Results tagged “Texas Motor Speedway” from Haddock in the Paddock

It was a good night for Ron Hornaday Jr. at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday.
He won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, his second of the year and the 35th of his career, and regained the lead in the Truck Series standings.
A reporter said after the race that Hornaday had a different look about him. The reporter asked if winning the race at Texas was special in any way.
"It is the biggest win right now," said Hornaday, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc. and a former Saugus Speedway champ from Palmdale. "I tell you other than Daytona, Texas is a race that I've wanted to win. I've always wanted to win Lowe's and we did that last year and we've run good there. You know we've got these things figured out and you've got to get through the headaches."
Hornaday had to survive a green-white-checkered finish and hold off a blazing Kyle Busch to win at Texas.
"When I saw that yellow come out as we were coming to the white flag, I said aw darn, I just lost this race," Hornaday said. "But Kyle drove me clean and I've got to thank everybody. Goodyear gave us a good tire and they wore out and got slippery. I've never run the top here at Texas and to see what this Camping World Chevrolet did, it just says a lot for KHI and all these guys."

Tires were supposed to be an issue at Texas Motor Speedway. Eddie Gossage, the president of the track, begged and pleaded with NASCAR to allow extra testing at Texas before the Sunday's Cup race. NASCAR officials refused and it looks like they made the right decision.
There was a fear that the Texas race could end up like the Atlanta race or the Las Vegas race. A number of drivers crashed, had tires problems or handling problems. All of it was blamed on Goodyear for not producing a tire that could perform at the level some of the Cup drivers were expecting.
Tony Stewart was the biggest critic. Gossage wanted to do whatever he could to prevent a repeat of the races at Atlanta and Vegas. But it looks like there was not much to worry about.
Clint Bowyer was asked if he noticed any problems with the tires during practice and qualifying and he said, "No."
"We came here and did the tire test and we’ve got all the confidence in the world in Goodyear and the tire they’ve brought and we’re going to be just fine,” said Bowyer, driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Bowyer was one of two drivers who was able to test with NASCAR's new car and the new tire Goodyear produced for the Cup race at Texas.
He didn't have any concerns. The Nationwide Series race went off without incident. The only driver who had any problems was Michael McDowell, who crashed violently during qualifying. That was more inexperience than inadequate tires.
Impatience and inexperience will lead to more accidents than bad tires at Texas.

It was quite an eventful day of qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway. Hardly the disaster Eddie Gossage, the track president, predicted. There was one nasty crash, rookie Michael McDowell hit almost head on into the Turn 1 wall. And Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole.
McDowell got into the race with a provisional for being in the top 35 in the Sprint Cup Series owners standings. He will start Sunday's race 40th.
“I’m not sure what happened because it got away from me so fast that it felt like I got into some oil, oil dry or either something broke,” said McDowell, driver of the No. 00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. “I came off of Turn 4 and something didn’t feel right. I told the guys it felt tight and that I was going to run another lap. Then I got down in there and it just started to pull right on me. I tried to gather it up, but I hit the wall and started rolling down from there. I didn’t lose consciousness. I felt every roll down the hill. I had my eyes open the entire time.”
Earnhardt Jr. won the second Texas pole of his Cup career and the eighth overall. He won his first Cup race at Texas and his first Nationwide Series race at Texas, back when it was called the Busch Series.
His Cup win came eight years ago, when he was a rookie racing for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
“It was a while ago. There’s other things that have happened here since then," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "Jeff Burton’s won twice. I just don’t want resentment from my competitors. The big thing about it is, when I came down here and won my first couple of races it put an impression on a lot of fans here. We already had a really good loyal fan base to start with, so Eddie (Gossage) is smart. He knows how to do business and knows exactly what he needs to do to get every seat sold so you got to understand that too. I’m not sure how I relate to this place. It will always be special to me in the way that Daytona is special to me. I won my first race here in both series, but we’ve struggled here too. It’s a love-hate relationship. Just like anywhere else, you love the race track as long as your car is really fast when it goes around it. But it will always be special in the fact that the fans are great to me here, they’re amazing on how much they support us here and how excited they get about us coming here and it’s one of the better markets that we have in this series west of the Mississippi. So that gives me good hope for the sport as a whole to be successful nationwide where there’s some areas where you could put up argument of that. Like I said, it’s a good opportunity to get excited and look forward to a win or a chance at a win. People always say that when we come here, man you’re going to Texas you got a shot at winning. We do feed off of that as a team I think as far as our motivation to come with a good chance to win.”

Too bad Jeff Burton won't have the car that won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway last year.
He won't even have the car that finished sixth in the fall race at Texas nor will he have the car that won the Bristol race last month.
HIs team is bringing a new car to Texas. And the way Burton's been talking, he would prefer a new car to one of his older cars.
“We have gotten off to a solid start but we definitely have some room to grow," said Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "Every race that we ran and have finished in the top 10, we have truly been a top 10 car. We’ve been a solid top 10 team but we want to be a top four team. We want to lead laps and the lead the most laps in races."
Burton leads the Sprint Cup Series standings after six races and his teammate, Kevin Harvick, is second. It's the first time that two drivers from Richard Childress Racing have held the top two spots in the Cup standings. Burton is coming off a third-place finish at Martinsville Speedway and has one win so far this year, the Bristol race, but leading laps is his main concern at this point of the season.
"We’ve had a slow start to accomplish that but we’re early in some development, as every team is, but there is a lot of growing left to do," Burton said. "We didn’t do that well last year – grow as some of the other teams did – and it showed when the Chase started. We have to focus on what’s ahead of us so we can stay in the top 12 in points.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway turned out to be one of the worst races of the year for Kevin Harvick.
In year's past that might have meant a 20th or 30th place finish.
But not this year. Harvick took a poor car and turned it into a 12th-place day. Not great by any means, but far from disastrous.
"We turned a day that started out difficult in to a good finish for our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, which is something we struggled with last season," said Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "(Sunday) was much better than the race here a year ago."
His past five races at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Cup race, haven't been great, but they haven't been that bad either. If he can have another race like the ones in 2006, when he finish third and fifth, he might be able to jump into the No. 1 spot in the Sprint Cup Series standings.
But if he has another race like last year's spring race at Texas, when he finished 29th, he might fall out of the top 12.
Harvick said his crew chief, Todd Berrier, and his team have been giving him good cars all year. And the way they responded at Martinsville has given Harvick a new sense of confidence.
"Todd and the crew kept working on the car making it better and better as the race unfolded," Harvick said. "I am proud of our effort and how hard we all worked to get a decent finish and have a solid points day."

A 20th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway didn't hurt Greg Biffle that much in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. He is third, 60 points out of first, and heading to Texas Motor Speedway, where he won the Cup race in April 2005.
"Well, after Martinsville I’m pretty excited to go to Texas," said Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "Texas is one of my favorite tracks and it’s usually a pretty good race for us. We’ve had some bad luck there but we also walked away with a set of cowboy hats one time. I’d love to get a set for this new team."
His best race at Texas in the past three years was a sixth-place finish in the spring race last year. Mixed in with that are a 33rd, 35th and 42nd.
The car his team is taking to Texas is a brand new car. It has yet to race anywhere. Biffle said he would like to win a race for his team, which has kept him in the top-five in the Cup standings for most of the season.
"They’ve worked really hard all year and I am completely confident that even when we have a minor setback, they learn from it and get ready for the next weekend," Biffle said. "We’re taking a brand new car this weekend but the way these cars are built so similar, I think we’ll be alright.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still the best driver at Hendrick Motorsports this year. And he still hasn't won a race yet.
That could change at Texas Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr. won the Cup race at Texas in his rookie season with Dale Earnhardt Inc. That was eight years ago.
But it looked like Hendrick Motorsports turned things around at Martinsville last week. All four drivers, even Casey Mears, finished in the top 10. Jeff Gordon was the highest of the four, in second, and Earnhardt Jr. was sixth.
The car his team is bringing to Texas is the same one Earnhardt Jr. had at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he finished second.
"I do enjoy running at Texas," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "The past few times out there we really didn't run as well as we wanted to. That was the track where I got my first win. Typically, the tracks where drivers get their first wins are tracks they always run well at. Not sure why, but I guess if you know what it takes to get a win, you always have that in your mind."
His past two races at Texas haven't been that great. He was 36th in the fall race and 14th in the spring race at Texas last year.
"We have struggled there as of late, but hopefully with the new Chevy Impala SS program, and the way we have run on those mile-and-a-half tracks as of late, we can turn things around," Earnhardt Jr. said.

Yikes! Kyle Busch went from first to fifth in week after finishing 38th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
But help is on the way.
Busch heads to Texas with the same car that won the Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Atlanta and Texas are very similar, both high-banked, 1.5-mile ovals.
“I think Texas is going to be a fast place," said Busch, driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. "It’s going to be a little bit different getting in and coming up off the corners than Atlanta because there isn’t as much banking at Texas getting into the corner. For me, Texas has always been a tricky place. I’ve never really run well there and been confident there. We’ve been getting better in recent years in the Cup car and have had some success in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. I get a little more comfortable each time I get back there in the Cup car and hopefully we can get the race car close to my liking when we get there this weekend.”
Busch has two top-five finishes in six career Cup races at Texas. But his most recent race at Texas produced a 37th place and he finished 40th in his first Cup race at Texas in 2005. And even though Busch won the race at Atlanta, he said that might not guarantee another good run at Texas.
"Every track is different," Busch said. "You can’t expect to run well at one track and have it translate over to another, no matter how close the configuration is. We’ve just got to be able go out there in each practice session and try to make the car better.”

Texas Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Robby Gordon have created new Web sites for fans to post comments about races and chat with NASCAR drivers.
The Texas Motor Speedway MySpace site is: www.myspace.com/thegreatamericanspeedway
Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and David Stremme are a few of the NASCAR drivers who have set up their own MySpace pages to give fans a way to follow them.
Earnhardt Jr. has a web site called Infield Parking: www.infieldparking.com and Gordon has a site called Robby's Uprising: www.robbysuprising.com

NASCAR said no to Eddie Gossage's request to have an additional request test at Texas Motor Speedway before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track in April.
Gossage, the president of Texas Motor Speedway, expressed concerns about the record number of cautions at the Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval like Texas.
David Caraviello of NASCAR.com reported that the only tests are scheduled at Phoenix International Raceway, which was Monday, Pocono Raceway in Pennaylvania and Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said no other test sessions will be added, according to NASCAR.com.

The president of Texas Motor Speedway didn't like what he saw at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
There were a record number of crashes at Las Vegas in the Nationwide and Cup series races. The Cup teams are using NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow at every track this year and it was the first time for the new car at Vegas.
Eddie Gossage, the president of Texas Motor Speedway, doesn't want to see a repeat of what happened in Vegas, a 1.5-mile oval like his track.
“My concern is that they did have an open test at Las Vegas and still had a record number of cautions, including three serious crashes involving former Cup champions,” Gossage said. “We only have had a two-car Goodyear test so we could see a lot of crashes, and that causes me concern. I’m sure the teams would like as much data and track time as possible to reach that comfort level with the car and its performance at our speedway.”
Only two Cup drivers have been able to test at Texas. Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer were at the track for a Goodyear tire test in January. Gossage has offered to let Cup teams practice in April for one, possibly two days. The Samsung 500 Sprint Cup Series race is at Texas April 6, with qualifying and practice April 4 and 5.
“I think Texas will be the toughest track we go to with this car, it’s already a tough race track,” said Jeff Gordon, who crashed into an infield wall at Las Vegas at the end of the Cup race Sunday. “And when you look at the transitions, the vertical loads, the bumps and the speeds, it’s probably going to be closer to this track (Vegas) than to any other track we go to. And we’ll try to go with all that we know. We’ll try to engineer and do the science and the math and everything, and try to figure out how much travel we’re going to get and the loads that we’re going to get based on past experience and being there. The biggest challenge we’re going to have with the Impala going forward this year is going to tracks that we haven’t tested at and been to and gotten the data and the laps with the telemetry.”