Just a few months ago, Tony Stewart declared on television that his team didn't deserve to be in the Chase, stating that their constant lack of performance would mean they would take up a spot a real title contender would need to win the championship. Well, after winning the race in Martinsville (Stewart's third of the year), the No. 14 team is doing a lot more than just taking up space. They've gone from pretenders to serious title contenders.
Mother Nature cancelled all on track activity until Happy Hour on Saturday morning so the field was set by owner points. This meant that Carl Edwards would start on the pole with Matt Kenseth alongside and allow the two of them to pad their points positions.
But a race marred by wrecked cars and flaming tempers would make it difficult.
It didn't take long for the action to start, as the first wreck happened when Dale Jr jumped the curb in turn one, spinning he and Kurt Busch and collecting several other cars, occurred just eight laps in.
Like Darrell Waltrip says, "cautions breed cautions" and this race was no exception. The Tums Fast Relief 500 had 18 cautions for 108 laps. And the common denominator for most of these yellow flags was Brian Vickers. It got to the point where spotters were warning their drivers when Vickers was around them.
The first major wreck with Vickers happened when he got loose and knocked Jamie McMurray into the turn three wall. McMurray hit so hard, that the batteries fell out of the rear of his car. He did, however, have enough power to get back around to Vickers and attempt payback. But all he did was bounce off the rear of the No. 83 and hit the wall with the front of his McDonald's Chevy.
Vickers' day got even more interesting when he got into a battle for eighth with Kenseth. Kenseth said he gave Vickers the bottom lane and he could not pass his No. 17 Ford without running into him. Eventually, Kenseth got tired of it and jacked the back of Vickers' No. 83 Toyota and stuffed him into the turn three wall.
But Vickers got his revenge later, doing to Kenseth what was done to him. This not only ended Vickers' day, but also created a serious road bump in Kenseth's title hunt.
But despite all the bent up cars and angry drivers, Tony Stewart kept a level head and his team eventually got his car right. He came back from nearly going a lap down early on and drove a car that would not respond to any adjustments to the front. On the final green-white-checker restart, Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside and beat the five-time champ to the line by inches. There was definitely some awesome short track racing Sunday as well.
Heading out west to Texas, Carl Edwards is still the points leader after finishing ninth at Martinsville. But Stewart said his team is hungrier and they are going to snag the title away from the Ford driver. He has only eight points to make up to do it. Kevin Harvick is third, Brad Keselowski is fourth and Kenseth dropped three spots to fifth after finishing 31st in Martinsville.
It also appears that the fat lady has finally sung and Jimmie Johnson will not get his sixth title in a row. He sits sixth in points 43 markers out of first with three races left. That's going to be a tall order, even for the No. 48 team.
Anything can happen in the points over the next three weeks and Texas is going to be wild. High speeds, side by side racing (hopefully) and a tight points battle. This is going to be a fun weekend.
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