Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Busch Wins - Johnson Wrecks - Martin Back In Championship Hunt

One of the Busch brothers led the most laps on Sunday, but didn't have enough gas to take the victory at the Sprint Cup race in Texas. Yes, you guessed. It was Kyle Busch out in front all afternoon, but with three laps to go his tank ran dry and brother Kurt went on the take the win. But that wasn't the story of the day for the 100,000 plus fans that packed the Texas Motor Speedway. On lap three, David Reutimann got loose in turn two and bumped Sam Hornish up the track into Series Points leader Jimmie Johnson, sending the champ into the inside retaining wall and then to the garage area. After 115 laps, Johnson came back to the race with a rebuilt race car, but over half of his points lead was gone. Johnson's bad luck gave Mark Martin a chance to make up ground and at the checkered flag, the margin was cut to just 73 points with two races to go in The Chase. What a race. This was definitely not a follow the leader race that we saw in Talladega last weekend. Texas is always an exciting battle and it looked like the excitement was going to peak with Kyle Busch heading for his third victory lane in three days. Busch had won the Truck Series race on Friday and the Nationwide event on Saturday. But fate was not on his side this weekend as he finished 11th and handed the win to the Safety-Kleen sponsored Dodge driven by Kurt. Denny Hamlin turned in another great performance this weekend and took advantage of the gas shortages and came home second with Matt Kenseth taking third. Mark Martin finished fourth, followed by Safety-Kleen's Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. Great job this weekend by Jerry Harris and the crew from the Ft Worth branch. Phoenix is next and with only two races to go, The Chase is on. Can Mark Martin make up 73 points? Can Jeff Gordon come from third to first by the end of Homestead race? Or will Jimmie Johnson dig in and hold on to win the Championship? Tune into ABC TV next Sunday afternoon to see.