. That didn't bring out a caution, but the yellow flag flew when Allmendinger went high and hit the wall in the second turn on the 21st lap.

Allmendinger's race ended for good when he got loose coming out of the second turn on lap 213, then slammed hard into the inside wall. He finished 39th, 183 laps behind winner Jimmie Johnson.

The best starting spot for Allmendinger before Texas had been 11th at Dover, where he completed only four laps in the Red Bull Toyota before an engine problem ended his race and he was last in the field.

Extra stops push Bowyer back

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:35 EST

FORT WORTH, Texas – Clint Bowyer’s best hope to win the Chase for the Nextel Cup this season?

Speaking about new points leader Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who trails Johnson by just 30 points with two races left, Bowyer’s crew chief, Gil Martin offered this assessment: “They’re going to have to oversleep or something in Phoenix.”

It’s not quite that bad, but very close.

Bowyer had to pit twice under green late in Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway for a loose wheel and was relegated to a 19th-place finish. He remains third in points but trails Johnson by 181. The most a driver can make up in one race is 161.

“Now, it’s just a mathematical long shot,” Martin said. “It was frustrating for everybody. I mean we’ve had such a good run every week for him. We had another good run tonight.”

Bowyer exited his car on pit road after the race and left with comment. A statement was issued by his team later in the evening.

“We are down but not out in the Chase. There is no give-up in this team,” Bowyer's statement said. “We are going to take it a lap at a time, race at a time and keep fighting until the checkered flag falls at Homestead."

Bowyer was likely still steaming over the pit road miscue that dropped him from the top 10 to two laps down with less than 90 laps remaining.

On Lap 248 of 334 after Bowyer thought he had a loose rear wheel, Bowyer came down pit road and Martin ordered two right-side tires. Soon after returning to speed, however, Bowyer determined it was the left-rear that was loose.

That meant another pit stop under green for tires, dropping him further out of contention.

“The left-sides had been on there for almost 28-29 laps and the right-sides had only been on there for three laps,” said Martin. “I guess after the restart when Clint spun the tires it loosened the left-rear up enough to start vibrating and it came loose.

“Since we just pitted, we just hoped it was the right-rear (tire). It wasn’t, so we had to come back. In hindsight, I wish we had taken four. We didn’t. That’s all you can do.”

Bowyer has so far been the Cinderella story of the Chase. Entering the final 10-race run to the championship, he was the only driver without a victory this season.

He quickly corrected that with a dominating win in the Chase opener at New Hampshire and added a pair of second-place finishes in the next four races. He has remained within striking distance of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Johnson and Gordon until Sunday.

Johnson and 48 team win again

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:24 EST

FORT WORTH, Texas - Jimmie Johnson finally looked at the "big picture" Sunday evening at Texas Motor Speedway, but not until he'd earned his third straight Nextel Cup victory in a dramatic battle with Matt Kenseth late in the Dickies 500.

While in Victory Lane celebrating his ninth win of the season, which also allowed him to take the lead in the Chase for the Nextel Cup away from teammate Jeff Gordon, Johnson finally saw a replay of some of the heart-thumping racing he did with Kenseth.

"I was more sideways than I thought I was," Johnson said, grinning a little sheepishly. "I was pretty crossed up a few times."

Boy howdy, as they might say in Texas, was he ever.

Kenseth didn't need replays to show him what went on after he took two tires and Johnson got four on their final pit stops.

"I felt like I was sideways the whole time," said Kenseth, who did everything humanly possible to deny Johnson yet another win on what could be his march to a second straight championship. "I stayed in there as long as I could."

It was, simply put, tremendous racing between two drivers who each have championships on their resumes.

"It came down," Johnson said, "to a full-blown brawl."

Well, not quite.

Despite the fact that Kenseth was so far sideways coming off Turn 4 on Lap 324 that he was looking more at Johnson's right-rear quarterpanel than the track in front of him, their battle for the race victory was as good as Nextel Cup racing gets.

And despite the fact that Johnson emerged with not only a victory but a 30-point lead over Gordon, who finished seventh on Sunday, this wasn't about points at all.

"It entered my mind, but I feel like I was doing a good job balancing those emotions in the car," Johnson said of championship considerations as he and Kenseth locked horns.

"I tried for a lap or two to get by him and I could feel that he was crowding me. I actually let him go and thought I could get back there and race him again. - I was kind of fighting some demons back and forth on it."

Car owner Rick Hendrick said he had his hand nervously near the button on his radio to remind his driver that a wreck would have been a big price to pay for adding another victory to this year's growing pile.

"We had an awful lot at stake," Hendrick said. "I thought, 'We don't need to do this.' But I felt like Jimmie was under control."

It seems that Johnson thrives in such situations. The last time he won three straight races it was in the 2004 Chase as he tried to run down leader Kurt Busch for the championship. He fell eight points short that year, but last year Johnson finished first once and second four times in a five-race stretch to dig out of a hole, taking the lead for good with a runner-up finish here on his way to his first championship.

"I don't look forward to those pressure-packed situations," Johnson said. "It's not like I sit up at night and hope that they develop. But when I am in them, I seem to do a decent job."

Johnson said Kenseth was one of only a handful of drivers he'd trust enough to battle that hard. Kenseth, meanwhile, was hoping Johnson would give more regard to what he had to lose.

"I didn't give him extra room at all," Kenseth said. "I thought of the points thing and thought maybe he would back out of it."

Johnson was fourth on the final restart on Lap 306, but passed Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray with relative dispatch and was second by Lap 313. He thought his four tires would carry him on past Kenseth, too, but Kenseth began running in the higher line to force Johnson to go low to try to take away the lead. It was tougher than Johnson figured it was going to be, and after making several thrusts he finally got the job done, clearing Kenseth's Ford with just less than two laps left.

Johnson spun out late and finished 14th at Charlotte three races ago to fall 68 points behind Gordon, who won that night for a second straight week. Since then, Gordon has finished third, seventh and seventh and still lost 98 points to Johnson in the standings.

"It's still close, but they're spanking us," Gordon said. "They are putting it to us. We've got to go to work. We've got to answer back. That's all there is to it."

Johnson not only expects Gordon and his team to do that, he's hoping for it.

"I want to win a championship by outracing the best in the business," Johnson said. "Being pushed so hard by my teammate and needing to perform. ... Again, I don't look forward to it, but now that I am in the situation this is what I want to be part of."

Race Day at Texas

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 11:50 EST

A little more to chew on while waiting for the green fleg at Texas Motor Speedway:

DICKIES 500

Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas.

When: 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.

Weather: Sunny, temperature near 80.

TV: Coverage begins at 3 p.m. on ABC.

Radio: Performance Racing Network

Race distance: 500 miles (334 laps).

Track length: 1.5 miles

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. The nine-point gap between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson with three races left is the closest the Chase for the Nextel Cup has been at this point in its four-year history. Neither can afford to finish far behind the other in the Dickies 500.

2. Jeff Burton won here in April to become the only driver with more than one Cup victory at Texas. Among this year’s Chase drivers only Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards have victories here.

3. If Burton completes a Texas sweep, he’ll win $500,000 for Nikki Kelly of San Antonio. Kelly, who won a shot at that prize in a contest sponsored by Dickies, said she’d use the money to put her four children through college. She gave Burton a picture of those kids to carry along with him in the No. 31 Chevrolet today.

PRACTICE UPDATE Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt had the fastest laps in Saturday’s first practice. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson and Ryan Newman then led the final session.

Points leader Jeff Gordon was 13th in the first session, then struggled early in the final session before getting his car up to speed. He was listed 31st on the final speed chart, but by the end of the final session the No. 24 was running similar lap times to the top cars on that list.

OBSERVER PICKS

David Poole

Matt Kenseth - Barely lost here in April and makes up for that near miss Sunday.

Jim Utter

Martin Truex Jr. – Too late for him in the Chase, but at least it’ll make Atlanta a little less painful.

WHERE THE CHASE DRIVERS QUALIFIED

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	M. Truex Jr.	Chevy
2.	J. Gordon	Chevy
4.	K. Harvick	Chevy
6.	Ku. Busch	Dodge
7.	D. Hamlin	Chevy
8.	J. Johnson	Chevy
15.	T. Stewart	Chevy
17.	Ky. Busch	Chevy
18.	M. Kenseth	Ford
21.	C. Edwards	Ford
27.	J. Burton	Chevy
29.	C. Bowyer	Chevy