Samsung 500 Race Preview

Texas Motor Speedway -- 04/06/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Wednesday Apr 2 2008 1:08am

There was quite a shakeup in the point standings after Sunday's weather-challenged race in Martinsville. Jeff Burton moved up three spots in the standings to assume the lead and his RCR teammate Kevin Harvick also climbed a spot to second. Previous points leader Kyle Busch dropped four spots to fifth, while Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon gained seven and five spots respectively.

Those are just a few of the changes which serve to demonstrate that, contrary to what some experts claim, the Chase field is not all but set in stone after the first five races of the year.

After two weeks of short-track action with an off weekend between, the Sprint Cup circuit now travels west - first to Texas and then to Phoenix - before returning to the southeast for a little Talladega-style restrictor plate action.

Texas Motor Speedway is a relatively new venue on the NASCAR schedule, especially compared to last weekend's Martinsville track, where the first race was run 60 years ago. By comparison, there have only been 14 Cup races at Texas - one per year from 1997 to 2004, and two per year from 2005 on.

Texas is an intermediate length track - a 1.5-mile quad-oval - with 24° of banking in the turns and 5° on the straightaways. It is a very fast track where last year's pole (November) was a 193.105 mph lap and speeds on the straightaways reach 200 mph.

There is only one multiple race winner at Texas in 14 starts and it happens to be our current points leader, Jeff Burton (+1825), who won the inaugural race back in 1997 and the spring race here last year. Burton has three top 5s and six top 10s but, thanks to the COT, doesn't necessarily feel that past performance will be a predictor of future success. “Texas is a little rougher track than some of the others we run on. With this car, the bumps seem to be a pretty major issue, so I think Texas is going to be quite a challenge with this car. Some teams are going to hit and some teams aren’t. The success we had there last year is thrown out the window - none of that information will be worth a hoot, so we’re starting over again.”

As we've heard at so many races already this year, getting a car to roll through the corners will be one of the main factors in Texas success. "Corner speed is the key element to winning at Texas," said Burton. "The place is really fast and it’s fast because the corners generate a lot of speed. Having a fast car and good track position is real important. It’s hard to pass there. The winner is the driver who can get through the corner the best.”

Other current drivers with at least one win at TMS include Dale Earnhardt Jr. (+815), Matt Kenseth (+985), Ryan Newman (+3000), Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle (+1200), Carl Edwards (+515), Kasey Kahne (+1850), Tony Stewart (+865), and Jimmie Johnson (+985). While the past three races here were won by GM, the seven races before that were split between Ford (5) and Dodge (2).

Jimmie Johnson, coming off a nice fourth-place finish at Martinsville, has the best average finish at Texas, a 9.2 in nine starts including a win last fall. Following Johnson in the average finish category are Martin Truex Jr. (+2850), Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin (+1650), and Kurt Busch (+2850).

Matt Kenseth leads all drivers in points earned at Texas over the last five races, followed by Stewart, Johnson, Truex, and Jeff Gordon (+815). Kenseth has four top-5s in his past five Texas starts, including three seconds and a third. Though Kenseth agrees with Jeff Burton about the way the COT will alter racing here, he is a bit more enthusiastic about the potential for multi-groove action and, after his dismal day at Martinsville, Kenseth is looking forward to having the extra room to race. "I always look forward to racing at Texas, especially after Martinsville and the troubles we had there," he said. "Texas is nothing like Martinsville. It's fast, there are several grooves, and the racing is a lot of fun."

Meanwhile, any driver who's previously won a race at Texas is a threat to win again, and with 13 different winners in 14 Cup races, that covers a lot of ground: Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Hamlin, Gordon, Johnson, and Edwards in particular.

And although his best Cup finish at TMS was a third in 2006, it's interesting to note that Kevin Harvick (+1450) has won four of 14 Nationwide (Busch) series races here.