A day in the Chase | How the top-12 teams fared at Texas

DAVID POOLE and JIM UTTER

The Charlotte Observer

Sunday, Nov. 04, 2007

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.

reprint or license