Stewart Wins AAA Texas 500, Cuts Deep Into Points Deficit

Tony Stewart said about midway through the regular season that his team wasn't a Chase caliber team. If they did make Nascar's playoff, they would just be taking up a space that a real title contender would need to win the Sprint Cup.

But in recent weeks, Smoke and his No. 14 team have proved that they will be Carl Edwards' worst nightmare with just races left in the season.

Stewart and his team won back to back races at Chicago and Loudon and they did it again this weekend, scoring the win at Texas after edging out Jimmie Johnson last week in Martinsville.

When the race went green, it appeared Greg Biffle would be the guy to beat, but once Stewart grabbed the lead, he never looked back.

The race was marked by several long green flag runs and only a few cautions for debris. One of the only cautions for an on track incident was when Brian Vickers continued his rampage from Martinsville and turned Geoff Bodine across Juan Montoya's nose, cutting down his tire and wrecking the front of Bodine's car.

Joey Logano also blew a motor near the end of the race, capping off a disappointing weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing. With Kyle Busch being parked, Michael McDowell was not running up to par with the No. 18 Toyota, finishing 33rd three laps down and neither Denny Hamlin or Logano running well, JGR has some definite work to do.

Jeff Burton stayed out late and tried to stretch his CAT Chevy's fuel mileage to net his first win of the year, but it wasn't meant to be as he ran out with just a few laps left.

This handed the lead back to Stewart and he was able to hold off Edwards and score his second win in a row and his fourth win of the year, and in the Chase. And because these two finished first and second Sunday, it leaves Stewart just three points behind Edwards with only two races left.

With next week being the first race at the newly reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway, nobody knows what to expect. Like Talladega and Martinville, this race is definitely going to be a wildcard. And with the points battle a close, two man race, the race and the championship are anybodies for the taking.