2006 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

This weekend Texas Motor Speedway will play host to the closest points battle in Chase history. Matt Kenseth comes into the race as the leader by just 26 points over Jimmie Johnson. The 2006 Dickies 500 is key to the Championship since there are just two more Chase For The Cup races remaining after this.

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Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile quad-oval. With 24 degrees of banking in the corners the NEXTEL Cup drivers can really haul the mail off into the corners. In order to be fast a driver needs a car that is handling well so they can carry that speed through the turns.

334 Laps = 501 Miles

Last week Matt Kenseth stretched his lead a little bit but there are still five drivers within 84 points of the lead. The 2006 Chase For The NEXTEL Cup is still a barnburner as Texas, Phoenix and Homestead are all that remain.

The top ten in points are now:

1. Matt Kenseth -0
2. Jimmie Johnson -26
3. Denny Hamlin -65
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -84
5. Jeff Burton -84
6. Kevin Harvick -121
7. Jeff Gordon -146
8. Mark Martin -201
9. Kasey Kahne -210
10. Kyle Busch -249

The legendary "Texas" Terry Labonte will make the final NEXTEL Cup start of his incredible career this weekend in Texas. Terry made the first start of his career back in 1978 with a 4th place finish in Darlington.

Now 28 years later Terry Labonte will make his 848th, and final, start. Terry's amazing career includes 361 top ten finishes and 22 victories. Terry is also a two-time series Champion as he won the Championship in 1984 and again in 1996. This weekend is a celebration of his career.

TV: NBC Sunday, November 5th, 2:30PM Eastern.

Radio: PRN and XM Satellite

Actual Race: 2:55 p.m. Eastern

$7,139,515

Last year Mark Martin stayed out on old tires to take the lead for the final restart. When the green flag flew with eleven laps to go Mark set sail and tried to put some distance on Carl Edwards who was leading before the caution.

Edwards caught his teammate Mark Martin and made the pass for the win with just two laps to go. Roush drivers finished in the top three spots last year as Matt Kenseth finished third.

Roush Racing drivers have won five of the eleven previous NEXTEL Cup races held at Texas Motor Speedway. They have a solid combination here that gets them around this fast half-mile very well.

One other interesting note. In the first eleven races held so far at Texas Motor Speedway there have been no repeat winners. Eleven races have produced eleven different winners. I think that will change this week.

I'm going with point leader Matt Kenseth to stretch his point lead with a victory in Texas. In the last two races here Kenseth finished third and second. Matt gets around here very well and needs a good finish to maintain his slim point lead. I think Matt will be in contention at the end of this one.

For my backup I'm going with a driver that has never won a NEXTEL Cup race in Texas. Tony Stewart is fresh off his victory last week in Atlanta and finished third when the series was here in April.