NASCAR Notebook: Johnson Looks For Lone Star Success

With three races left in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Jimmie Johnson once again finds himself in familiar territory – atop the points standings. However, Texas, where everything is bigger except the points lead, could leave its own brand on the championship race.

As the racing circuit heads to the Lone Star State for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the other 42 drivers in the field have a “big” order to fill – find a way to stop Johnson and the No. 48 team.

Johnson’s win in this past Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway gave him a record 21 career victories in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since the post-season format was created in 2004. Tony Stewart is second with 11.

Even though the win came later than any of Johnson’s other first Chase wins during a season, he is the only driver to post a victory in each of the nine Chases.

Johnson has a little bit of history on his side, too, that bodes well for him and his crew.

In the eight previous Chases, five of the years the driver leading the standings with three races left has held on to win the championship – Kurt Busch in 2004, Stewart in 2005 and Johnson in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In 2006 and 2007, Johnson captured his first two championships by outperforming and passing eventual runners-up Matt Kenseth (2006) and Jeff Gordon (2007) in the last three races of the season.

Last year, Carl Edwards went into Texas with an eight-point lead over Stewart. However, by the end of the season, Edwards and Stewart were tied with the latter claiming the championship on a tiebreaker.

Johnson, who currently has a two-point advantage over Brad Keselowski in the standings, has found success at the 1.5-mile Texas track with his only victory coming during the 2007 Chase. In addition, he has eight top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 18 starts.

The Texas win was Johnson’s third consecutive win during the 2007 Chase. He went on to win the following week at Phoenix to extend the streak.

Johnson’s 9.7 average finishing position at Texas is second only to Kenseth’s 8.6.

After starting 10th in April’s Samsung Mobile 500 at the track, Johnson led 156 laps and finished second to Greg Biffle. In last year’s AAA Texas 500, Johnson led one lap and finished 14th.

With Martinsville Behind Him, Keselowski Faces New Challenge

After Martinsville’s TUMS Fast Relief 500, Brad Keselowski is no longer the points leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, which is not necessarily that bad.

Keselowski surrendered a seven-point lead in the standings and now trails Jimmie Johnson by two points. However, the outcome could have been worse.

Johnson started the race from the pole and was able to fend off all challengers to win the event. Keselowski, on the other hand, started all the way back in 32nd. He managed to fight through the traffic to finish sixth.

Historically, Johnson has always excelled at Martinsville. The win was his seventh in 22 starts. The Virginia track has been a little more difficult for Keselowski. In six races, he has only three top 10s.

So, to leave Martinsville only two points behind Johnson is an accomplishment. There’s more pressing matters. Namely, Texas.

This weekend’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is just as big a hurdle for Keselowski as Martinsville was, if not more.

In eight starts at the 1.5-mile track, including his first career NSCS start, Keselowski has never placed in the top 10 (or finished on the lead lap, for that matter). His best finish was in the spring 2010 race where he finished 14th. In five of his starts, he placed outside the top 20.

Unfortunately, his qualifying efforts haven’t fared much better. Keselowski started on the grid in 27th position or lower in six events.

However, in 2012, Keselowski and his team have been ignoring history and finding success at tracks where it has normally eluded them.  This season, Keselowski has matched or bettered his previous best finish at 15 different tracks.

Can Bowyer Or Kahne Make History?

Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne currently sit in third and fourth place in the NSCS standings, 26 and 29 points, respectively, behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

With three races remaining in the season, for either driver to make up this amount of points would be nothing short of historic – a feat that hasn’t been done since 1990.

After the 1990 Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt sat 49 points behind Mark Martin. However, after finishes of 10th, first and third in the final three races, Earnhardt leapfrogged Martin to capture his fourth title.

But that was under the old points system. If the current points system was used in 1990, the total points Earnhardt would have had to overcome would have been roughly 12. This makes the points difference that Bowyer or Kahne need to overcome to win the championship the largest comeback since the inception of the current position-based points system in 1975.

Kahne has found victory lane at two of the three tracks remaining on the schedule. He won at Texas in 2006 and has five top-10 finishes. Last year, he won in the fall Phoenix race and also has five top 10s at the one-mile track.

Bowyer has yet to win in the series at any of three remaining tracks, but he has runner-up finishes at Texas and Phoenix.

Edwards Looks To Snag Another Cowboy Hat

With a victory in this Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, Carl Edwards would add another cowboy hat to his already large collection.

Edwards holds the record for most NSCS wins at Texas Motor Speedway with three. Throw two NASCAR Nationwide Series wins into the mix for a total of five cowboy hats.

Though Edwards isn’t in the 2012 Chase, he could definitely throw a wrench in the plans of any of the contenders planning to use Texas as a springboard to the championship.

With three wins, five top fives and seven top 10s in 15 races, Edwards has the makings of the ultimate spoiler.  In the past three races at the track, he has finishes of third, second and eighth.

Chevrolet Shrugs Off Drought, Nears History

With Jimmie Johnson hounding the points lead and drivers like Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne chipping in top-five finishes for parts of this Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Chevrolet’s 11-race winless drought was easy to overlook.

But the rare streak was actually Chevrolet’s longest in almost 20 years. The last time it went 11 or more races without a win was 1993, when they went 12 consecutive events without a victory.

All that’s forgotten now that Johnson returned to victory lane at Martinsville, and could be even more of a distant memory this weekend at Texas.

Chevrolet chases two impressive milestones, both of which could reach fruition this weekend. One, Chevrolet’s next premier series win will be its record-extending No. 700 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

In addition, Chevrolet can – and likely will – clinch the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Manufacturer’s Championship outright on Friday night. Chevrolet has already clinched the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series manufacturer titles. Adding the truck trophy would give them the first manufacturer sweep since 2005.

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Jeff Gordon needs one more lap led to tie Darrell Waltrip on the all-time series laps led list at 23,134. … 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, and Corpus Christi, Texas, native, Bobby Labonte will make NASCAR national series start No. 900 on Sunday, which ranks 12th on the all-time list. The breakdown of his first 899 starts: 687 in NSCS; 202 in NNS; 10 in NCWTS. … Danica Patrick will make her ninth start of the season. Patrick scored an eighth-place finish at Texas in the NASCAR Nationwide Series last April, one of her six career top-10 finishes. … Leavine Family Racing, based in Tyler, Texas, will field its No. 95 entry this weekend with driver Scott Speed. Its best finish this season was 17th at Watkins Glen.

Nationwide: Three-Man Race With Three Races To Go

Championship implications, high speeds, close quarters and an Asphalt Circus can’t waiver the focus of the top three contenders in the NASCAR Nationwide Series title hunt. Standings leader Elliott Sadler holds court with three races remaining, leading by just six points ahead of second-place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and 26 up on Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Dillon.

Heading to Texas this weekend, both Sadler and Stenhouse want to get their second Cowboy Hat in Victory Lane and cement this race as a two-horse battle – but don’t count Dillon out just yet.

Since retaking the standings lead following the race at Kentucky, Sadler has averaged an eight-point lead over second-place Stenhouse, but two of the final three races remaining are 1.5-mile speedways and the stats are showing that those type of tracks cater to his competitor’s strengths.

Of the 10 races held on 1.5-mile tracks so far this season, Dillon has the best average starting position (2.8) and average finishing position (4.8) of the three contenders. On those same tracks, Stenhouse has led by far the most laps. He has led 20 percent (388) followed by Dillon (16 percent) then Sadler (9 percent). Stenhouse also has the most wins (five) on those 1.5-mile tracks, Dillon has two and Sadler one.

At Texas, all three drivers have been successful. Stenhouse won at TMS earlier this season in April to earn his fourth of eight career NNS victories. In 2004, Sadler won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and in 2010 Dillon won a Keystone Light pole in the NCWTS.

Texas could be a springboard for Dillon to close his point deficit on Sadler and Stenhouse. Dillon has the best pre-race Driver Rating (110.4) of the three contenders at Texas and spent 100 percent of the April race in the top 15 with an Average Running Position of 5.286 (series-best). 

Texas Might Just Be What Busch Needs

For the first season out of the box in the NNS, Kyle Busch has nothing to be ashamed of as owner of Kyle Busch Motorsports. The No. 54 Monster Energy team is eighth in the owner points standings and the team posted its first series win earlier this season at Richmond International Raceway with his brother Kurt Busch behind the wheel.

But there is one glaring hole on the 2012 check list: a win in his own equipment. Busch has won at least one NNS race for eight straight seasons dating back to his first series victory in 2004, and looks to tie Mark Martin for most consecutive seasons with a win at nine. In addition, he holds the overall record for most wins (51) by a driver in the series. So not wining this season has put Busch in unfamiliar territory.

In 19 starts this season, Kyle Busch has six top fives and 11 top 10s, including two runner-up finishes at Talladega and Chicago. Accidents, part failures and plain bad luck has plagued the team for much of the season, some of which has led to five finishes outside the top-20 with Busch behind the wheel.

But NASCAR returns to Texas, a welcome respite for Busch. As the track wins leader (five), Busch owns Texas Motor Speedway when it comes to the NNS. He rallied off a record-tying five consecutive wins between 2008 and 2010. He also has 10 top fives and two poles with an average finish of 7.1 in just 13 starts. On top of it all, he leads the series in pre-race Driver Rating (124.9) and Laps Led (1,187) at Texas.

Fans Should Enjoy Star-Studded Field At Texas

Not only will fans get the chance to see their favorite NNS championship contenders battle it out, but as an added bonus, several NSCS drivers will be pulling double-duty raising the level of competition.

Two former series champions, Kyle Busch (2009) and Kevin Harvick (2001, ‘06) are back behind the wheel this weekend. The two drivers sit one-two on the series all-time wins list at TMS and combine for nine of the 23 possible victories at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Joining them are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and this season’s wins leader (eight) Joey Logano. Hamlin will be in the No. 18 car this weekend, which holds the lead in the owner points standings by 21 points over Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 team.  Ryan Newman will be making his first series start of the season. Turner Motorsports has tapped Newman to drive the No. 30 car this weekend. Newman hasn’t competed in the series since Phoenix in February 2011.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Notes

Chasing History: Danica Patrick is on the verge of making NASCAR history. She currently sits 10th in the NNS points standings with three races remaining. If she finishes 12th or better in the standings at season’s end she will become the highest-finishing female in national series history. The record is currently held by Sara Christian, who finished 13th in the NSCS in 1949. … Racing Texans: McKinney, Texas native, Robert Richardson Jr., will be attempting to qualify for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge this weekend. Richardson has made 14 series starts this season posting a best finish of 17th at Daytona in July.

Camping World Trucks: Texas Toasts Its Native Son … And Next Truck Champion?

James Buescher heads home to Texas Motor Speedway with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points lead and a championship in his grasp.

And it all happened so quickly for the Plano, Texas native. In only one 200-lap race, Buescher transformed a one-point deficit to rookie Ty Dillon into a 21-point advantage. Now only three races remain for Buescher to hold serve and claim a title he’s been stalking since he entered the series fulltime in 2009.

Here’s the best news for Buescher: All four of his wins this season – two at Kentucky and one each at Kansas and Chicagoland – have come on tracks measured at 1.5 miles. Texas? It’s a 1.5-mile track. The season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway? Ditto.

So it looks good on paper. But so did Dillon at Martinsville, considering Dillon’s impressive runner-up finish in the spring race. Instead, Dillon wound up 28th due to a tire problem that got compounded.

The key for Buescher now is to conserve – or better yet, pad – his cushion. To do so, he’ll likely have to fare better at Texas than he has in the past. Though he has led laps in each of the last three Texas races (and won poles in two of them), Buescher has averaged a finish of just 14.3. In all, Buescher has three top 10s in seven starts.

Dillon has two starts at Texas, top 10s in each. His best finish was third in this race last year. Timothy Peters, not to be counted out, is 25 points behind Buescher. He has one top 10 in nine starts at Texas.

Busch Looks To Double Up At Texas

Last season, Kyle Busch Motorsports piled up eight wins, six by its all-world driver-owner. This season, a revolving roster of Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Jason Leffler, David Mayhew, German Quiroga, Drew Herring, Brian Scott and Kyle Busch, himself, have combined for just one.

But that one came last week at Martinsville with Hamlin. And success comes in bunches when it comes to Busch, whose 30 wins as a driver is second all-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team will double-down again this weekend, with two big guns aiming for Victory Lane.

The first: Kyle Busch, who returns to the seat of his No. 18 Toyota for only the second time this season, after a second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September. Busch will run all three NASCAR national series races this weekend at Texas.

The second truck will be driven by three-time NASCAR Toyota (Mexico) Series champion Quiroga. Quiroga will make his fourth career start for KBM, and second of 2012. At Talladega, Quiroga finished eighth, his first career top-10 finish.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Notes

Chevrolet, which currently leads the manufacturers’ standings by 18 points, can clinch the Manufacturer’s Championship outright this weekend by leaving Texas with a 13-point lead over Toyota. Chevy can clinch by earning third-place points or better. … Brandon McReynolds, son of FOX analyst Larry McReynolds, will pilot the No. 4 truck for Turner Motorsports on Friday night. … ThorSport Racing should figure prominently this weekend. Johnny Sauter won at Texas in the spring, and Matt Crafton comes off a strong Martinsville performance, and finished second at Texas in the spring. … Brendan Gaughan will drive the No. 2 truck, and had four straight wins from 2002-03. … Todd Bodine leads all drivers with six Texas wins, and will drive the No. 11 Toyota for Red Horse Racing. … Nelson Piquet Jr. will make his 50th NCWTS start.

Home Tracks Roundup

Corey LaJoie’s last-corner, last-lap pass Saturday night at Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway earned him his fifth win of the season and moved him a step closer to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title. LaJoie muscled past pole sitter Brett Moffitt, who had led the entire race, on the green-white-checkered finish. Contact sent Moffitt spinning, and allowed Chase Elliott to finish second and Jesse Little to come home with a career-best third. Moffitt slid sideways across the line in eighth. LaJoie, however, was penalized post-race 25 points for rules violations. Kyle Larson (finished fourth) leads Moffitt by 10 points and LaJoie by 19 heading to the season finale Saturday at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

Pardo Wins Chihuahua 200

Ruben Pardo won the inaugural Chihuahua 200 Sunday before a sold-out crowd of more than 19,000 in the NASCAR Toyota Series race at El Dorado Speedway. Jorge Goeters finished eighth to take an 18-point lead over Daniel Suarez to the finale at Mexico City on Sunday, Nov.11. Suarez led 115 laps before being sidelined by a broken suspension and finished 30th.

Season To Wrap Up At Phoenix

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series concludes Saturday, Nov. 10 at Phoenix International Raceway, with Dylan Kwasniewski holding a two-point lead over teammate Greg Pursley.