Matt Kenseth Snaps Winless Streak In Texas

The 2011 Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway featured long green flag runs and a dominating performance by Matt Kenseth.

This race ended on a race 114 lap green flag run to the end while Matt Kenseth continued othold court to snap his 76 race winless streak.

Qualifying

After getting shut out of the top five in qualifying the last two weeks Ford drivers flexed their muscles in Texas sweeping the front row and claiming three of the top five starting spots.

Roush-Fenway drivers David Ragan and Carl Edwards claimed the top two positions. Clint Bowyer put his Childress Chevrolet on the inside of row two with another Roush driver, Matt Kenseth, starting fourth.

Regan Smith rounded out the top five for his Furniture Row Racing team.

Drop Of The Green

Drivers immediately dropped to the inside lane on the start with David Ragan taking the early lead. It took just a couple of laps for Roush-Fenway drivers to hold down the top three spots as Matt Kenseth was on the move in the early going.

Storylines

Earlier this year Jeff Gordon broke a 66-race losing streak with a win in Phoenix. This left Matt Kenseth with one of the longest losing streaks in NASCAR among the big names. Matt Kenseth hadn't visited Victory Lane in 76 races, a streak that dated to California way back in February of 2009.

Matt's Texas win leaves two big names with long losing streaks that date back to 2008.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn't won in 99 races. His last win came at Michigan in June of 2008.
• Jeff Burton's winless streak now measures 84 races. Burton last saw Victory Lane in October of 2008 in Charlotte.

Other notable losing streaks include:

• Mark Martin 52 races
• Kasey Kahne 54 races
• Joey Logano 62 races

Chasing The Checkers

Matt Kenseth dominated most of the day and the end of this race was no different. The race ended with 114 laps of green flag racing and the result was never in doubt.

Top Ten

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Clint Bowyer
3. Carl Edwards
4. Greg Biffle
5. Paul Menard
6. Marcos Ambrose
7. David Ragan
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
10. Kurt Busch

The Points

Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch traded the point lead once again as Kyle finished back in sixteenth.

Tony Stewart evicted Mark Martin from the top ten with a twelfth place effort while Mark suffered a 36th place effort after a crash.

The Unofficial 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings:

1. Carl Edwards
2. Kyle Busch -9
3. Matt Kenseth -13
4. Jimmie Johnson -13
5. Kurt Busch -16
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -21
7. Ryan Newman -23
8. Juan Pablo Montoya -24
9. Kevin Harvick -28
10. Tony Stewart -43