TEXAS
Friday, April 12 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 8:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, April 13 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 1:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, April 14 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Texas Motor Speedway will play host to the sixth tripleheader of the 2024 season with each of NASCAR’s top flight touring series getting their turn in the spotlight. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opens the weekend on Friday night with the NASCAR Xfinity Series running Saturday and the NASCAR Cup Series Sunday.
LOGANO CLIMBING IN STANDINGS
Joey Logano has found a groove over the past two weeks with finishes of second (Richmond) and sixth (Martinsville), which included 84 laps led on Sunday. Those performances have resulted in the 2022 series champion moving up eight spots in the point standings from 22nd to 14th, and he’ll be looking to climb even higher at a track that has produced one win (2014) and 12 top-five finishes in 28 career starts.
NINE ALL-TIME FORD CUP WINNERS
Ford has 15 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Texas Motor Speedway with nine drivers having at least one. Kevin Harvick ran off a streak of three straight playoff victories at the 1.5-mile track from 2017-19 and is tied with Carl Edwards, who had three career Ford wins including a season sweep in 2008. Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth have two apiece while Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler have one each.
ROUSH SUCCESS
Jack Roush has had his share of victories at Texas Motor Speedway from the very beginning as Mark Martin (NXS) and Jeff Burton (Cup) swept the opening weekend in 1997. Overall, Roush has won nine times in both the Cup and Xfinity Series while Greg Biffle registered a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win in 2000. Those nine Cup wins are tied for third on the all-time Roush list with Dover Motor Speedway. The only tracks that have been better are Michigan International Speedway (14) and Bristol Motor Speedway (12).
RYAN BLANEY: “I think Texas has kind of just been a work in progress, I feel like, for the last few years or ever since it got repaved. It’s okay. How can we get it wider? How can we get the racing better there? So, that’s something we’ll see if it’s changed over the past year. I’m not sure if it has, but we’ll find out. I enjoy Texas. What makes Texas interesting is the commitment level that the driver has to have going to that place. Your commitment level through three and four is just huge. And that to me is always a pretty fun aspect of that racetrack”
FINAL LAP PASS LEADS TO LOGANO VICTORY
Joey Logano’s first Cup win at TMS came in 2014 in a race that was delayed until Monday because of rain. Logano dominated much of the second half, but a caution with two laps to go forced a green-white-checker finish. He 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 the first of five wins that season.
A TEXAS TWO-FIRST
A couple of firsts happened on April 6, 1997 as Texas Motor Speedway hosted its inaugural 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 the 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.
CUSTER’S LAST LAP TEXAS CHARGE
Cole Custer returns to Texas Motor Speedway, where he recorded his second career series victory in 2018 and punched his ticket to the championship finale. Custer battled Tyler Reddick the final two laps, finally pulling alongside coming off turn two of the final circuit and completing the decisive pass on the backstretch. Custer was able to get clear coming out of turn three and held on to win by .162 seconds. In seven career series starts at the Fort Worth track, Custer has an average starting spot of 5.0 and average finish of 9.0. He has six top-10 finishes, including a sixth-place run last season in which he led 28 laps.
MAJESKI MOVES TO THE TOP
Ty Majeski is still looking for his first win of the season, but he moved to the top of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings for the first time this year after his second-place finish at Martinsville Speedway. That marked Majeski’s second runner-up performance of the year and enabled him to climb one spot and take a seven-point lead ahead of the field. The last time Majeski led the series standings was a year ago when he held the top spot for four consecutive weeks in April and May.
FORD’S NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT TEXAS
1997 – Jeff Burton
1998 – Mark Martin
2001 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Elliott Sadler
2005 – Greg Biffle (1) and Carl Edwards (2)
2008 – Carl Edwards (Sweep)
2011 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2012 – Greg Biffle (1)
2014 – Joey Logano (1)
2017 – Kevin Harvick (2)
2018 – Kevin Harvick (2)
2019 – Kevin Harvick (2)
FORD’S NASCAR Xfinity Series WINNERS
AT TEXAS
1997 – Mark Martin
1999 – Mark Martin
2000 – Mark Martin
2004 – Matt Kenseth
2007 – Matt Kenseth
2010 – Carl Edwards (2)
2011 – Carl Edwards (1) and Trevor Bayne (2)
2012 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (1)
2013 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2015 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2018 – Ryan Blaney (1) and Cole Custer (2)
2020 – Austin Cindric (1)
FORD’S NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT TEXAS
1997 – Kenny Irwin Jr.
1998 – Tony Raines
2000 – Greg Biffle (1)
