Carl Edwards earned his third victory of 2008 on Sunday, winning the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in dominating fashion, leading the most laps and cruising to victory following a green-white-checker finish. The win catapulted Edwards up four spots in the standings to 10th, once again making him chase eligible.
Thoughts and observationsEdwards' victory Sunday makes him the second driver to earn two victories at Texas Motor Speedway. The first? Jeff Burton, who won the inagural event held here way back in 1997 and last year's spring event.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Edwards become the king of the intermediate tracks (or as I like to call them, the cookie-cutters). Seven of Edwards' 10 wins have come on the "cookie-cutters" (two at Texas, two at Atlanta, one at Michigan, one at California and one at Las Vegas). The other victories came at Pocono, Dover and Bristol.
Jeff Burton continues to channel his inner Matt Kenseth, pulling in a solid sixth place finish Sunday. He still leads the Sprint Cup points standings by 59 points over Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who has also been remarkably consistant this year.
I still believe their to be nothing wrong with Hendrick Motorsports. They are still producing strong cars and posting strong finishes. They just haven't won yet this year. Trust me, it won't last the entire season. It's just not possible.
Though speaking of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon once again failed to figure out Texas Motor Speedway. I am honestly shocked by this, because if any one track was going to give him trouble I certainly would never have picked Texas (simply because it is so much like Charlotte and Atlanta, both tracks he has done very well at).
What happaned on the last lap between Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin? Bowyer got a heck of a restart on that green-white-checker, jumping as far up as fourth. However, coming out of turn four on the last lap Hamlin went high and clipped Bowyer, forcing him into the wall and religating him to a 10th place finish. I'm sure Bowyer wasn't too happy about that.
Speaking of Hamlin, I guess he wasn't feeling all that great at the end of the race. Apparently while talking to reporters he nearly fainted and was promptly taken to the infield care center for medical treatment.
Lots of teams got strong runs that they really needed, including David Ragan, Jamie McMurray (two in a row for Jamie), David Gilliland, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard and Travis Kvapil. All of those drivers finished between 13th and 18th, something each of them really needed.
On the other hand, several drivers had bad days (excluding Jeff Gordon). David Reutimann (who had one of the fastest cars all weekend) ended up 41st, Greg Biffle finished 39th, Jeremy Mayfield crossed the line 37th and Martin Truex Jr. finished 36th. Rough days all around for those guys.
Checking in on the top 35 battle, a few things changed after this week's Texas race. Jeremy Mayfield dropped out of the top 35, allowing rookie Sam Hornish Jr. to sneak back in for another week. Dave Blaney, David Reutimann, Dario Franchitti, Kyle Petty, Patrick Carpentier and Joe Nemechek are all on the outside looking in. The No. 84 Red Bull Racing Toyota and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford are also still struggling.
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