Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Tony Stewart: Stewart out dueled Carl Edwards at Texas, holding off his championship rival to win the AAA Texas 500. Stewart led 173 laps on the day, and now trails Edwards by only three points in the Sprint Cup standings.
[media-credit name=”Mike Holloway” align=”alignright” width=”261″]
[/media-credit]“Last week I said Edwards should be worried,” Stewart said. “This week, tell him ‘I’m coming.’ He knows where I’m going, and I do, as well, because I’ve ‘been there before.’
“As I’ve said before, I don’t care about second. Second place is for losers. Or is it? I’ve won four races in the Chase, yet I’m only second in the points. Apparently, second place isn’t for losers.”
2. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished second at Texas to Tony Stewart, as the two battled over the last third of the AAA Texas 500. Edwards’ eight-point lead in the point standings was trimmed by five, and now he leads Stewart by only three.
“Who says you need to win races to win a championship?” Edwards said. “Certainly not the NASCAR rule book. So far, Stewart has been ‘great’ in four races. I’ve been ‘good’ in eight. So far, so ‘good.’ If I win the Cup without a victory, I’ll endorse the headline ‘My Goodness! Edwards Wins Cup.’”
3. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 13th at Texas, and remained third in the point standings. He now trails Carl Edwards by 33 with two races left in the Chase.
“Kyle Busch took stupidity to a new level,” Harvick said, “for the third or fourth time this year. Despite having over 100 wins in NASCAR competition, he’s still ‘lost it’ more than he’s won. In Texas, NASCAR decided his fate for him. Call it a ‘parking lot.’ As they say, ‘M&M’s melt in your hands, Kyle Busch sits on his.”
4. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished fourth in the Texas AAA 500, posting his fourth top-5 result of the Chase. He moved up to fourth in the point standings and now trails Carl Edwards by 38.
“Kyle Busch is in a class by himself,” Kenseth said. “That is, anger management class.”
5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski struggled at Texas, finishing a lap down on his way to a 24th. He fell one spot to fifth in the point standings where he is 49 out of first.
“I’m not counting myself out yet,” Keselowski said. “Anything’s possible. That is, anything’s possible….with Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers both in the field.”
6. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished 14th at Texas and remained sixth in the point standings. He is 55 out of first, and will be Sprint Cup champion for only two more weeks.
“So, will it be Carl Edwards or Tony Stewart as next Sprint Cup champion?” Johnson said. “If Creedence Clearwater Revival made that query, they would surely say, ‘And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the reign? CCR rules. RCR doesn’t.
“I’m going to say something that I haven’t had to say in half a decade. And that’s ‘It just wasn’t my year.’”
7. Jeff Gordon: Gordon posted his second straight top-10 finish, coming home sixth at Texas after a third at Martinsville. He improved two spots to eighth in the point standings, 81 out of first.
“Much like a Kyle Busch apology,” Gordon said, “it’s ‘too little, too late.’ If he continues to go rogue, so will his sponsors.”
8. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt finished seventh at Texas and climbed to seventh in the point standings. He trails Carl Edwards by 79 points.
“I didn’t make the Chase last year,” Earnhardt said, “so this year would have to be considered an improvement. I went from the ‘outside looking in’ to the ‘inside looking in.’”
9. Kurt Busch: Busch finished 30th at Texas, two laps down, and fell one spot to ninth in the point standings. He trails Carl Edwards by 87.
“What’s that continuous high-pitched sound heard on the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil radio frequency?” Busch said. “I don’t know, but it sounds like a ‘whine.’”
10. Kyle Busch: Busch was banned from Sunday’s Cup race after blatantly wrecking Ron Hornaday under caution in Friday’s trucks race. Busch retaliated after the two trucks made contact when they went three-wide to navigate around a slower truck. Busch is now 100 points out of first in the Sprint Cup standings and has been officially eliminated from championship contention.
“If I had it to do over,” Busch said, “I’d do it differently. By that, I’m referring to my career, and not Friday’s truck race.”
