[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”219″]
[/media-credit]Jimmie Johnson led 168 laps and won from the pole for the second week in a row at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Johnson restarted on the outside of Brad Keselowski on the final green-white-checkered restart. Johnson made the pass and pulled away while exiting turn-2 and held onto the lead for the final laps.
This was Johnson’s fifth win of the season and he stretched his lead in the series standings to 7 points over Brad Keselowski with two races remaining.
“The way things have been going, you have to win the race to get points. Reminds me of last year’s Chase in some respects. Just a great performance by the entire 48 team all weekend long. To win the pole and lead the most laps, win the race is a big deal. Just excited and really wish we were in Phoenix right now getting ready to start the next race.” Johnson said.
Keselowski kept it honest after contact on the second to the last restart and finished second.
“I had to choose between wrecking him and winning the race and it didn’t seem right to wreck ‘em. Ran ‘em hard and we’re going to keep him honest. I know if we keep running like this that we won’t be beat.” Keselowski said. “It’s going to be a dogfight all the way down to Homestead.”
“It was an awesome race. Great way to put it and the gloves are off and it’s bare knuckle fighting. I have a lot of respect for that No. 2 team. Those guys are doing a great job.” Johnson said.
Matt Kenseth finished fourth and moves up three positions to fifth, 72 points behind.
“I didn’t think we would ever be standing here with a top-five the way our day started. We started way off and these guys never gave up. They battled hard all day long and got me a good finish.” Kenseth said.
Tony Stewart finished fifth and moved up two positions to eighth, 80 points behind.
“God I’m just so proud of everybody on the pit crew on the pit stops. The last two stops got us a lot of track position and really proud of Steve Addington. He just kept digging away at it and kept tweaking on it making it better and better all day. Just really happy with the effort today.” Stewart said.
Other chase contenders that still had a shot entering Texas were Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne. Bowyer finished sixth and is now 36 points out and Kahne finished 25th and is now 58 points out. Both long shots for the title without help from both of the top-2.
“I’ve said this all along, it’s fun to be racing for the championship, but I’m more proud of where we’re at contending for that championship, winning three races our first year together as a group.” Bowyer said when asked if his championship is still within reach.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 7th, Kevin Harvick 9th, Greg Biffle 10th, Martin Truex Jr. 13th and Jeff Gordon finished 14th.
Official Chase Standings/Stats
After race 8 of 10
AAA Texas 500, Texas Motor Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php
| Pos. | Driver | (+/-) | Wins | Top-5 | Top-10 | Bon. | Avg St | Ave Fin | Laps | Ttl Laps | Points | Bnd |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 17 | 7.9 | 4.9 | 2592 | 2592 | 2339 | 0 |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 18.1 | 5.3 | 2591 | 2592 | 2332 | -7 |
| 3 | Clint Bowyer | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 5.6 | 8 | 2590 | 2592 | 2303 | -36 |
| 4 | Kasey Kahne | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 7.6 | 9.4 | 2587 | 2592 | 2281 | -58 |
| 5 | Matt Kenseth | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 11.3 | 12.6 | 2561 | 2592 | 2267 | -72 |
| 6 | Jeff Gordon | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 11.5 | 11.4 | 2513 | 2592 | 2267 | -72 |
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | -2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 12.4 | 13.4 | 2557 | 2592 | 2266 | -73 |
| 8 | Tony Stewart | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 19.1 | 13.1 | 2585 | 2592 | 2259 | -80 |
| 9 | Martin Truex Jr. | -2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 9.8 | 11.6 | 2590 | 2592 | 2259 | -80 |
| 10 | Greg Biffle | -1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 11.3 | 13 | 2549 | 2592 | 2256 | -83 |
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 17.8 | 14.4 | 2561 | 2592 | 2238 | -101 |
| 12 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 22.3 | 19.5 | 2143 | 2592 | 2188 | -151 |
*Note: These stats consist of only the final 10 chase races.
(http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php)
