in NASCAR Articles

The Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway ended with Jeff Burton holding off Matt Kenseth to claim the checkered flag, making him the first repeat winner at that track.

Mark Martin beat out Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray for third-place. Greg Biffle, Martin Truex, Jr., Juan Montoya, Denny Hamlin and David Stremme rounded out the top-ten finishers.

Montoya’s 8th place finish was his second top-10 finish, after having finished 5th at the Kobalt 500. Other notable finishes were Brian Vickers and Dave Blaney, the top Toyota drivers at TMS. Vickers became the first Toyota driver to crack the Top 15, by bringing the Red Bull car in at 14th.

Clearly, the highest drama last weekend took place with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who had one of the fastest rides of the weekend. On Lap 253 his car collided with Kyle Busch’s 5 car during the fallout which followed Tony Stewart’s spin on that lap.

Busch left the race track following the collision, but the car later became operable. Earnhardt tried to pick up additional laps and eventually pulled off for good on lap 301.

Eight laps later, Busch’s car was ready to return to the track, but Busch was nowhere to be found. Busch’s jackman, Rick Pigeon, is good friends with Earnhardt and approached the latter to ask him to run the final laps in the car. Earnhardt’s pit chief, Tony Eury, Jr., gave the go-ahead, so Earnhardt ran the last nine laps of the race in the Hendricks Motorsports car.

Heading into this weekend, the Top-5 in the Nextel Cup standings are: Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.

The PIR is a one-mile tri-oval which Kevin Harvick mastered last season, winning last year’s Spring and Winter races. Kyle (Fall) and Kurt (Spring) Busch won the 2005 races, while Dale Jr. won the 2004 and 2003 races at the track.

Harvick beat out (in order) Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Clint Boyer, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson in last year’s Spring race. He beat out (in order) Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin in the Winter race.

Clearly, Harvick is a good bet for this weekend’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway. Matt Kenseth is another driver to keep an eye one.

Martin’s third place in Dallas combined with his strong performances in Phoenix make his team worth a glance. Martin is not entered in every race and his team has performed at a premium when he does decide to get behind the wheel.

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