Texas has its 12th different winner in as many races. Tony ran away with another one as Zippy and the guys put a great car under him. It was the same chassis as last week, and we expect to see it again in 7 days. Giving Tony credit comes in the outstanding restarts he was able to pull off all day. He was able to obtain a sizable lead every time the green flag dropped. It was an all around textbook run by the team. Much of the middle of the race wasn’t too exciting, but some great teams stepped it up to challenge for the win. Jimmie Johnson went against the grain by taking four tires when most took two, including Tony. It was the right call as he was the only one able to catch Tony after the green white checkered restart. Given Tony’s great car, and Jimmie being able to finish ahead in the points, I believe he made the decision to “point’s race” at the end to finish 2nd. It’s only another 5 points, and this is a hot topic in NASCAR as they look into giving more points for a win.
Jimmie is your point’s leader with a 17 point lead on 2nd place. Matt Kenseth came home 12th after a rough weekend, and slips to 2nd in the points. Dale took another not-so-pretty race and turned it into a 6th place, enough to gain him a spot to 3rd in the points. Denny Hamlin didn’t have the day he expected here, but was able to finish 10th. He slips a spot in the points and is now 80 points out. It looks like these four are in the foot race for this years NEXTEL Cup.
Kyle Petty finishes 11th, and gets into the top 35 in owner points. We’ll get to see what the team can do now that they don’t have to concentrate so much on a qualifying setup. Terry Labonte was in the spotlight for his last race at his home track. He didn’t have a car able to finish up front. Not a memorable race, but it almost immediately fades away in the many great memories Terry will always be known for.
# posted by theStewartFan @ 10:39 PM
