Hamlin Wins!; But there was more than one shake up at Texas

Fort Worth, Texas – Is a winless season starting to get to Jeff Gordon driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet? Even though Gordon was nowhere in contention to win the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the contact between he and No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet will be the talk of the AAA Texas 500. On lap 191 it appeared that Burton had turned into Gordon’s DuPont Chevrolet during the seventh ServiceMaster Clean caution. That was brought out by Martin Truex Jr. driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts/Susan G Koman Toyota after smacking the wall in turn three. Jeff Burton and Gordon get into fisticuffs on the backstretch after Gordon walked to where Burton was standing instead of getting into his own ambulance.

“Thankfully, I had a long walk to him down the backstretch because I did about the least amount I was going to. I wanted to do a whole lot more to him.  You know, I like Jeff, he’s a guy that’s usually very rational and I respect his opinion and he apologized, said it was his fault, said he didn’t mean to do it, and whatever. It’s over.” Gordon said.

Burton took full responsibility for the accident. 

“100 percent, it was my fault.  I had no problem with what Gordon did.  I don’t blame him for being mad. I would have been mad too,” Burton said.

Now to get you back to the race, Elliott Sadler driver of the No. 19 Stanley Ford would bring the field to the green, but could not hold off the No. 16 American Red Cross Ford of Greg Biffle, who would lead the first lap. Biffle would continue to lead until the first ServiceMaster Clean caution was thrown due to the No. 87 of Joe Nemechek smoking. The green flag drop again at lap 17 with Biffle still the leader. Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet started to make a move on Biffle after restarting in the sixteenth spot, by lap 19 Johnson had picked up five spots to eleven. Johnson would continue to gain momentum, picking up another two spots to ninth by lap 21 and was to the fifth spot by lap 42. Before the second ServiceMaster Clean caution was thrown for debris.

Mark Martin is the first car off pit road and took over the lead. He’s followed by Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Elliott Sadler. Martin would bring the field to the green flag and would continue to lead until lap 49. When again, the No. 16 of Greg Biffle would once again take the lead. Biffle continues to lead, with a gap of about a second ahead of Mark Martin. The third ServiceMaster Clean caution would fly at lap 58 when Sam Hornish Jr. would get into the outside wall in turns three and four. We would finally start to see some different leaders, due to pitting. Kurt Busch and Patrick Carpentier would both lead a lap under caution, but once again Biffle again take once they cycled through the pit window. Biffle would continue lead from lap 64 through lap 97 until the No.5 of Mark Martin would take the lead.

Martin, would briefly lead as Biffle would regain the top spot on lap 105 as Martin pitted under the green flag. Biffle, would lead from laps 105 to 110 as he too pit under the green. Points leader Jimmie Johnson would lead for the first time at lap 110, Johnson lead briefly as he too had to pit. So, with a smart pit strategy Mark Martin regains the lead at lap 112 and would lead until lap 134 as the leaders would come to pit road. After the fourth ServiceMaster Clean caution came out for Martin Truex Jr., as he got loose in turn four and would hit the wall before sliding into the infield grass.

Under caution both Casey Mears and Joey Logano would take the lead, Logano would lead the cars to the green, and lead for two laps before Biffle would once again take the lead on lap 139. Biffle would continue to lead until lap 151, when we saw our fifth ServiceMaster Clean caution for Truex again as this time he blew a tire. Logano, would again take the lead under caution and bring the cars to the green, as he and Biffle would again battle for the lead. Logano, would lead one lap before Biffle would regain on lap 159. We would see our sixth ServiceMaster Clean caution as the No. 18 would spin in turn one. Biffle would once again bring the cars to the green and lead for fourteen laps until Logano would take the lead at lap 177. Logano would again continue to lead through the Burton and Gordon and fiasco and again bring the cars to the green at lap 201 and continue to lead until Biffle would again take the lead at lap 204.

Biffle would continue to lead from lap 204 through lap 246. As, he would make a green flag stop, and Kevin Harvick would lead his first lap of the day for five bonus points, Matt Kenseth and David Gilliland would each pick up five bonus points under this caution as well. Biffle, would once again lead from lap 249 through lap 288, until one again Joey Logano would again lead at TMS. Logano would just lead for one lap before Biffle would once again take the lead at lap 289. Biffle would lead from lap 289 until the eighth ServiceMaster Clean caution was thrown at lap 300 for debris.

The leaders would pit at lap 302 and after this it was Denny Hamlin’s race to lose.  After a 2-lap battle with Matt Kenseth, Hamlin was the winner of the AAA Texas 500.

“That was disappointing that I didn’t finish it off there. We have lost a lot of close one’s here at Texas. My Crown Royal Black guys did a great job. Doug Yates and those guys built me an awesome engine. We had a perfect restart.” Kenseth said.

Hamlin has swept both races at TMS this season and with his win, he overtook Johnson in the Sprint Cup Series standings by 33 points.

Johnson finished ninth.

“It was just a long day.  I had speed in the car. We worked our way forward and had issues on pit road.  We gave away so much track position from the beginning. It’s tough to get back where we needed to.” Johnson said.

The unofficial top-ten in the AAA Texas 500 are: Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Jimmie Johnson, and Paul Menard.

Unofficial Race Results

AAA Texas 500, Texas Motor Speedway

November 7, 2010 – Race 34 of 36