Johnson Rules Texas Racin with Russ By RUSSELL SCHMIDT Jimmie Johnson came into Texas Motor Speedway tied at the top with Matt Kenseth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. After severely dominating the days laps out front, Johnson left the mid-West with a narrow seven point lead over Kenseth after taking his sixth win of the season. The race began with Carl Edwards as the top qualifier, but it was Johnson out front for most of the day. Even when a slow pitstop slipped the No.48 Chevy to eighth, it didnt take long to climb back to the front with Brad Keselowski out front. Oh, there were other fast cars, such as Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Edwards and Kyle Busch, but each had some kind of issue along the way to keep them out of contention. Late in the race, Kenseth sped down pit lane, setting him back to around 15th, but methodically climbed back to finish a very respectable fourth. Kyle Busch hit the wall before the hundreth lap, yet made repairs to move back among the leaders, only to speed down pit lane very late in the race, netting a 13th place finish. Earnhardt drove very well to finish second, but had nothing for fellow Hendrick driver Johnson in the closing stages as he notched his 66th career checkers. So, the top five behind Johnson included Earnhardt, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne. Other drivers having days theyd like to forget included Jeff Gordon whose left front flat planted him in the fence, fell to the back of the pack and finished some 185 laps down. Edwards ran well for a while only to succomb to engine woes mid-race and notched a 37th place run. Nationwide Once again, the Nationwide race came down to what full-time Cupper would win. On Saturday afternoon, Brad Keselowski outdistanced Denny Hamlin, Sam Hornish Jr, Matt Kenseth and Austin Dillon. The Cupsters led 193 out of the 200 laps run in an event dominated by the major leaguers with Hornish Jr the highest Nationwide regular. The overall points race is tight with Dillon barely ahead of Hornish Jr by only six points. Its certainly anyones ball game and the final outcome should come to the last lap in Homestead in two weeks. Camping World Trucking After Ty Dillon struggled in the closing laps at last weeks truck race in Martinsville, he resurged back among those celebrating in victory lane as the victor. The Texas race started with Jeb Burton on the pole for the seventh time this season. Yes, the Virginia driver and son of NASCAR driver Ward Burton ran among the top 10 for much of the race, but ran out of the go juice very late in the show, netting a disappointing 26th. Meanwhile, Childress driver Ty Dillon had certainly the strongest truck, leading 130 out of the scheduled 147 laps run. Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday Jr, Brendan Gaughan and Justin Lofton made up the rest of the top five finishers. Matt Craftons 10th place finish finds him atop the points by 46 over James Beuscher with only two venues left of the 2013 schedule. Its his to lose. Open Wheel News Sebastien Vettel came, went and kicked everyone in the tail to once again dominate the Formula One outing, this one in Abu Dhabi. His teammate Mark Webber earned the pole, but Vettel ran away with the show from the very first turn to take his seventh consecutive win! Webber and Nico Rosberg completed the podium. From Rumorville Its official. Martin Truex Jr will be driving for Furniture Row in the No. 78 Chevy starting next year. Rumors are also flying around that his previous sponsor NAPA that left MWR may be joining him along with his MWR current pit crew at FRM. For those F-1 fans out there, the proposed venues in New Jersey and Mexico for next year are in danger of being cancelled for myriad of reasons. Stay tuned. Thats it for this week. Next weeks RWR will review the action from the tricky tri-oval in Phoenix for the Nationwide, Truck and Cup divisions in addition to other racing news from around the globe. Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at [email protected]
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 04:07:37 +0000