It was a shootout at Texas Motor Speedway yesterday. It was definitely worth a one day delay if this is what we got! The entire weekend was rained out, so both the Sprint Cup race and Nationwide had to be run on Monday instead of Saturday and Sunday. Finally, Jeff Gordon was the agressive, drive to the front guy we haven't seen in a while. He was dominant for most of the day, leading the most laps of all the drivers at the Sprint Cup race. As a Gordon fan, I was so excited thinking, "This is it! He's gonna win for sure!" Surprisingly (after such a long rain before), there was three green flag stops. The Hendrick boys: Jeff, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., headed towards the front early and pretty much stayed there. Jr lead several laps himself.
Because of the rain delay, there was a mandatory caution thrown at lap 26. The next three cautions happened when Brian Vickers (#83 - Caution 2 AND Caution 3) and Sam Hornish Jr (#77 - Caution 4) spun. Luckily, nobody else got caught up in these cautions. Caution 5 occurred when Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) hit the wall. And, in a flaming ball of glory, David Reutimann (#00) had engine troubles, sending it flaming down to pit row on Caution 6.
Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson went into pit row after the Reutimann-caused caution in position 1 and 2 and came out at position 8 and 7, respectively. They were the first ones off pit row to have taken 4 tires instead of gambling with 2. The big one, unfortunately for this JG fan, was when, with 17 laps to go (just after the Caution 6 restart), Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards were all racing hard to get to the front of the pack. Tony started to float down a little from the top, Jeff's car just "kissed" Tony's car, sending him up the track a little, Carl's car bumped into the back of Tony's car, sending it sideways and into Jeff's car. Jeff couldn't go anywhere because he had Greg Biffle (#16) just below him on the track. Biffle and Johnson managed to squeak by unscathed. But this wreck caught Jeff, Tony, Carl, AJ Almendinger (#43), Jamie MacMurray (#1), Joey Logano (#20), Paul Menard (#98), Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer (#33).
The big race to the end with only a dozen or so laps to go saw Denny Hamlin (#11) shoot to the lead, with Kyle Busch (#18 - Where did he come from?) following close behind. Of course, with four fresh tires and a great racecar, Jimmie was storming through the field towards the front as well. If Jimmie had even a half a lap more, he would have won yet another NASCAR Sprint Cup race this year. However, hop-along Hamlin managed to fend him off long enough to take the checkered flag. Congratulations, Denny! Imagine what he can do once his knee heals!
Barring anymore rain delays, the next Sprint Cup race will be on Sunday, April 25 at Talledega. Coverage begins at noon EST on Fox. I'll be there. Will you?
Top 5 Finishers of the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway:
1. Denny Hamlin (#11)
2. Jimmie Johnson (#48)
3. Kyle Busch (#18)
4. Kurt Busch (#2)
5. Kasey Kahne (#9)
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