NASCAR (TEXAS) - Series News & Notes - Texas

Four Chase Drivers Know What It Takes At Texas
Gordon And Johnson Setting The Pace
Junior Looks To Fill Spoiler Role
On The Bubble: No. 22 Holding On To The Top 35
Jeff Burton Joins Us On The Weekly NASCAR Teleconference
NASCAR Official Joe Collins Will Be Missed

The Chase Drivers Get Ready For The Texas Two-Step

Since inception into the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule in 1997, Texas Motor Speedway has been a wild card. Of the 13 races at Texas, only Jeff Burton (No. 31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet) has won more than once. Ten years have gone by since the first green flag dropped at Texas and twelve different drivers have strolled into Victory Lane. Four of the twelve Chase drivers have reached the summit at Texas, but can those four do it again this weekend?

Of the other eight drivers in the Chase that haven’t won at Texas, the most surprising are the top three drivers in the standings. Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) has five top fives at Texas, the most of any Chase driver. Earlier this season, Gordon started on the pole and finished fourth.

With two consecutive wins Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) has closed the gap between first and second to only nine points. Johnson has three top-five and six top-10 finishes at Texas.

Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet) hasn’t won at Texas either in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, but he has been to Victory Lane at Texas in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driving the Jack Daniels truck for owner David Dollar. He currently is 111 points behind Gordon and 102 points behind Johnson.

These next four Chase drivers have grabbed elusive Texas wins:

• Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet) won the Dickies 500 last year on a late season run when he won three of the last ten races in 2006. Stewart dominated the race starting eighth and leading 278 of the 334 laps.

• Jeff Burton captured his only win of this season at Texas in the spring, becoming the first driver to repeat at the track. Ironically, he was the first driver ever to win at the 1.5-mile track. Currently in eighth, Burton had a boost this past weekend with a fifth-place finish at Atlanta – his second top five in the Chase.

• Carl Edwards (No. 99 Office Depot Ford) captured a second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, moving him up to fourth in the Chase standings. That top five just might be the spark to get this team turned around to make a late run at the championship. Edwards won at Texas in 2005 by edging teammate Matt Kenseth (No. 17 USG Ford) and then teammate Mark Martin (No. 01 U.S, Army Chevrolet). Earlier this year Edwards finished 12th at Texas.

• Matt Kenseth is coming off his second consecutive top five. He is the fourth driver in the Chase to have won at Texas. Of the Chase drivers, Kenseth has the second-most top fives at Texas with four, and earlier this season finished second at Texas.

In that spring race, Kenseth led 16 laps and was on his way to his second victory of the season before Burton passed him on the final lap.

Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Notebook, Week 8

Time Grows Short – 3 to Go … With only three races to go, time is of the essence for the Chase drivers to make up every point they can on standings leader Jeff Gordon. All 12 Chase drivers are still mathematically eligible for the championship, though Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are setting a devastating pace. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates have won the last four races in the Chase and have the closest point margin between first and second since the Chase’s inception in 2004.

Two more hurdles for those not named Gordon and Johnson: 1) Only Johnson has come back to win the championship (2006) with three races to go. 2) Gordon and Johnson are showing no signs of slowing down. Gordon has five top fives at Texas, one win and eight top fives at Phoenix, and three top fives at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Johnson, not far behind, has three top fives at Texas, three top fives at Phoenix, and two top fives at Homestead-Miami.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Testing In Atlanta … NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams completed the second day of a two-day test Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The seventh and final NASCAR-sanctioned test of ‘07, it was dedicated to NASCAR’s “new car” – the next-generation race car which will compete fulltime in 2008. Teams will run 16 of 36 events this season with the new car.

Although this week’s session was the new car’s first full-scale series test at a 1.5-mile track, it wasn’t a first for Jeff Burton who participated in one of the earliest fact-finding tests for the new car at Atlanta. He discussed the evolution during a Tuesday lunch-break visit to Atlanta’s media center, citing the wing as the most significant change.

“From the wing standpoint it's come a long way,” Burton said. “There are a lot of little things that have happened since then, but no real big ones as seen by me, other than the wing. And we're still in the exploratory phase at that point, splitter links, all that. They've made a lot of changes, but the wing being the biggest one.”

Other Tuesday media-center visitors included Dario Franchitti (No. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge), Jacques Villeneuve (No. 27 Bill Davis Racing Dodge) and Patrick Carpentier (No. 10 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge). All are former open-wheel stars who will compete fulltime in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in ‘08.

Franchitti, the reigning Indy Racing League and Indianapolis 500 champion, was participating in his first new-car test.

“Interesting,” he said. “It seems like in the mornings we do better than in the afternoons. There's a little more grip and it feels slightly closer to what I'm used to. In the afternoons when the track gets really slick, the car's moving around a lot more and the thing I'm getting used to is fighting the limit of this car.”

Outside The Chase: Junior Looking For First Win This Season

Drivers outside the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup field are lining up to play the role of spoiler this week at Texas. At the head of the line is Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet).

Earnhardt has been suffering through a 59 race winless streak dating back to May 6, 2006 at Richmond, but he should have a good chance of ending the slump this Sunday. Texas is the site of his first win in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series (April 2, 2000). Earnhardt Jr. has won at least once in all of his first seven seasons of competing in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series making these last three races critical for him if he wants to keep the streak alive.

“We've done so many good things this year as a team and I've been given the most consistently fast cars of my career and the only thing lacking is a victory,” said Earnhardt. “Texas is definitely a place where we can resolve that problem. There are so many good memories for all of us at that place – not just the first win – but almost every race since then we've been a top-10 car,” said Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. has seven top-10 finishes at Texas.

On The Bubble: No. 22 Looks To Get Back On Track

Consecutive top-10 finishes at Talladega and Lowe’s Motor Speedway put the No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota comfortably in the top 35, but recent struggles at Martinsville and Atlanta have put its guaranteed spot in the field in jeopardy.

The No. 22, owned by Bill Davis and driven by Dave Blaney, has failed to crack the top 30 in each of the last two races and now sits only 82 points ahead of the No. 21 Delimex Ford (owned by Glen Wood and driven by Bill Elliott) in the owner point standings.

Though Blaney’s best finish at Texas was sixth in 2001, he hasn’t landed in the top 20 in any of the last five Texas races. Elliott’s best Texas finish was ninth in 2002. His last race there was in 2005, a 32nd-place finish.

Also looking to stay in the top 35 is the No. 45 National Tire & Battery Dodge owned and driven by Kyle Petty. The No. 45 is 168 points ahead of the cutoff.

The top 35 teams in the owner standings are guaranteed automatic starting spots each week. Other teams must earn their berths based on qualifying speeds.

2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Owner Points – After 33 Races

Pos. Points Team Owner Driver

30th 2,747 No. 66 Chevrolet Joe Custer Jeremy Mayfield 31st 2,724 No. 88 Ford Robert Yates Ricky Rudd 32nd 2,699 No. 38 Ford Robert Yates David Gilliland 33rd 2,654 No. 70 Chevrolet Joe Custer Johnny Sauter 34th 2,640 No. 45 Dodge Kyle Petty Kyle Petty

35th 2,554 No. 22 Toyota Bill Davis Dave Blaney

36th 2,472 No. 21 Ford Glen Wood Bill Elliott 37th 2,266 No. 10 Dodge James Rocco Scott Riggs 38th 2,149 No. 00 Toyota Cal Wells David Reutimann 39th 2,120 No. 83 Toyota Dietrich Mateschitz Brian Vickers 40th 1,759 No. 55 Toyota Buffy Waltrip Michael Waltrip

Keys To Victory

Texas Motor Speedway

This week Greg Zipadelli talks about what it takes to be successful at Texas:

“Texas is a race track to me that has aged really well. The last few years, it has widened down and the tires have gotten better for the cars. It usually has gotten cooler when we go back the second time, which means there is a little more grip. The track doesn’t seem to be as sensitive to change in the fall as it is in the spring, because of the sun. You got to have a great car with a good body, a really good motor program and a driver that is willing to move around a little bit. As the race goes, you are able to move up the race track and the beginning of a run you run at the bottom. Not anywhere near as much as you see people run at Atlanta, but it just kind of turns out to be like that.”

In The Loop: Texas Hold ‘Em: Johnson And Gordon Looking For First TMS Win

The biggest names in NASCAR seem to save some of their biggest performances for Texas Motor Speedway.

So, yes, everything is bigger in Texas.

For instance, the top four drivers (and seven of the top 10) in pre-race Driver Rating are currently in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.

A total of nine NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championships have been won by drivers in the top 10 of the pre-race Texas Driver Rating.

But this weekend, as was the case the last two, all attention will be on point leader Jeff Gordon and second-place driver Jimmie Johnson.

Nine points separate the two. They’ve combined to win the last four races this season, yet oddly enough trips to Texas’ Victory Lane have eluded both.

Still, each have solid performances at Texas since the inception of Loop Data in 2005.

As was the case at Martinsville and Atlanta, Johnson owns the edge. Johnson has a Driver Rating of 99.9 (fourth-best), an Average Running Position of 11.0 (fourth-best), 71 Fastest Laps Run (seventh-most) and has spent 72.8% of the total Laps Run in the Top 15 (fourth-most).

Texas is one of two tracks (Homestead is the other) where Gordon has yet to win. Still, has two top-10 finishes there, including a fourth-place finish earlier this season. Since 2005, Gordon has a pre-race Texas Driver Rating of 92.3 (ninth-best), an Average Running Position of 12.5 (11th-best) and 85 Fastest Laps run (fourth-most).

The driver with the top statistics at Texas is the defending champion of this race – Tony Stewart. Stewart could break out of a mini-slump this weekend (he hasn’t notched a top five since New Hampshire). He owns top marks in Driver Rating (113.6), Average Running Position (6.9), Fastest Laps Run (192) and Laps in the Top 15 (89.3%).

NNCS, Etc.

On The Line: Jeff Burton On Weekly NASCAR Teleconference

Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup competitor Jeff Burton was the guest on Tuesday’s weekly NASCAR Teleconference. Burton comes into this week’s Dickies 500 in eighth place in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings with three races remaining in the season.

Burton is coming off a fifth-place run at Atlanta, and is the only repeat winner at Texas.

Following are some highlights from the teleconference:

Q: So what do you think, Jeff, going back there?

Burton: Well, certainly we've had a lot of success at Texas. It's kind of been either really good or really bad for me. Not many just mediocre runs. We haven't run as well over the last three or four months as we'd like to run for sure. So as the year winds down, the intensity of wanting to have some good runs and running in the front just continues to build.

Obviously we're pretty much out of the championship hunt, but fifth is better than ninth. And 10 is better than 12. So we're going to go get all we can and try to get back on track.

Q: The top two teams in the sport, I guess you'd call them that, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, aren't here for this test. Do you look at that as an opportunity to gain two days of testing on them or would you rather to have them here so you can spy on them a little, see what they're doing?

Burton: What it shows to me is their confidence in their program. They're comfortable with giving up two days of testing at a racetrack that we have the right tires, we have the right racetrack. It's the best conditions you'll ever get for a test. They have the confidence that they can do that and still be in good shape.

So that has a way of, to me, in some ways saying to the world, hey, we're in good shape. In other ways the competitors look at it two different ways. You can look at it as, hey, they're lazy and they don't have focus on what they ought to have focus on, which isn't how I look at it. Or you can look at it as some people look at it as kind of an arrogant standpoint.

I don't view it like that. I believe that they just have confidence in their program. And that they don't have to be here to be successful. That's the way I view it. But it has – a few people have taken note and have not been impressed. Others have been impressed.

For a complete transcription of the weekly NASCAR Teleconference visit www.nascarmedia.com.

Montoya Maintaining Rookie Points Lead

Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) continues to lead the Raybestos Rookie of the Year point standings over David Ragan (No. 6 AAA Ford).

Montoya finished 34th at Atlanta, yet still boosted his lead to 19 points (232-213).

Manufacturers’ Standings

Chevrolet still has a firm hold on the Manufacturers’ standings, leading Ford by 81 points after another victory by Jimmie Johnson. The win gave Chevrolet totaling 24 victories on the year.

Save The Date: Kevin Harvick Day

Kevin Harvick, (No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet) team owner Richard Childress, and team members will make an appearance at Houston’s City Hall on the morning of November 1st with the City Mayor Bill White to proclaim Nov. 1st as officially Kevin Harvick Day.

The ceremony will start at 11 a.m. on Thursday, at the Houston, City Hall. Harvick, Childress and officials from Shell and Pennzoil will be speaking at the event.

Harvick and Childress will then make their way to Shell offices in northern Houston to judge a chili cook-off.

NACAR Official Joe Collins passes away

NASCAR lost one of its dear people and loyal servants when Joe Collins passed away Oct. 25 at the age of 65. Joe served NASCAR for more than 25 years in a variety of capacities, including official and Weekly Series Racing Director. A native of Alabama, Joe worked for the railroad for 20 years before working with NASCAR. He and his wife of 46 years – Barbara – have a son and a daughter and three grandsons. NASCAR’s thoughts and prayers go out to the Collins’ family.

NASCAR officials are the unsung heroes of our sport. The officials show up when the gates open in the morning and stay long after all the crowds have gone home. During the races they are the ones in the middle of the action making sure the race runs smoothly and that all the competitors are on a fair and level playing field. They make split decisions and call it like they see it. The NASCAR officials work long and hard to make sure NASCAR produces the greatest racing in the world. Joe Collins was a big part of that and he will be dearly missed.

The Race: Dickies 500 The Place: Texas Motor Speedway The Date: Sunday, Nov. 4 The Time: 3:30 p.m. (ET) TV: ABC, 3 p.m. (ET) Radio: PRN; SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Channel 128 The Track: 1.5-mile oval The Distance: 501 miles, 334 laps The Purse: $7,255,977 2006 Polesitter: Brian Vickers 2006 Winner: Tony Stewart Series Standings Pos. Driver Pts. 1 Gordon 6,201 2 Johnson 6,192 3 Bowyer 6,090 4 Edwards 5,940 5 Stewart 5,879 6 Kyle Busch 5,873 7 Harvick 5,809 8 Burton 5,801 9 Kurt Busch 5,782 10 Hamlin 5,777 11 Kenseth 5,753 12 Truex Jr. 5,688 Pre-Race On-Track Schedule (ET): Friday—Practice, 12-1:30 p.m. Qualifying, 3:40 p.m.; Saturday—Practice, 11-11:50 a.m. and 12:50-1:50