iNSIDE SCOOP: Texas-Sized Finish

After the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, a lot of questions were answered.

Could Joey Logano win? Yep. Did it in style, too. He had the fastest car most of the day and proved it when it came down to the quick on the green-white-checkered. When the sun came out, the switch flipped on the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford, and he jammed the button until it wound up in Victory Lane.

Could any of the previous six winners stop the streak? Hang a big negatory on that one. Kevin Harvick blew an engine and finished 42nd. Dale Earnhardt Jr. crashed early and finished 43rd. Brad Keselowski gets a speeding penalty on the money stop and wound up 15th. Kurt Busch had a miserable day, finishing 39th, and Carl Edwards fought a bunch of stuff to come home 14th. He needed two Lucky Dogs to get that.  

About the only one with a chance once Keselowski got greedy was Kyle Busch, who hammered his way to a third-place run. But he didn’t have anything for the Fords either.

Some of the usual suspects suffered trouble as well. Jimmie Johnson caught big pieces of Junior’s car, some of it through the windshield, and was out of commission most of the day. He wound up 25th. Tony Stewart won the pole and led 74 laps, but the sun came out and ruined his day. He wound up 10th.

The biggest thing that happened was tire trouble, especially in Kurt Busch’s case, and the fact that the cars still can’t overcome the aero problems that have plagued them in the past.

“Obviously, we had a great car at the beginning of the race,” said Denny Hamlin, who finished 13th. “ Once I got back in traffic, the car didn’t drive as good.  Couldn’t make up any track position and the car took a long time to come in.”

Jeff Gordon, who finished second, complained of the same thing. 

Logano even made mention of it in the winner’s interview. “Clean air means everything,” he said.

The tire problem was better than it was in California, but affected people in different ways. Kurt Busch cut down a left rear on Friday and had to go to a backup. He popped two more in the race. Jamie McMurray ran one set down to cords on the left rear and then  had one separate. 

Setups are going to have to change, because Goodyear is bringing—at drivers’ request—tires that will fall off during a run. When you do that, you have to make them live. You can’t just gas it and go, or you get a lot of cautions and sheet metal and stuff on the track.

Make the tires last a fuel run. Slow and steady will win the race, especially if you’re not picking rubber shards out of your teeth.

Camber and geometry will eventually dial itself in, but until then, we’re going to be using tires and cars. Darlington, thank God, has new pavement, or it would be the wallbanging capital of the South.