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 24 JEFF GORDON, Chevrolet
Team: Hendrick Motorsports
WHERE HE STANDS: Jeff Gordon climbed to the top of the Chase for the
Sprint Cup standings after the first race of the Eliminator Round.
Gordon, the lone representative remaining in the Chase from Hendrick
Motorsports, leads Ryan Newman by three points and Joey Logano by
four points.
TEXAS RECORD: 27 career starts, 1 win, 9 top-5s, 12 top-10s, 2
poles. Best career finish: First in spring 2009. Finished 38th in
this race last year and was second in this year's spring race there.
LOOKING AHEAD: Gordon was just one spot short at Martinsville of
winning there and getting an automatic berth that would have
advanced him to the final round in the season finale at Homestead.
Still, Gordon right now is in the driver's seat with two races
remaining in the Eliminator Round. The key is to remain consistent
and try to stay out of trouble on a track that can produce trouble
rather quickly. Said Gordon, "(Texas Motor Speedway) has a lot of
speed and you can be aggressive. But what I like about the track -
and why it seems to be a good one for this Drive to End Hunger team
- are the multiple grooves. The tires give up and the track 'widens'
out, and you can start searching the track for a line that might
work better for your car."
LOOKING BACK: Gordon came oh, so close to winning at Martinsville.
Unfortunately, he couldn't catch teammate and eventual winner Dale
Earnhardt Jr. in the final two laps and was forced to settle for a
runner-up finish.
ETC.: Given his dismal overall performance and struggles throughout
his career at Texas, Gordon has completed a mediocre 88.4 percent
(7,990) of the 9,035 total laps contested in 27 career starts there.
His average start there is 12.2 and his average finish is 17.2. He
has six DNFs there.
31 RYAN NEWMAN, Chevrolet
Team: Richard Childress Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: Currently in second place, three points behind
series leader Jeff Gordon and one point ahead of third-ranked Joey
Logano, Ryan Newman is the lone representative of Richard Childress
Racing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Newman is also one of two
drivers who has advanced to the Eliminator Round without earning a
win thus far in 2014. The other driver is Matt Kenseth.
TEXAS RECORD: 22 career starts, 1 win, 3 top-5s, 5 top-10s, 2 poles.
Best career finish: First in spring 2003. Finished ninth in this
race last year and was 16th in this year's spring race there.
LOOKING AHEAD: Newman may not be winning races, but he's continuing
to show outstanding consistency. In fact, he's finished twice in the
top-five and five other times in the top-10 in the last nine races,
including all seven of the Chase races to date this season. While
he's in second place, Texas is one of his worst-performing tracks.
He needs to find a way to come out of Sunday's race with a decent
showing to maintain his hopes of advancing to the final round at
Homestead. Said Newman, "There is no defining goal on consistency.
Our job is to go out there and do the best job we possibly can based
on how we work together as a team. We have to outperform all those
guys and, so far, it has provided us with consistency. We have been
one of the most consistent teams out there when it comes to the
Chase. For the longest time we were a seventh to 11th-place car.
Over the second half of the season, we have made improvements that
have allowed us to be championship contenders. With that said, we
definitely need to win as a team. That's what we need to do to
improve. That's our goal. We just have to keep our nose to the grind
stone and keep digging and digging. We need a win."
LOOKING BACK: Newman earned his second top-five finish in a row,
finishing third at Martinsville after ending up fifth at Talladega
the week before. He's definitely making a late-Chase charge.
ETC.: Newman has completed 94.9 percent (6,987) of 7,365 total laps
in 22 career starts at Texas. His average start there is 16.6 and
average finish is 19.1. He has three DNFs there.
22 JOEY LOGANO, Ford
Team: Penske Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: Joey Logano remains in the thick of things after
the first race of the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the Sprint
Cup. Logano finds himself in a very strong position, scored third in
the points, four points behind series leader Jeff Gordon, is one
point behind second-ranked Ryan Newman and leads fourth-ranked Matt
Kenseth by one point.
TEXAS RECORD: 12 career starts, 1 win, 4 top-5s, 4 top-10s, 0 poles.
Best career finish: First in spring 2014. Finished third in this
race last year and won this year's spring race there.
LOOKING AHEAD: Logano finally broke through with a win this past
spring at Texas. Can he repeat or have nearly as strong a finish on
the high-speed, 1.5-mile speedway? Logano will likely be looking to
win again, but at the same time, look to help out Penske Racing
teammate Brad Keselowski, who has gotten off to a poor start in the
Eliminator Round, ranked seventh of the eight drivers still in
contention for the championship. Logano also knows that now that the
Chase is in the third round, everything ratchets up and the best
drivers will be on top of their game. "You don't get this far in the
Chase by just sneaking by - you have to be a good team and have good
racecars," Logano said. "Obviously, the 4 (Kevin Harvick), the 24
(Jeff Gordon) and the 2 (Keselowski) have been really fast with us
all year long. But that doesn't mean you can look past Matt
(Kenseth), Denny (Hamlin) or the rest of the guys either. It's going
to be a tough road over the next (two) weeks, but I feel like this
Shell-Pennzoil team is up for the challenge."
LOOKING BACK: For a while this past Sunday, Logano looked like he
may have the car to win at Martinsville, leading 60 of the 500 laps.
Unfortunately, he tailed off near the end, but still finished a
respectable fifth place.
ETC.: Logano has completed 97.6 percent (3,917) of the 4,015 laps
contested in 12 career starts at Texas. His average start there is
16.5, and even with his win there in the spring, his average finish
is still a mediocre 18.4. He has one DNF there.
20 MATT KENSETH, Toyota
Team: Joe Gibbs Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: Matt Kenseth is one of two drivers in the top-four
of the Sprint Cup standings who still does not have a win this
season (the other winless driver is Ryan Newman). But just like he
did when he won the 2003 Winston Cup championship, Kenseth continues
to remain high in the standings - and definitely in contention for
the title - with uncanny consistency, including 20 top-10 finishes.
That's third among all drivers in Sprint Cup, just one behind the
tied pair of Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano, each with 21 top-10s.
Kenseth is five points behind series leader Jeff Gordon, one point
behind third-ranked Joey Logano and is two points ahead of
fifth-ranked Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin.
TEXAS RECORD: 24 career starts, 2 wins, 13 top-5s, 17 top-10s, 0
poles. Best career finish: First in spring 2002 and spring 2011.
Finished fourth in this race last year and was seventh in this
year's spring race there.
LOOKING AHEAD: Kenseth (along with Newman) is doing exactly what the
newly reformatted Chase was not designed for: to reward consistency
before wins. But that's what Kenseth is excelling at, and both he
and Newman have a very realistic chance of making the final round of
four for the season finale at Homestead, if not potentially win the
championship, still without even one win in the 2014 season. And
Kenseth has a strong chance to get even closer to Homestead and the
title this weekend because Texas is one of his favorite and most
successful racetracks.
LOOKING BACK: Kenseth led two laps at Martinsville and spent most of
the day in the top-10, ultimately finishing with a decent
sixth-place finish in the first race of the Eliminator Round. He was
involved in a wreck with Kevin Harvick, who after promised if he
(Harvick) can't win the championship, he'd make sure Kenseth
wouldn't either. "I don't blame him (Kevin Harvick) for feeling that
way, honestly. It was a mistake -- he was an innocent bystander and
was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I totally understand how
he feels and I totally understand why he would say that. I totally
get it. He knows it was a mistake too, but that doesn't really help
him. He got taken out of the race for being in the wrong place at
the wrong time."
ETC.: Kenseth has completed a near-perfect 99.4 percent (7,981) of
the 8,033 total laps contested in 24 career starts at Texas. His
average start there is 16.0 and his average finish is an excellent
8.28.8. He has one DNF there.
11 DENNY HAMLIN, Toyota
Team: Joe Gibbs Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: 5th, seven points out of first place; two points
out of the top four spots which will advance to the Championship
Round of the Chase for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
TEXAS RECORD: Two wins and nine top-10 finishes including five
top-five's in 17 starts.
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LOOKING AHEAD: Hamlin said, "Obviously, it would be great to get
another win at Texas this weekend. Although it's a fast,
intermediate track that has been a weakness of our team this year,
Texas has good tire fall off and really plays into the hands of
drivers that have a good handling car over the course of long runs.
Earlier this year, when I felt like we didn't have the speed to
compete with some of the top cars, we drove up and led laps at
Texas, but didn't get the finish to show for it. We need another
solid day with no mistakes to put ourselves in position to advance
to the final four."
LOOKING BACK: Hamlin was very frustrated after finishing eighth at
Martinsville. "It's hard because you've got guys that go laps down
in the course of the race and get enough lucky dogs (to get back on
the lead lap) and then (have) 50 laps on their tires and they want
to stay out (for the final restart with five laps to go)," said
Hamlin. "Just bottle necks the field up and we all got the short end
of the last restart stick again. We're running better than what
we've finishing. Other guys like (Ryan) Newman are finishing better
than where they're running. Tough day and I thought we had a
race-winning car there in the middle part of the race, but as soon
as the track got shaded we lost the handle a little bit. Eighth
place just isn't going to cut it. I hate to be down on it because we
did have a good solid day going, but it's frustrating when you don't
get that good finish on that last restart."
ETC.: Since no Chase driver won at Martinsville, Hamlin is quick to
point out "we now know at least two guys are going to make it on
points. It opens up the door now for the points side of things,"
adds Hamlin. "Certainly, our hope was to get a better result at
Martinsville last Sunday, but we're still in the thick of things.
This segment of the Chase will require top-five finishes and
hopefully we can achieve that this weekend."
99 CARL EDWARDS, Ford
Team: Roush Fenway Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: 6th, 20 points out of first place; 15 points out of
the top four spots which will advance to the Championship Round of
the Chase for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
TEXAS RECORD: Three wins (tied for the most in track history) and
eight top-10 finishes including six top-five's in 19 starts.
LOOKING AHEAD: Edwards is optimistic as he heads to Texas. "We ran
fifth at Kansas and eighth at Charlotte (the last two other
mile-and-a-half tracks)," said Edwards. "We've got a bunch of wins
at Texas, so there's nothing saying we can't go there and do it (win
another race). We'll go to Texas and go for the win. That's all we
can do. These guys (on his team) don't quit."
LOOKING BACK: Edwards was another frustrated driver after his
20th-place finish at Martinsville, the first race in the Eliminator
Round. "Pretty frustrating," said Edwards. "We planned on running a
lot better than that, but at the end of the day we still came home
20th and we could have lost our minds there. It's not what we
wanted. We tore up the car a little bit in those accidents. I ran
into a lot of stuff today and the car held up pretty well. Our Ford
EcoBoost Fusion performed pretty well considering all the damage."
ETC.: Car owner Jack Roush, who was born in Covington, Ky., was one
of 13 new members inducted last Saturday into the Kentucky
Motorsports Hall of Fame. In 2006, Roush was inducted into the
International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and in 2010 he was inducted
into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. "It is an honor every time
something like this happens," said Roush.
2 BRAD KESELOWSKI, Ford
Team: Team Penske
WHERE HE STANDS: 7th, 31 points out of first place; 26 points out of
the top four spots which will advance to the Championship Round in
the Chase for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
TEXAS RECORD: Three top-nine finishes in the last four races
including a career-best second-place finish in the fall race of
2012.
LOOKING AHEAD: Keselowski knows he is the same position he was in
the last round of the Chase where he needed to win Talladega to
advance and he did it. Now he needs a victory this weekend at Texas
or next week at Phoenix if he wants to advance to the Championship
Round. "This Chase lends itself to those moments and we're a team
that capable of them, so we'll try to be as positive as we can and
move forward with two more opportunities to do just that."
LOOKING BACK: Keselowski was running sixth when he ran into
mechanical problems on lap 221 of the 500-lap event at Martinsville.
"The guys did a great job," said Keselowski. "They put a (rear) gear
in this car in 28 laps, that pretty phenomenal but it was just
unfortunate the way the day played out. We were doing the things we
needed to do. We were gonna probably have ourselves a fifth or
sixth-place day, which is certainly something we could be proud of
and move forward with, but this (the mechanical problem) kind of put
us in a position now where we need to win." Keselowski ended the day
in 31st place.
ETC.: Keselowski understands "why everyone wants to compare someone
who is successful to Dale Earnhardt (Sr.) because of what he meant
to this sport and because of his drive, intensity, large fan base."
But he doesn't feel comfortable when he is the one being compared to
Earnhardt. "I'm OK with accepting the fact that there was only one
and there won't be another one," said Keselowski. "It's a lot like
music in that you can be influenced by another band, but we're still
a different band and we still have our own codes."
4 KEVIN HARVICK, Chevrolet
Team: Stewart-Haas Racing
WHERE HE STANDS: 8th, 33 points out of first place; 28 points out of
top four spots which will advance to the Championship Round of the
Chase for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
TEXAS RECORD: 11 top-10 finishes in 23 starts including a
career-best third in the fall of 2006.
LOOKING AHEAD: Harvick, who will be making the 500th start of his
Cup career at Texas, has high hopes for this weekend. "Our
mile-and-a-half stuff has really been our bread and butter this
year, so I'm looking forward to getting back there and trying to get
to victory lane," said Harvick, who will driving the same car he
drove to victory at Charlotte earlier this month. "That would really
be the best spot to end up. I've won a ton of races there in the
Nationwide and truck series as a driver and an owner. But I've never
been to victory lane on the Cup side. This would be a great weekend
to get that first Cup win (and advance to the Championship Round of
the Chase)."
LOOKING BACK: Despite starting 33rd, Harvick had methodically raced
his way to sixth place as the race neared its halfway point.
However, disaster struck on a restart on lap 228 when Matt Kenseth
wheel-hopped going into turn one and clipped the left rear fender of
Harvick sending Harvick hard into the wall. Harvick was forced to go
to the garage area to have his badly-damaged Chevy repaired. He
returned to the race 41 laps later in 40th position. Harvick
displayed his displeasure with Kenseth by brake-checking him several
times later in the race. After ending the day 33rd-place, Harvick
said, "The good thing about this format is you have two more weeks
and two race tracks that we can win on. Everybody was so worried
about us starting in the back and we wrecked at the front. We had
worked our way into where we needed to be. In a good position and
wound (up) backwards in the fence."
ETC.: Harvick left no doubt that if he doesn't make it to the
Championship Round, Kenseth won't either. "He will not win the
championship," said Harvick. "I can promise you that. If we don't
(advance), he won't." Kenseth said he "totally understands how he
(Harvick) feels and I totally understand why he would say that. He
knows it was a mistake too, but that doesn't really help him. I
don't really blame him. He got taken out of the race for being in
the wrong place at the wrong time. It was one of the low lights of
my career honestly. It was a mistake - he was an innocent bystander
and was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
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