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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Week 7 Preview: Texas

Texas Motor Speedway

Duck Commander 500



By Richard Tix

Well, Martinsville brought tons of excitement for the whole race. From opening fireworks (Kurt Busch v Brad Keselowski) to the finishing battle (Jimmie Johnson v Kurt Busch) fans sure got there moneys worth on Sunday.

NASCAR now heads to Texas Motor Speedway (Check out the Texas Sponsor news earlier this year) with 6 different winners to start the season. Whats even crazier to think about then the fact that we don't have a multiple time winner in 2014 yet is that Jimmie Johnson doesn't have a win yet.

JJ may not have a win but he has been consistently good so far, so it seems like it is only a matter of time before he and the #48 team figure it out and get going. The question is, will it be at Texas that JJ gets his first win of 2014? Check out last years Texas Preview and Review. Also, check out the lastest Power rankings after Martinsville.


The Good, Middle, and Bad 
(This is just a review of each drivers recent past performance, generally about 5-10 past races)

The Good
  • Jimmie Johnson- 21 career starts at Texas and 16 top 10's. Add to that his career average finish is 8.7 and you can see that equals a safe pick for a quality finish. 
  • Matt Kenseth- Kenseth slide in at 1A with JJ. Kenseth has 16 top 10's in 23 career starts at Texas. He actually has 3 more top 5's them JJ in that time (13 total). He and JJ have been good here lately and in there total career, so no need to look elsewhere. 
  • Greg Biffle- Biffle is a guy who has turned it on in his last 10 starts here. He had 9 top 10's in the last 10 including 6 top 5's and a win. His last start at Texas was the only non top 10 in the last 10, and it was a 12th place finish.
  • Extra Credit: Denny Hamlin
The Middle
  • Kevin Harvick- In Harvicks last 10 starts he only has 6 top 10's and only one of those was a top 5. In his last 5 starts he has 3 top 10's and the other two finishes were 13th. He has had some fast cars to start the 2014 season so if he stays away from the bad luck he could add a top 5 to his stats.
  • Extra Credit- Clint Bowyer
The Bad
  • Jamie McMurray- He has started the 2014 season out with a lot of good runs (mixed results) and good cars, but he doesnt have a very good track record here. In his last 10 he has zero top 10's and an average finish of 23.5. 
  • Brian Vickers- In his last 6 starts he has one top 10, one. That was his last finish at Texas (8th). 
  • Marcus Ambrose- In his last 5 starts he has zero top 10's and in his last 10 starts he has one top 10 at Texas. The bright side, in his last 6 starts here he has started top 10 4 times, and top 15 all 6 times.
Track Stats
  • Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards are the only drivers to sweep the two Texas races in a season. DH in 2010 and Carl in 2008.
  • A race has been won from the Pole 2 out of the last 3 races and 3 times total.
  • Ford won 7 of the first 10 races at Texas.
  • Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson both had 3 wins at Texas.
  • Of current drivers, Matt Kenseth has led the most career lasp at Texas (775). Greg Biffle has the second most with 733.

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