FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: TEXAS PLAYOFF NOTES
Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick are currently holding down third and fourth-place, respectively, in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings while Ryan Blaney is in sixth-place, only six points behind the final transfer spot. As the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for this weekend’s Round of 8 event, Ford looks at what each driver has done at the 1.5-mile track.
FORD’S ROUND OF 8 UPDATE
BRAD KESELOWSKI (Currently 3rd in the standings, 29 points ahead of 5th-place Jimmie Johnson):
Has 18 MENCS starts at Texas and has a best finish of second, which he’s done on two occasions (2012 and 2015)…Won the pole at this event two years ago and has posted seven Top-10 finishes in the last 10 races at the facility.
KEVIN HARVICK (Currently 4th in the standings, 3 points ahead of 5th-place Jimmie Johnson):
Still searching for his first MENCS win at Texas Motor Speedway as this will be his 30th career start…Coming off a solid performance in the spring event at TMS as he won the pole and finished fourth in the race…Has six straight Top-10 runs at TMS, including four finishes of fourth or better.
RYAN BLANEY (Currently 6th in the standings, 6 points out of the final transfer spot):
This will mark his sixth career MENCS start at Texas and he’s still looking for his first Top-10 finish…Had a solid effort in the spring as he qualified second and then won the first two stages before finishing 12th, matching his career-best run at the track.
LAST LAP PASS LEADS LOGANO TO VICTORY
Ford’s most recent win at TMS came in 2014 when Joey Logano registered the first of his five triumphs that season. The race, which was delayed until Monday because of rain, was dominated by Logano for much of the second half, but a caution with two laps to go forced a green-white-checker finish. Logano started third on the restart after the leaders stopped on pit road, and was able to get past Jeff Gordon on the final lap to claim victory. Logano led 108 of the final 116 laps to claim his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win on a 1.5-mile track.
A TEXAS TWO-FIRST
A couple of firsts happened on April 6, 1997 as Texas Motor Speedway hosted its inaugural Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event and Jeff Burton took his first checkered flag. Burton, led by crew chief Buddy Parrott, passed Todd Bodine with 58 laps remaining and beat fellow Ford driver Dale Jarrett to the finish line by four seconds. The race was slowed by 10 cautions, which included a multi-car accident in first turn of the first lap. Burton went on to win 21 career series races with 17 of those coming in a Thunderbird or Taurus.
SADLER WINS FIRST RACE WITH RYR
Elliott Sadler passed Jeff Gordon with 27 laps remaining and then held off Kasey Kahne in the closing laps to win the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 on April 4, 2004. Sadler, in his second season with Robert Yates Racing, hugged the inside lane over the final three laps as Kahne worked the outside. When the two cars came off turn four for the final time, Sadler had a lapped car in front of him and that allowed Kahne to make one last charge. Despite gaining crucial ground through the tri-oval, Kahne came up half-a-car length short as Sadler crossed the line first to gain his second of three career series wins.
FORD MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT TEXAS
1997 – Jeff Burton
1998 – Mark Martin
2001 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Elliott Sadler
2005 – Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards
2008 – Carl Edwards*
2011 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2012 – Greg Biffle (1)
2014 – Joey Logano (1)
* Denotes season sweep
