NASCAR NATION – 11-10

If Elliot Sadler, currently 27th in points, winning his first pole since 2006 was any indication for how last weekend’s Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway would ply out, we should have expected we were in for one of the strangest races in recent memory.
And after a race packed full of spins, crew changes, penalties, and scuffles both on and off the track, for the first time in five years it was a driver not named Jimmie Johnson who left the track as the points leader.
Denny Hamlin continued his late-season surge, taking the lead with 29 laps to go and holding off a hard-charging Matt Kenseth on the final restart to win his series high-ninth race of 2010.
His finish, coupled with a ninth-place finish by defending champion Jimmie Johnson and a sixth place finish by Kevin Harvick, vaulted the No. 11 Toyota into first place in the standings.
Hamlin will hold a 33-point advantage over Johnson and a 59-point lead over Harvick with just two races remaining.
Hamlin seemed insistent following his victory that he needed to step up, and will have to continue to in order to win his first championship.
“I’ve been saying with three (races) to go I was going to be a little bit more aggressive,” he said. “It’s going to be on us to just flat outperform over the last two races. This was a good step in the right direction, the first leg, but we’ve got to go there with our guns loaded and see if we can’t get another win, and I’m going to race like we need to win from here on out.”
The leader of the points with two races remaining has been the champion at season’s end every year since 1992.
Johnson struggled early, and was hampered by two poor pit-stops by his crew. When teammate Jeff Gordon was forced to the garage midway through the race, Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus decided to replace the No. 48 over-the-wall crew with Gordon’s No. 24 DuPont team.
The move paid off, as Johnson’s final three pit stops were nearly flawless. But the changes weren’t enough to help Johnson rebound and remain the points leader.
While the change in the points lead was big news from Texas, arguably the most talked-about story of the week will be that of the tussle between Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton.
The two had been racing hard for several laps before Martin Truex Jr. spun to bring out the caution flag. Through a whirlwind series of events, Burton’s No. 1 made contact with Gordon’s No. 24, sending both cars hard into the outside wall well into the caution period.
Both drivers exited their tattered race cars, and Gordon proceeded past track officials to storm in the direction of Burton, where he shoved Burton and took several swings at the driver before the two were separated by NASCAR and track officials.
Burton took full responsibility for the incident after the race, saying that he was simply trying to acknowledge Gordon’s discomfort with Burton’s racing prior to the caution, calling the incident “accidental.”
Gordon wasn’t buying it. “He just wrecked us, just flat-out wrecked us and turned us right into the wall and collected himself,” he said. “It was pretty stupid and he admitted it later. But I certainly wanted to show him how upset I was and I’m not ashamed of anything I did.”
NASCAR officials said they would review the incident and announce any further penalties later in the week.
Another driver was victim to several in-race penalties at Texas. Kyle Busch was caught speeding on pit road after spinning on lap 159.
As he came back down pit road to serve his speeding penalty, Busch was seen giving a NASCAR official the middle finger, a gesture that earned him a two-lap “unsportsmanlike con-duct” penalty from NASCAR. He finished 32nd, two laps down.
Kenseth, as mentioned, was second after falling down a lap early in the event. Mark Martin finished third, followed by Joey Logano in fourth and Greg Biffle in fifth. Trevor Bayne made his Sprint Cup Series debut in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, finishing 17th.
Other Chase for the Cup drivers included Clint Bowyer in seventh, Tony Stewart in 11th, Carl Edwards in 19th, Kurt Busch in 24th, Burton in 36th, and Gordon in thirt y37th. Martin Truex Jr. struggled for much of the day and finished 38th.
Chase for the Sprint Cup Standings (After 8 of 10 races): 1. Denny Hamlin (6325 points); 2. Jimmie Johnson (-33); 3. Kevin Harvick (-59); 4. Carl Edwards (-317); 5. Matt Kenseth (-325); 6. Jeff Gordon (-331); 7. Kyle Busch (-339); 8. Tony Stewart (-363); 9. Greg Biffle (-372); 10. Clint Bowyer (-397); 11. Kurt Busch (-435); 12. Jeff Burton (-473).
Nationwide Series:
Carl Edwards passed Kyle Busch on the final restart to win the Nationwide Series event at Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday, but it was the third-place finish by Brad Keselowski that clinched him the 2010 Nationwide Series Championship with two races remaining. It was the first NASCAR championship for Keselowski, as well as the first for owner Roger Penske.
“Part of you feels honored to do it for Roger,” Keselowski said. “To get to see him carry that NASCAR trophy and do something he’s never done, it’s hard to give a billionaire something. It’s pretty cool.” Joey Logano finished fourth, while Martin Truex Jr. was fifth.
Camping World Truck Series: Kyle Busch won his seventh Truck Series race in 14 starts this season, easily cruising to victory last Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnny Sauter was second, followed by Matt Crafton in third, and Todd Bodine in fourth.
.Elliot Sadler, who announced last Friday he would race full-time in the Nationwide Series and part-time in the Camping World Truck Series for Kevin Harvick Incorporated in 2010, finished fifth.
Bodine now leads Aric Almirola by 230 points with just two races remaining. Busch leads Bodine’s owner Steve Germain by 72 points in the owner’s championship standings, while Toyota clinched its fifth straight manufacturer’s championship with Busch’s victory.
Coming Up: All three series head to Phoenix International Raceway for the second-to-last race weekend of 2010. Don’t miss the Sprint Cup Series’ three-way battle for the championship, as well as the potential crowning of the Camping World Truck Series champion.
Bruce Knoll, 18, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknoll jr4cmcherald@yahoo.com