The Final Word – The gloves came off at Texas
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[/media-credit]A maximum of 96 points are left on the table as the boys and Danica move on to Phoenix and Homestead, which comes as bad news for pretty much anybody not named Jimmie Johnson or Brad Keselowski. Two of the 12 championship apostles are already eliminated, seven more should see the gates close after this weekend. Even for third place Clint Bowyer, 36 points in the bushes, his chances hinge on both the leaders spending some time in the garage either this upcoming Sunday or next.
Jimmie Johnson dominated the first half in Texas, led half of them on the day, and remained in the top three the rest of the way before passing Kyle Busch in the final laps to salt this one away. It marked his 60th Cup victory, the fifth of the season, and pushed him seven points ahead of Keselowski in his fix for six. His main challenger finished second, Busch third.
For a moment, there was a glimmer of hope for the rest of the pack. With under ten to go they went door to door, came together, each wobbled but managed to continue on without much break in momentum. It the kind of action fans love to see, and what a handful of drivers hope to see happen again, and soon, just with a different result. On this occasion, Johnson and Keselowski finished with cars that looked like cars and even shook hands in Victory Lane. However, like the handshake, the gloves are now off.
Fellow chasers Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, and Dale Earnhardt Jr grabbed the next four spots at the line. Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle also had Top Tens. Jeff Gordon had a tire problem that took him out of contention, while Danica Patrick was 24th, the final car on the lead lap. It was her best result and it came in her first race with Tony Gibson as crew chief. The pair will be together next season when Patrick runs full-time.
The other news coming from Texas was Harvick’s car being sandbagged before the race. Literally. It was dangling from a big ole Texas flag trailing a parachuter and clipped the “door”, right on the #29, putting a bit of a dent there. NASCAR allowed the crew to take it back to the garage to make some repairs. Now, had it clipped the #2 or #48, I’m sure the conspiracy theorists would have had a field day.
This Sunday is Remembrance or Veteran’s Day, depending on what side of the line you live on. A couple of hours after we observe the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to honour those who have served our respective nations in our armed forces, the engines come to life in Phoenix. The only two questions we need answered Sunday is how close did Jimmie and Brad finish, and how well did they finish. Something tells me this could be a week of close finishes.
Chasing the Chase – Week 8: Three chase contenders enter Texas and only two exit
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[/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)
