Kyle Busch dominated the Texas weekend but came up just short of history. He won the Truck race on Friday and the Nationwide Series race on Saturday. He dominated much of the Cup race on Sunday but fell victim to fuel mileage and failed to become the first driver in history to sweep all three series in the same weekend.
Qualifying
Jeff Gordon was quickest in qualifying and put his Hendrick Chevy on the pole. Jeff needed a good day to attempt to close the gap on Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson in the points. Starting up front is a great way to collect bonus points. Fellow Chasers Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart took the next three qualifying spots.
Fresh off his wins in the Truck and Nationwide Series races in Texas Kyle Busch started fifth in his effort to make history by winning all three races in the same weekend.
Drop Of The Green
The leaders stayed side-by-side through lap one but Jeff Gordon beat Kasey Kahne back to the line by inches to collect five bonus points for leading a lap.
It was early in the race when the big story of the week hit.
Storylines
In turn two on lap three point leader Jimmie Johnson was passing on the high side as David Reutimann got into the back of Sam Hornish. Hornish wiggled and got into Johnson. Jimmie Johnson wrecked both ends of his race car and had to go to the garage.
The insurmountable point lead suddenly didn't seem so insurmountable any longer. You could hear the crowd cheering as Johnson limped back to the garage. The 2009 Chase for the Cup just might not be over after all.
Jimmie Johnson spent over an hour in the garage getting it fixed and finally returned to the race track 112 laps down.
Chasing The Checkers
The 2009 Dickies 500 presented Kyle Busch with the opportunity to make history. Kyle won the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday night. He then backed that up with a win in the Nationwide Series event on Saturday night. No driver has ever swept all three top touring series races in the same weekend.
Kyle Busch dominated the Cup Series event in Texas and looked ready to make history. He lead over half of the laps and spent most of the race with a multi-second lead. Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing team have Texas figured out.
The weekend domination was impressive, but it didn't make for much of a race.
In the closing laps fuel mileage drummed up some drama. Kyle Busch was trying to stretch his fuel to make the end while his brother Kurt was closing in steadily from behind. Kyle ran out of gas with 2 1/2 laps to go and dove onto pit road. His brother Kurt took over the top spot and was able to make it to the checkers to steal the win.
Top Ten
- Kurt Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Matt Kenseth
- Mark Martin
- Kevin Harvick
- Tony Stewart
- Clint Bowyer
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Burton
- A.J. Allmendinger
The Points
Jimmie Johnson came into the race with a 184 point lead. When the dust had settled in Texas his point lead was slashed to just 73 points over Mark Martin. The 2009 Chase had looked like it was over but now Mark Martin has new life with two races remaining.
The top twelve are now:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Mark Martin -73
- Jeff Gordon -112
- Kurt Busch -171
- Tony Stewart -178
- Juan Montoya -236
- Greg Biffle -247
- Denny Hamlin -322
- Ryan Newman -324
- Kasey Kahne -399
- Carl Edwards -440
- Brian Vickers -520
