Carl Edwards (99) and Tony Stewart (14) will square off this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway as just eight points seperate them in the championship chase. Photo by Getty Images for NASCAR
When the words “Carl Edwards had better be real worried. … He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks” tumbled from Tony Stewart’s mouth in Martinsville Speedway’s victory lane, a storybook grudge match was born.
A healthy feud blossomed between two drivers overdosing on talent – just about the only thing they have in common. Their differences make you question why they haven’t been going at it for much longer.
Their opposite characteristics cannot be ignored. Tony’s Burger King. Carl’s Subway. Tony’s outspoken, quick with verbal jabs – political correctness be damned. Carl’s a sponsor’s dream, a guy you’d want to take home to mom. And last week at Martinsville, when asked what NASCAR personality he’d be for Halloween, Tony said anyone sponsored by a beer company, so it could match what he’s drinking. Carl’s probably doing sit-ups as you read this.
Though there are others very much in contention (Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski are only 21 and 27 points out of the lead, respectively), Stewart vs. Edwards will likely attract the spotlight this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Only eight points separate the two with three races remaining in the season.
Carl Edwards: Well, maybe the two DO have something in common, but only if Edwards goes on to win the championship without winning another race. One driver in the Chase era has won the title without winning a Chase race: Tony Stewart in 2005.
It’s doubtful Edwards goes winless over the next three. He has a combined six wins at the next three tracks – three at Texas Motor Speedway; one at Phoenix International Speedway; two at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His Driver Rating over the next three tracks is 102.4, which is second only to Jimmie Johnson’s 107.9.
Over the first seven races of the Chase, Edwards has the most top 10s (six) and the best average finish (6.1).
But are those numbers deceiving? Edwards has doubled as a magician in three of the last four races. He has struggled at Kansas (his Driver Rating was 87.6), Talladega (57.2) and Martinsville (79.0), yet crafted finishes of fifth, 11th and ninth, respectively.
How do you analyze that? Is it: “His luck has got to run out one of these days.” Or: “That’s what champions do, and now his bread-and-butter tracks await. He’s got this.”
Tony Stewart: Stewart has sandwiched two finishes outside the top 10 at Dover and Kansas with brilliant runs. His three Chase victories in 2011 match his all-time high. He also had three Chase wins in 2006, a season he did not make the Chase. His Martinsville victory put his Chase wins total at nine, second only to Jimmie Johnson’s 20.
Like Edwards, Stewart has wins at all the remaining tracks: one each at Texas and Phoenix; two at Homestead.
He also has the championship pedigree, something Edwards lacks in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition. Stewart, a two-time champion, is the only driver to win under the pre-Chase (2002) and Chase era (2005) formats. A third title would put Stewart’s name among the all-time greats, joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Lee Petty and David Pearson and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip with three titles. If he does erase the eight-point deficit, he’ll become the first driver-owner champion since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.
Kenseth, Biffle Rank High Among Lone Star Favorites
A Roush Fenway Ford may be in Victory Lane on Sunday but it maybe not the one you think.
While Carl Edwards leads the points standings, his RFR teammates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle – one in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the other a non-qualifier – could be the drivers to watch in the AAA Texas 500.
Each has at least one victory at the 1.5-mile track. Kenseth, twice a winner in Ft. Worth, led 169 laps in racing to victory in the spring. That performance backed up a runner-up finish in Texas last fall.
Biffle, one of four 2010 winners yet to taste victory this season, ranks third in TMS Driver Rating (100.3) behind Kenseth (105.2) and Tony Stewart.
•Roush Fenway leads all owners in Texas victories with eight.
•Kenseth has nine top-five and 12 top-10 finishes at the track and ranks first in average finish (6.8). He ranks third in laps led (519). His start to finish differential – +8.9 positions – is a Texas best among Chase qualifiers.
•Biffle finished fourth in the Texas spring race; fifth in last year’s AAA Texas 500. He led the most recent three races and twice has led 200 plus laps. Biffle is the Texas Motor Speedway leader in two key Loop Data categories: laps led (619) and most fastest laps (384).
Both drivers have Texas victories in other NASCAR national series – Kenseth in NASCAR Nationwide and Biffle in NASCAR Camping World Trucks. Biffle clinched his NCWTS title at Texas in 2000.
Texas Perfect Place For Junior’s Winless Streak To End
One of NASCAR’s most enduring images is of father and son – Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. – celebrating Junior’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway in 2000.
Thus, there would be no better place for the third generation competitor to end a 126-race winless drought.
Special, yes. Unexpected, probably not.
A “new” Junior emerged last weekend at Martinsville Speedway where he finished seventh: an aggressive, do-what-it takes driver anxious to end the 2011 season on a winning note.
Earnhardt finished ninth at Texas in the spring, his second top 10 in the past three Texas races. He also led his 13th race in 18 starts at the 1.5-mile track. Earnhardt twice won the Coors Light Pole and posted three top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
The eight-time Most Popular Driver boasts the track’s eighth-best Driver Rating (93.1) outranking Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin. He also has a NASCAR Nationwide Series victory at the Texas speedway.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Notes
If Roush Fenway Racing sweeps the NASCAR Nationwide-NASCAR Sprint Cup races this weekend, it’ll reach NASCAR national series win No. 300. … Milestone Watch: Hendrick Motorsports will attempt to post its 200th series win; Kurt Busch is going for his 25th series win; AJ Allmendinger will attempt to make his 150th series start; Kasey Kahne will attempt to post his 100th top-10 finish; Juan Pablo Montoya will attempt to post his 50th top-10 finish and Ryan Newman is going for his 50th Coors Light pole. … Stewart-Haas Racing announced Tuesday that Quicken Loans will be the primary sponsor of the No. 39 team and driver Ryan Newman for nine races in 2012. … Back in Miami for its second year, NASCAR Championship Drive, the outdoor fan festival and Coca-Cola Racing Family Concert featuring Blake Shelton, which is free to fans, will take place Nov. 17-18 at Lummus Park. For more information visit www.nascar.com/championshipdrive … Texas Motor Speedway’s “No Limits” Garage Party Presented by WinStar World Casino on Sunday, Nov. 6, is constructing a 100-by-100-foot dirt arena for an authentic bull-riding event put on by Stockyards Championship Rodeo. The event consists of 50 bull riders and 60 head of cattle, and a $3,000 purse is up for grabs. … Sunday’s pre-race show will feature Trace Adkins. … The world’s #1 show is coming to Texas Motor Speedway to get a taste of American auto racing. Top Gear (BBC) is sending host Richard Hammond to experience his first NASCAR race, where he’ll meet with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, tour a hauler with Steve Letarte, drive the pace car before the NASCAR Sprint Cup race and even help out in the pits with the No. 5 team. … HGTV’s show Celebrity Coaches is traveling around the country, looking for the best motorhomes around. On Saturday, November 5 they’ll come to Texas Motor Speedway to meet Casey Mears and tour his personal trailer. The camera crew will also tour the No. 13 team hauler to see how Casey lives, and works, while at the track.
Danica Patrick makes her return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR
Nationwide Series: Danica Patrick Goes All In
She’s back, and this time for good. Danica Patrick is now a full-time NASCAR driver, competing in the final three 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series races as she prepares to run the entire series schedule for JR Motorsports in 2012. In addition, she’ll run a limited schedule in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Texas will be her 10th start this year and her first since Kanas where she finished 15th.
Patrick has posted one top five and three top 10s in her previous nine races, including a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas that put her in the record books as the highest-finishing female in any NASCAR national series race.
Patrick finished 22nd last year at Texas in her series track debut. Heading to the 1.5-mile speedway this weekend her pre-race Driver Rating is 51.6 and her Average Running Position is 29th.
When she gets to Phoenix in two weeks – her city of residence – she’ll be running her third series race at the 1-mile track, her most starts at any NASCAR track other than Daytona. Patrick finished 32nd at Phoenix and 19th at Homestead to close out the 2010 season.
Patrick continues to improve each time out, her season-to-date Driver Rating is 79.9 and average finish is 16.1 – both better than last season’s average finish of 28.0 and a Driver Rating of 51.7.
Championships Abound: Three-Race Showdown To Decide It All
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Only three races are left for the top contenders in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver and owner championships to showcase their talents and seal the deal on the 2011 titles. The spectacle couldn’t get any bigger as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Four heavyweights and two significant bouts – driver standings leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. vs. second-place Elliott Sadler and owner standings leader Joe Gibbs Racing vs. second-place Roush Fenway Racing – headline the bill this weekend.
The scene has been set for an epic final three races.
Not since 2005 and the standoff between Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer has the driver championship been this close this late. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds a 15-point lead over second-place Elliott Sadler in the driver standings. Which Sadler has closed from a 22 point margin after Dover.
Stenhouse has made three starts at Texas posting an average finish of 16.0. His pre-race Driver Rating is 98.0. While Sadler has made seven starts at Texas posting an average finish of 15.3 and a pre-race Driver Rating of 87.0.
On the owner side, all-time series wins leader Kyle Busch returns to pilot the No. 18 and Joe Gibbs Racing is going for its record-breaking fourth consecutive series owner title and has a scant three-point lead over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing team, led by 2007 series driver champion Carl Edwards. The No. 60 has gained 47 points on the No. 18 since being 50 points behind the leader following the August race at Bristol.
Busch had won five consecutive races at Texas before Edwards won this event last year. Edwards also won the spring event at Texas this season.
Kenny Wallace To Become All-Time Starts Leader In The NASCAR Nationwide Series
Kenny Wallace will break the NASCAR Nationwide Series all-time starts mark this week at Texas Motor Speedway with No. 520. Wallace will surpass his longtime friend Jason Keller (519 starts) for the all-time starts record.
Wallace is 13th on the all-time NASCAR national series combined starts list with 874 starts among NASCAR’s three national series – 519 NASCAR Nationwide; 344 NASCAR Sprint Cup and 11 NASCAR Camping World Truck. Wallace has made 15 series starts at Texas posting one top-10 finish.
“When I was growing up in St. Louis as a 12-year-old and you would have said, ‘Hey, Kenny, you’ll be racing in NASCAR until you’re 48 or 50,‘, that’s a dream,” Wallace said. “There have been a lot of bumps, but it’s been a dream life.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series Notes
Currently Timmy Hill has a one-point edge over second-place Blake Koch in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year race. Ryan Truex is third, two points behind Hill, but has just one more race on his 2011 Joe Gibbs Racing schedule, next week at Phoenix. … The two Rusty Wallace Racing entries driven by Steve Wallace and Michael Annett as well as Kenny and Mike Wallace will honor the late Russ Wallace by displaying his name above their driver and passenger side doors. Russ, who passed away last weekend, was Rusty Wallace’s father and Steve Wallace’s grandfather. … Reed Sorenson will finish out the season with MacDonald Motorsports in the No. 82 Dodge. Sorenson currently is fifth in the driver standings and has run with MacDonald Motorsports since Kansas. … Brian Vickers, the 2003 series champion, will drive Sorenson’s former ride, the No. 32 Dollar General Chevrolet for Turner Motorsports at Texas, which is the home base for team owner Steve Turner. James Buescher, a native of Plano who is in the running for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship, will be in the No. 30 Chevrolet for Turner at Texas this weekend. … The No. 23 Chevrolet driven by Robert Richardson, Jr., a resident of nearby McKinney, will be sponsored by Tia Rosa’s Tortillas, a division of the Bimbo Bakeries USA, with headquarters in Mexico. Takis, a product of Barcel, also a Hispanic-owned company, will adorn the car and show a different scheme than normal – black, blue, purple and red. … Texas serves as home base for sponsors for series drivers Blake Koch and Joey Logano. Koch’s DayStar Television Network sponsor is based in Bedford, while Logano’s GameStop sponsor is located in Grapevine. … David Ragan will drive the No. 08 Texas Tech University Ford this weekend for Randy Hill Racing.
Austin Dillon (3) carries a 11 point advantage in the NCWTS title fight into Friday's race at Texas. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Camping World Trucks: Championship Still Too Close To Call
What a difference two years make.
Last season as well as in 2009, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader wrapped up the championship with a race remaining on the schedule.
That’s not likely to happen in 2011. With 15 points covering the top four title contenders it’s virtually assured the championship won’t be settled until the final lap of the last race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 18.
Austin Dillon, who would become the series’ youngest champion at age 21, carries an 11-point lead over James Buescher into the season’s 24th of 25 races on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. Dillon extended his advantage with a third-place finish last weekend in Martinsville where Buescher was 10th.
“We were kind of worried going into today,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the next two races.”
Dillon has been hot and cold at Texas – and on the series’ 1.5-mile intermediate tracks where the championship ultimately will be decided.
•In three trips to Ft. Worth, he has a Keystone Light Pole and a third-place finish.
•He finished 25th in last fall’s WinStar World Casino 350k and 26th in June’s Texas race.
•Two of his four series victories have come on intermediate tracks at Las Vegas and in September at Chicago. Dillon has an average finish of 12.6 on 1.5-mile layouts.
Three Challengers Good At TMS But Is It Good Enough
Call it a good, old fashioned Texas shoot-out.
A posse of three is gunning for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader Austin Dillon and if past performances mean anything, Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter and James Buescher are at full gallop into Texas Motor Speedway.
•Hornaday, after a fifth title, is a three-time Texas winner including the track’s 2011 spring event. A victory would give the 53-year-old Californian a season sweep for the second time.
•Sauter had victory in sight in June – until he jumped the race’s final restart, was penalized and finished a frustrated 22nd. The Wisconsin native finished second in both Texas races a year ago.
•Buescher, a 21-year-old from Plano, Texas, sat on the pole in June and led three times before finishing ninth. Still looking for his first NASCAR national series victory, the Katy, Texas resident was sixth in both Texas stops in 2010.
With Dillon’s lead in double digits – and just a single point between finishing positions 2nd through 36th – each of the three faces the same challenge: win and collect the bonus points the victory carries. Hornaday and Sauter are under the greatest pressure trailing Dillon by 15 points apiece.
Waiting for the leader to stumble appears problematic at best. Dillon has finished third or better in three of his last six races.
Trio Of Texas Winners Complicate Championship Picture
Spoiler alert: Three of Texas Motor Speedway’s most prolific winners could have a significant impact on how the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship plays out this week.
Kyle Busch, Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan count a combined 12 victories and represent a major obstacle to Victory Lane for the four championship contenders.
•Busch, a six-time winner in 2011, goes for his third consecutive WinStar World Casino 350k victory.
•Bodine, the series’ only six-time Texas winner (most recently in June 2010), has won two or more races every year beginning in 2004. He’s winless this season.
•Gaughan swept both Texas races in 2002-03 but his victory in the latter year’s WinStar World Casino 350k was his last in a NASCAR Camping World Truck. The drought reached 124 races at Martinsville. Gaughan finished 14th at Texas in June.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Notes
Joey Coulter has the Sunoco Rookie of the Year lead by four points over Cole Whitt. But don’t count out Nelson Piquet Jr., who trails Coulter by nine in third. Scoring is based on a driver’s best 14 finishes and Piquet’s current log has three fewer top 10s than his rivals. A solid performance at Texas could send the trio to Homestead-Miami Speedway in a virtual deadlock. … Eric Phillips won his 26th race as a series crew chief, one fewer than Kyle Busch Motorsports’ director of competition Rick Ren’s series record. Denny Hamlin was Phillips’ seventh different winning driver. … Kevin Harvick Inc.’s No. 2 Chevrolet holds a 72-point series owners’ championship lead and will wrap up the title if the margin over Kyle Busch Motorsports’ No. 18 is 49 points or greater after the Texas race. If the No. 2 finishes 19th with no laps led; 20th with at least one lap led or 21st with the most laps led, it clinches the owner’s championship.
