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CUP: Race Within A Race At TMS
Tony Stewart is one of the favorites at Texas Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 07, 2010   Fort Worth, TX
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart won the Fall race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2006. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
This afternoon’s AAA Texas 500 at the palatial Texas Motor Speedway will feature not one, but two races, each of which ought to be fascinating to watch and fiercely competitive in its own right.

On the one hand, 43 drivers will be duking it out on one of NASCAR’s fastest tracks to win a race that’s grown in prestige since the track first opened in 1997. On the other hand, there’s a three-way title fight for the Chase for the Sprint Cup involving four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin (-14 points) and Kevin Harvick (-38).

First, the race itself.

In each of the past five seasons, the winner of the fall Texas race was someone who won one of the two races earlier in the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 2005, Carl Edwards swept at Atlanta and won the second Texas race. In ’06 Tony Stewart won the fall Atlanta and Texas races. Jimmie Johnson did likewise in ’07, as did Edwards in ’08. And last year, Kurt Busch won the spring Atlanta race and the fall Texas race.

Given that Kurt Busch and Stewart won at Atlanta this season, that would seem to make them the race favorites. Busch is also the defending champion here.

For his part, Stewart is taking nothing for granted.

“The hard part is, even if you were the guy that won the Texas race in the spring, it’s such a long gap between the spring race and the fall race that you’ve got to keep in mind our sport is a technology-driven sport,” said Stewart. “Guys make their programs better. Shock programs change. Setups change. The conditions that you have temperature-wise can be different. Just because you were good there before, or just because you were good in Atlanta, doesn’t guarantee you’ll be good at Texas the second time around. But, I guess it’s a lot better scenario of going into Texas knowing that we ran well there in the spring and that we did run well at Atlanta. That does give you a little bit of comfort knowing that you were good there in the previous times. It’s still no guarantee we’re going to be successful this time.”

Busch said he’s just looking to finish out the year strong.

“We hope that we’re able to improve our points position,” said Busch. “It’s just a feather in the cap or a statistic to look at when you look back at it over the years and see that I finished seventh rather than 12th. That’s something that we’re pushing for and right now, we have to worry about the present which is to finish off these final three races strong. We also have to look forward to the future at Penske Racing, with what we can do these next three races to give us better direction for where we need to start in 2011.”

Other drivers to keep an eye on today include Kyle Busch, who was fastest in both Saturday practices and was furious about losing the NASCAR Nationwide Series race yesterday; all four Roush Fenway Racing Ford drivers; and as a dark horse, Regan Smith, who’s looked good all weekend in the Furniture Row Chevy.
VIDEO: Cup Qualifying - Texas Elliott Sadler wins pole at TMS. (Image: Speed)

As far as the championship battle goes, that’s a thornier question. None of the three title combatants has looked good this weekend, but Johnson has definitely been the strongest of the three. In the three practice sessions, Johnson’s average result has been 10.00. By comparison, Harvick’s average is 26.00, while Hamlin’s is 23.67.

Then again, Johnson seemingly had a safe points race here last year, only to get crashed out on Lap 2 by Sam Hornish Jr., something he’ll definitely be looking to avoid this time.

With just two races left after today, it’s critically important to Hamlin and Harvick that they not fall further behind today.

“I feel like we need to come out here in Texas and win or be top two or three positions,” said Hamlin, who won here in the spring. “I feel like that’s a good, feasible goal for us. We know if we can do that then we know if we win the race we’re guaranteed to leave with the points lead. That’s our goal, is to come here and win. Obviously from this point on we’ll race a little more aggressively.”

“These 10 weeks you want to make sure you don't screw anything up and make a mistake and at least give yourself a legitimate shot to race for it,” said Harvick. “And every week's a new week. Every week brings a new challenge. It's all in how you adjust to those challenges as you go through that particular weekend.”

And without a doubt, there will be challenges this afternoon. After 500 hard miles of racing, we’ll know who overcame them.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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