Carl Edwards is usually strong at Texas. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Trivia time

Who was the first driver to win a Sprint Cup pole at Texas Motor Speedway?

The knee joint

Denny Hamlin won the TMS race in the spring. He was recuperating from the knee injury he suffered while playing basketball.

He was asked about that victory and that injury this weekend.

“That was a turning point I felt in my season, was coming here and winning against all odds pretty much,” Hamlin said. “A race track we never won at, just coming and having the knee issue. It just seemed like there was a momentum boost for our team, as soon as we won Texas the wins kept rolling. We don’t know why, we don’t to this day know why we went on a roll like we did there in the summer. All you can kind of point to is the momentum that this race gave for us.”

Track tidbits

Races: 19

Most wins: 3, by Carl Edwards

Most poles: 2, four drivers have done it

Most top-fives: 7, by Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth

Most top-10s: 11, by Mark Martin

Most laps led: 581, by Jeff Gordon

Most DNFs: 7, by Joe Nemechek

Fewest DNFs, 0, by Kevin Harvick

Youngest pole winner: Brian Vickers (23 years, 12 days)

Oldest pole winner: Bill Elliott (46 years, 6 months)

Youngest race winner: Ryan Newman (25 years, 3 months, 22 days)

Oldest race winner: Dale Jarrett (44 years, 4 months, 6 days)

Last race won from the pole: 2006, by Kasey Kahne

Smallest margin of victory: .028 seconds

Largest margin of victory: 25.686 seconds

No help wanted

Jeff Burton was asked about championship contenders getting help from teammates in today’s race.

“I think if you start letting people win, I think that’s the extreme integrity issue,” he said. “I think that for years people have let people lead laps and those kinds of things and those things will happen when possible. I hope we don’t get to the point where people let people win races. I really hope we don’t get there. I have a major problem with that.

“Let me tell you something, if I was second in points and I had a teammate win the race and had I won the race, I would have won the championship, honestly I wouldn’t’ want to win the championship in that regard. No matter what you think, you’re always going to know that you probably shouldn’t have won the championship. I just think there’s a huge, huge integrity issue with that kind of thing.”

Trivia answer

The pole for the first Texas race – which was held in 1997 – was awarded based on points because rain killed qualifying. The next year, Jeremy Mayfield became the first driver to win a pole for a Texas Cup race.

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Great stop

Some call racing at Texas special. One of those is Jeff Burton, the winner of the first race to be held at the place.

“There’s a lot of energy to this race – the fans really come out and support this race a great deal,” Burton said. “From day one this has been a highly attended race. I think the drivers appreciate that and understand that it’s a special thing. Every driver is different – some drivers like some race tracks and some drivers don’t like that same race track.

“It really depends on the individual and it depends on the situation they’re in. This is a really odd time of year. There’s people that just can’t wait to get it over, there’s people that don’t want it to end, there’s everything in between – this is a really interesting time of year. I think all in all this is an enjoyable race track.”

Up next

The Arizona 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Jimmie Johnson won last year’s race after qualifying third. Martin Truex Jr. was the polewinner.

Johnson has won four times at PIR, most among all drivers.

Jim Pedley is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist who has worked at, among other places, the Boston Globe, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star. Pedley spent more than 10 years covering auto racing for the Kansas City Star. Pedley can be reached at jpedley@racintoday.com.