Jimmie Johnson Comes On Strong to Win Texas in the Closing Laps

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FORT WORTH, TX – RIS – Jimmie Johnson passed a dominant Brad Keselowski with four laps to go and went on to win the AAA 500 NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.  Keselowski was dominating the race, leading lap after lap and getting oh so close to a victory that would have given him one of the four championship-contending spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup finale.  Keselowski led a track-record 312 of 334 laps Sunday after starting from the pole, but couldn't keep Johnson from winning the Texas fall race for the third straight 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 and Johnson's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports.

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. "Couldn't be more pleased with the position we got right now."

After the final restart with 18 laps left, Keselowski and Truex were side-by-side, and even made contact at one point before Truex went in front very briefly.

Keselowski almost as quickly got back in front, and Johnson also went charging past Truex into second place and right on the leader's tail. 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 when Keselowski got really loose out of the second turn. Johnson went on to win by more than a second.

Logano's title shot took another huge hit when he had a blown tire after only 10 laps at Texas, where he finished 66 laps back in 40th place.

Johnson led only six laps to get his fifth win of the season, his first in 20 starts and one within Dale Earnhardt for the seventh-most in NASCAR history. The No. 48 Chevrolet also won the spring race at Texas and is the first driver to win three consecutive Cup races at the high-banked, 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 one-handed 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.

Tires were a problem all day.  Other drivers who had tire troubles were Ryan Blaney, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Joey Logano.

Logano kept the No. 22 off the wall after spinning on the backstretch, but there was still significant damage to the rear fender and the inside of the car. He was 64 laps back when he returned to the track.

"The left rear tire came apart and shredded everything inside the car," Logano said. "It did a lot more damage than just the tire blowing apart."

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 the Gordon's 795 in a row. Johnson and Ryan Newman have each started 502 consecutive races since the 2002 Daytona 500.

Camping World Truck Series points leader Erik Jones took over in Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and the 19-year-old driver finished 12th.

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 8 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 334 47 4 124.0 $462,976 Running 2 6
2 1 2 Brad Keselowski Wurth Ford 334 44 2 145.0 $394,391 Running 7 312
3 2 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet 334 42 1 118.2 $280,475 Running 2 11
4 3 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Crispy Toyota 334 41 1 112.8 $242,766 Running 1 1
5 13 19 Carl Edwards Sport Clips Toyota 334 39 108.1 $170,575 Running
6 10 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet 334 38 98.6 $171,240 Running
7 7 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 334 37 100.7 $162,615 Running
8 23 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet 334 37 1 113.9 $160,910 Running 1 1
9 18 24 Jeff Gordon Axalta Chevrolet 334 35 96.9 $172,351 Running
10 27 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna Chevrolet 334 34 87.9 $158,556 Running
11 26 3 Austin Dillon Dow Packaging/H-E-B Chevrolet 334 33 84.1 $156,576 Running
12 6 20 Erik Jones(i) DeWalt Toyota 334 0 92.4 $153,326 Running
13 20 27 Paul Menard Schrock/Menards Chevrolet 334 31 75.7 $120,440 Running
14 21 33 Brian Scott(i) Shore Lodge Chevrolet 334 0 83.0 $127,748 Running
15 14 15 Clint Bowyer Maxwell House Toyota 334 29 80.8 $142,973 Running
16 11 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 334 28 69.6 $116,140 Running
17 30 47 AJ Allmendinger Kroger/Scott Products Chevrolet 334 27 74.3 $137,398 Running
18 24 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 334 26 68.8 $143,526 Running
19 12 16 Greg Biffle Ortho Ford 333 25 71.2 $137,148 Running
20 16 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 333 24 78.3 $120,765 Running
21 28 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford 333 23 66.0 $113,540 Running
22 19 31 Ryan Newman Quicken Loans Chevrolet 333 22 81.8 $137,240 Running
23 15 55 David Ragan Aaron's Online Dream Machine Toyota 333 21 60.0 $132,079 Running
24 32 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Sonic Ford 332 20 60.9 $130,910 Running
25 36 40 Landon Cassill(i) CRC/O'Reilly Auto Parts Chevrolet 331 0 52.2 $104,265 Running
26 17 13 Casey Mears GEICO Military Chevrolet 330 18 55.5 $126,123 Running
27 39 35 Cole Whitt Moen Ford 330 17 45.2 $115,398 Running
28 43 51 Justin Allgaier Texas Lottery Chevrolet 330 16 47.2 $120,587 Running
29 41 38 David Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 329 16 1 40.5 $108,340 Running 1 1
30 35 34 Brett Moffitt # Visit Dallas Ford 329 14 45.8 $103,130 Running
31 37 46 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 329 13 37.0 $99,915 Running
32 40 23 Jeb Burton # Dr Pepper/Estes Toyota 329 12 33.7 $99,690 Running
33 34 26 JJ Yeley(i) Overture Promotions Toyota 329 0 41.3 $99,473 Running 1 1
34 33 95 Michael McDowell Tommy Williams Drywall Ford 328 10 42.0 $99,240 Running
35 38 83 Matt DiBenedetto # Dustless Blasting Toyota 328 10 1 32.8 $99,040 Running 1 1
36 42 98 Ryan Preece Xyience Chevrolet 326 8 28.9 $98,810 Running
37 5 42 Kyle Larson Target Plaid Chevrolet 304 7 86.9 $126,510 Accident
38 9 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 304 6 45.1 $111,852 Running
39 29 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford 296 5 50.8 $134,355 Running
40 4 22 Joey Logano AAA Insurance Ford 268 4 44.1 $132,988 Running
41 31 7 Alex Bowman Nikko RC/Toy State Chevrolet 236 3 42.3 $81,780 Engine
42 22 14 Tony Stewart Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet 52 2 39.5 $104,994 Accident
43 25 21 Ryan Blaney(i) Snap-On Tools Ford 26 0 30.8 $74,280 Accident 

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2015, Issue 10, Posted 9:55 PM, 11.08.2015