Johnson extends track reign
No. 48’s late pass undermines race domination by Keselowski
FORT WORTH — Brad Keselowski was dominating at Texas Motor Speedway, leading lap after lap and getting close to a victory that would give him one of the four championshipcontending spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup finale.
Until Texas fall favorite Jimmie Johnson came charging after the final restart.
Keselowski led a trackrecord 312 of 334 laps Sunday after starting from the pole, but he could not keep Johnson from winning the AAA Texas 500 for the fourth consecutive year.
“Just one step short of having the awesome day we needed to have,” Keselowski said. “I’m not sure exactly how to feel about it at the moment. The 48 car had so much speed those last 10 laps.”
With the already-eliminated Johnson getting his 75th career victory, three spots are still up for grabs at Phoenix, the last race before the Nov. 22 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The only championship contender set is retiring four-time champion Jeff Gordon, the Martinsville winner last week.
Kenseth pipes in
Kyle Busch leads the points race for at least two of the spots, ahead of defending Chase champion Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. Carl Edwards is next, followed by Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano.
“It’s not a must-win situation for us like it is for some other guys,” said Kyle Busch, who finished fourth Sunday. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the position we got right now.”
After the final restart with 18 laps left, Keselowski and Truex were sideby-side. They even made contact at one point before Truex went briefly in front.
Keselowski almost as quickly got back in front, and Johnson also went charging past Truex into second place. Truex lost his power steering in those closing laps and slipped to finish eighth.
Johnson kept pushing and on the backstretch on lap 331 he finally got past Keselowski, who got really loose out of the second turn. Johnson went on to win by more than a second.
“That was the first I had seen him that vulnerable all day,” Johnson said. “I just kept the pressure on him, kept searching for line.”
Noted Keselowski: “I did everything I could to hold him off, but he was way faster that last run.”
Minutes after the race, suspended driver Matt Kenseth tweeted, “Good work (at)JimmieJohnson! Textbook pass for the win at the end of the race when someone is trying to take your lane.”
Logano got knocked from first to last among the eight championship contenders after being intentionally wrecked by Kenseth at Martinsville a week ago. NASCAR then suspended Kenseth for two races, and his appeals were denied.
“Clearly, he was watching and bored at home,” Johnson said, when asked about Kenseth’s tweet.
Logano’s title shot took another huge hit when he had a blown tire after only 10 laps at Texas, where he finished in 40th place.
Logano must win
Johnson led only six laps to get his fifth win of the season. The No. 48 Chevrolet also won the spring race at Texas and is the first driver to win three consecutive Cup races at the highbanked, 1½-mile track.
Harvick finished third, even after he twice had to come in to replace punctured tires after running over something on the track and having to drive onehanded for a long stretch when he was having to hold on to the shifter to keep his car from popping out of gear.
“We just kept gouging away, and everything worked out in the end,” Harvick said.
The only one of the title contenders who finished outside of the top nine at Texas, Logano will have to win next week to get to the finale with a championship shot for the second year in a row.
Kenseth’s streak of 571 consecutive starts, which was the second-longest active streak behind Gordon’s 795 in a row, came to an end.