RACING ROUNDUP
Everything is bigger in Texas, literally. The state of Texas was rocking this month with WWE's Wrestlemania 32 held in AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The NCAA Mens Basketball Championship in NRG Stadium in Houston. Then this past weekend, NASCAR was in Fort Worth, Texas for racing action at Texas Motor Speedway. This weekend was another show of dominance for Kyle Busch.
First race of the weekend...... it was a Friday Night Showdown for the Xfinity Series and for the first time this year, there were drivers who were able to challenge Kyle Busch. It was a 200 lap, 300 mile showdown in the Lone Star State.
Kyle Busch all year long in the Xfinity Series has looked unstoppable and it did not stop on Friday. Busch was in the media all week due to a video that surfaced of him signing a fan's hat while stuck in traffic. The fan and Busch have been in almost every major media outlet. Friday however, I guarantee Kyle wasn't thinking about that video.
The whole Joe Gibbs Racing organization looked good at Texas despite the 19 Juniper Networks Toyota of Daniel Suarez spinning on lap 79 to bring out the third caution. The biggest incident on the track was a wreck that involved the 43 of Jeb Burton, the 11 of Blake Koch, and the 4 of Ross Chastain. Burton and Koch wouldn't be able to continue the race but Chastain was able to. Chastain came home 21st. Meanwhile, Burton and Koch finished 35th and 34th.
Kyle Busch took the pole for the race and as I stated before was challenged by two other competitors. His teammate Erik Jones was one to give him a run for his money. As I sat and watched the race, I think one major mistake that may have affected Jones was his penalty midway through the race. The other driver to challenge Kyle Busch was Kyle Larson. A fellow Sprint Cup competitor, Larson was the driver who led the second most laps out of three. He just didnt have enough to stop Busch though.
Kyle Busch led 150 laps in Friday's race, and earned his fourth win this year in the Xfinity Series. Erik Jones finished second, Brad Keselowski finished third, in fourth was Chase Elliott, and fifth was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Other notables were Elliott Sadler finished 7th, Brandon Jones finishes 9th, and Daniel Suarez finished 16th. Next week the Xfinity Series heads to Bristol for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 on Saturday afternoon.
Following Texas the NASCAR Xfinity Series Points looks like this:
|
Position
|
Driver (WINS)
|
Points
|
Difference
|
|
1
|
Daniel Suarez
|
207
|
0
|
|
2
|
Elliott Sadler
|
206
|
-1
|
|
3
|
Justin Allgaier
|
198
|
-9
|
|
4
|
Brandon Jones
|
193
|
-14
|
|
5
|
Erik Jones
|
192
|
-15
|
|
6
|
Ty Dillon
|
187
|
-20
|
|
7
|
Brendan Gaughan
|
183
|
-24
|
|
8
|
Darrell Wallace Jr.
|
160
|
-47
|
|
9
|
Ryan Reed
|
160
|
-47
|
|
10
|
Brennan Poole
|
152
|
-55
|
The Sprint Cup Series raced the Duck Commander 500 for the first night race of the season. It was definitely a race worth watching with the new aero package that NASCAR brought in. Kyle Busch was looking for back-to-back weekend sweeps in two of NASCAR's top series. This would be just the second time (Harry Gant did it back in 1991). On Friday Carl Edwards earned his 17th career pole.
The race was scheduled for 6:30pm but there was a rain delay that set the start time to 9:30pm. Chase Elliott had to start the race from the rear due to the transmission change. NASCAR decided to start the race as a green-yellow. Which means the race started under the yellow flag conditions and the laps do count. Finally, after a lengthy wait, the green flag flew on lap 6. There was a competition caution on lap 30 because of the rain. NASCAR made these cautions to allow teams and tire specialists to observe tire wear.
Our first accident of the night came on lap 212 as the number 30 Chevrolet of Josh Wise crashed in turn three. This would be the fourth caution. On lap 289, we saw the 5 of Kasey Kahne make contact with the 16 of Greg Biffle and sent Biffle into the wall, ending his night.
One major highlight from the race was the Texas-Sized wreck that collected 13 cars on the backstretch on lap 295. Austin Dillon was bumped the 11 of Denny Hamlin and the 48 of Jimmie Johnson and it sent the 3 of Dillon around which triggered an accordion effect and took collected 12 other drivers. Some drivers like Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth, were fortunate to miss it. Jimmie Johnson made a nice save after bumping the 3. The list of drivers involved: Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, Regan Smith, Michael Annett, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Brian Scott, and David Ragan. Surprisingly all of them were able to continue except for Bowyer and Vickers.
The last 33 laps were all green flag and were all led by Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch collected his second straight win and became the second driver in NASCAR history to get back-to-back sweeps. Dale Earnhardt Jr came home 2nd, Joey Logano was 3rd, Jimmie Johnson rallied for a 4th place finish and rookie Chase Elliott finished 5th. Other notables were Carl Edwards who finished 7th, Kasey Kahne finished 8th, and Kevin Harvick finished 10th. Next Sunday the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Bristol for the Food City 500.
After Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 here is a look at your standings:
|
Position
|
Driver (wins)
|
Points
|
Difference
|
|
1
|
Kyle Busch (2)
|
259
|
0
|
|
2
|
Jimmie Johnson (2)
|
253
|
-6
|
|
3
|
Kevin Harvick (1)
|
252
|
-7
|
|
4
|
Carl Edwards
|
241
|
-18
|
|
5
|
Joey Logano
|
234
|
-25
|
|
6
|
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
|
211
|
-48
|
|
7
|
Kurt Busch
|
208
|
-51
|
|
8
|
Denny Hamlin (1)
|
201
|
-58
|
|
9
|
Brad Keselowski (1)
|
201
|
-58
|
|
10
|
Austin Dillon
|
198
|
-61
|
