Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Chase moves on to the Lone Star State

Martin was caught up in the big wreck at Talladega, as his car went airborne and then flipped on the track. He wound up finishing 28th. Gordon ran out of fuel during a late-race caution that led to a 20th-place run.

With Talladega now in the rear-view mirror, Johnson is in great shape to win this year's championship. Texas is the next stop on the series schedule, and Johnson has an impressive track record there. He has finished first or second in three of the last four races at Texas.

Johnson has been superb in the Chase so far with three victories -- Dover, California and Charlotte. He's the only driver with top-10 finishes in the first seven Chase races. If Johnson continues to widen his points lead, he could wrap the title next week at Phoenix.

"It's an exciting time for sure," Johnson said. "There's still a lot of racing left, and things can go wrong. We're in as good of a position as we could have ever hoped to have been in. So there's levels of excitement and emotion that comes with that. But I'm really trying to keep my head down and keep this team focused on doing the job the next three weeks. Not only do I feel it's important to do that for the championship's sake, but there are also some really good tracks for us coming up. I feel we could win one or two races here with the tracks we have left on the schedule, and we just need to keep going."

If Johnson averages a 10th-place finish in the three remaining races, he will clinch the title regardless of any other driver's performance.

Martin is a five-time race winner this season, with his most recent victory coming in the first Chase race at New Hampshire. The 50-year-old driver has finished no worse than 12th in the last three races at Texas. He won there in 1998.

Gordon's only victory so far this season came in April at Texas. Gordon snapped a career-long 47-race winless streak. He also won at Texas for the first time in 17 attempts there.

"It's just one of those tracks that typically I left there wanting to forget as quick as I could, but now I can't wait to get back there," Gordon said. "We've worked so hard during the off-season because of what we had learned there in November of last year, to come back and be strong at Texas knowing it's a Chase race, and it's a race that has haunted us for the last several years."

Gordon led a race-high 105 laps, but had to hold off a late-race challenge from Johnson to win his first points-paying race since October 2007 at Charlotte. He recorded his 82nd career victory, putting him one win away from tying Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time race winners list.

Homestead is the only active track where Gordon has yet to win a Cup race.

Carl Edwards has the most victories at Texas with three. Edwards won both races there last year.

"It takes a really, really good race car to win at Texas, that's the bottom- line," Edwards said. "You have to have a very powerful engine, and you've got to have a great aerodynamics package. Your crew chief and engineer have to have the car put together really well and sometimes you need great fuel mileage on top of that. It takes a lot to win in Texas."

Edwards led the series with nine victories in 2008, but has yet to win a race this year.

Forty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Dickies 500.