NASCAR: Everything’s faster in Texas

Great venue

Those folks in Fort Worth really know how to throw a party.

Texas Motor Speedway, the site of this Sunday’s Dickies 500, has become one of the favorite stops on NASCAR’s Nextel Cup circuit. The people are friendly, the crowds huge (nearly 200,000 racing fans will be in attendance), and the $7.1-million purse the biggest of all 10 Chase for the Cup events.

But it’s the track that deserves the most praise. There were problems when Fort Worth first hosted Cup racing in 1997, but a series of major renovations has done wonders. The surface, which was repaved in 2001, has settled in beautifully – good thing, considering this is one of the fastest non-restrictor plate venues in the nation. Only Atlanta, a similar 1.5-mile quad-oval, can boast faster qualifying speeds.

On top of the lightning-quick action, the Dickies 500 will be the end of one career and the launching pad for another. Terry Labonte says Sunday will be his last race, while David Ragan will make just his third Cup appearance for Roush Racing, for whom he will take over Mark Martin’s famous No. 6 Ford full-time in 2007. Labonte won at Texas seven years ago, but hasn’t been a factor over the past three seasons. Ragan, meanwhile, is a coming off a crash-filled appearance at Martinsville that prompted Tony Stewart to call him “a dart without feathers.” Both men are included in the “field” at +3000.

 

At the other end of the odds list, Stewart is ensconced among the favorites at +550. He won last week’s race at Atlanta, and given the similarities between the two tracks, it should be no surprise that he’s getting short odds this Sunday. The top favorite is Kasey Kahne at +300; he won the first race of the season at Texas and was also the favorite for Atlanta, but crashed and finished 38^th to effectively scuttle his Chase chances.

Sandwiched between Kahne and Stewart is Jimmie Johnson at +400. There is no hotter driver on the Cup circuit right now, and these 1.5-mile tracks are very much to his liking. Johnson finished second at Atlanta to move to within 26 points of Matt Kenseth (+800) for the Chase lead. He also has an average result of seventh at Texas after six appearances there; that consistency, combined with the motivation to win the Nextel Cup, makes Johnson the superior bet this week.