Penske Racing's Kurt Busch conserves fuel to take win as Jimmie Johnson falters at Texas
Penske Racing's Kurt Busch won Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – It was a dramatic beginning and a dramatic ending in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday.
Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team showed they were human at Texas, a place where Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch almost stole the show, for at least the weekend as he won the Truck Series and Nationwide Series events. In the end, though, it was Kyle’s brother Kurt Busch who stole the Sprint Cup win.
Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch conserved fuel late in the race, while brother Kyle, who led 232 laps, ran out of gas with two laps remaining.
It was Kurt Busch’s second win of the season. He also won at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season.
“I knew what we had for fuel mileage,” said Busch, whose crew chief Pat Tryson will leave after the season to go to Michael Waltrip Racing and work with driver Martin Truex Jr.. “I was confident in my guys’ numbers. They gave me what we needed to win today. … We were fast. We were playing cat-and-mouse with Kyle on restarts. That was the first true time that Kyle and I raced each other hard for a victory like this.
“For us to come away and knock him off his sweep he was trying to go for was bittersweet. I was rooting for him. But this was for us.”
The Chase For The Sprint standings didn’t change too much, but the margins did as two races remain in the season and Johnson’s quest for a fourth consecutive crown. An accident on lap three put Johnson in the garage for 113 laps. He ended up 38th and left Texas having seen his Sprint Cup points lead drop from 184 to 73 over teammate Mark Martin.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers held the top three positions in the standings as Jeff Gordon is third, 112 points behind Johnson, while Busch is 171 points behind and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Tony Stewart is 178 points out of the lead.
“Luckily we have a big points lead,” Johnson said. “All along we’ve been trying to tell everybody this thing is far from over, what our mindset has been.
“Luckily we’ve raced for every point throughout this Chase. We still have a decent points lead right now. We need to dust ourselves off, head to Phoenix, get a good one in the bank there.”
Johnson can clinch the title by finishing fourth or better in the last two events no matter how well Martin does.
“It didn’t feel as good when I knew we didn’t have a chance,” Martin said. “It’s still a longshot because they have great performance. We can't go outperform them 70-some points, but racing’s not over with yet.”
The Johnson accident occurred when Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish Jr. got a tap from Michael Waltrip Racing’s David Reutimannn. Johnson hit both the outside and inside walls, and his team had to replace the front clip, the rear deck lid, the wing, the right-side rear quarter panel, suspension parts and the driveshaft.
Kyle Busch was attempting to sweep all three national touring events in one weekend. He captured the Truck series race Friday night on the 1.5-mile oval, followed that with the Nationwide Series win Saturday afternoon and then looked like he was going to win the Cup race before finishing 11th as he ran out of gas.
Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin (JGR) never pitted and took the top two spots, followed by Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth, Martin, Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Stewart.
Rounding out the top 10 were RCR’s Clint Bowyer in seventh, followed by Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle, RCR’s Jeff Burton, and Richard Petty Motorsports’ AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger was driving his first race in a Ford.
