Just as in this year’s Daytona 500, for most of today’s first NASCAR Cup Series race of the season at the Texas Motor Speedway it seemed that it was Martin Truex Jr.’s race to lose.
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“Early in the race we weren’t all that great”.
“The restart was going to be key”, Busch said. “As the night progressed, I think the track came to us”.
Carl Edwards (Starting on the pole)-Edwards has gotten himself off to a very solid start on the young season, now sitting in 4th in the standings courtesy of five Top 10 finishes in his first six races. He starts 11 tonight and we like him with 6/1 odds. He just got too far out there.
Restarting on the inside at the end worked well for Earnhardt.
When the first Sprint Cup night race of the season race officially started, it was under caution.
The race was delayed almost two hours, due to rain and a wet track.
He endured a timely wait to see his position later in the race when he was among the drivers who were in their pit sequence when a caution came out for Josh Wise hitting the wall, putting him a lap down.
Carl Edwards led 124 laps Saturday, but had a loose wheel with 110 laps to go, leading to an unscheduled pit stop.
No more money: An upshot of the Sprint Cup’s charter system is NASCAR’s new policy of withholding drivers’ earnings in race box scores, the Charlotte Observer reported. By Lap 101, he had moved into second.
He lost the lead briefly to Chase Elliott during a green flag pit stop on the 74 lap when his jackman slipped and fell, costing his team valuable seconds, but was back in command by the 78 lap.
“We got a little behind and got caught on pit road on that one caution”, he said.
Matt Kenseth also has been impressive in Texas, matching Johnson’s mark with 13 top-five finishes and second to Johnson in top-10 finishes (17), laps led (834) and average finish (9.46).
It looked like Truex was cruising to an easy victory. He exited the pits 21st, one lap down to leader Busch.
Truex couldn’t adjust in time, and had to stay on the track, leaving him with older tires than everyone who pitted.
Jones led twice for 12 laps while that stretch was Larson’s only in the lead before Busch took over for good. Truex eventually faded to sixth.
Rookie Chase Elliott qualified fourth, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin and fellow rookie Ryan Blaney.
“We had a really great vehicle”, said Earnhardt.
Busch has been on quite a roll.
Busch, who swept the NASCAR Camping World Truck and Sprint Cup series events at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway last weekend, was equally impressive on TMS’ high-banked, 1.5-mile quad-oval.
Busch joins Johnson as the only two-time Sprint Cup winners in 2016.
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Busch has now won four races in the last eight days, on different circuits. “It makes it extra special”.
