It's just Friday afternoon and there's already been a lot of action at the Texas Motor Speedway!Mark Martin was fastest during the 1st practice session with David Reutimann, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson also posting top 5 speeds on the leaderboard. 48 drivers will attempt to qualify for Sunday's race, Samsung 500. It might be worth mentioning that in 16 cup races @ Texas, just one race has been won from the pole. Kasey Kahne won from the number one starting spot on April 9, 2006.
Who to watch for?
Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd last year in the spring race @ Texas. In his 11 races at the 1.5 mile track, he has 1 win, 5 top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes. His win last week moved him up 5 spots to 4th in the Sprint Cup Series standings.
Carl Edwards swept both races @ Texas last year. He leads all drivers with 3 wins there and most laps led (467).
Matt Kenseth has faded seemingly out of sight since winning the first 2 races of the season. Kenseth has finished in the top 10 @ Texas in six of the last races there.
And let's add, Jack Roush leads all car owners in wins @ Texas with seven.
Tony Stewart could be a fave this weekend. He says he has "a gut feeling". Stewart has a win, 3 top-5s and 8 top-10s in his 14 races at the track. He's currently 7th in the standings. Not bad for a 1st time owner/driver is it?
There's 2 tracks points leader Jeff Gordon has not won a cup race at on the current schedule: Texas and Homestead-Miami. Gordon extends his longest winless streak to 47 races. Consistency can be king. 7 races into this season, Gordon has only 1 finish outside the top 10 when he finished 13th in the Daytona 500.
After 3 off weekends in the past 4 weeks, the Nationwide Series will be back on a more consistant schedule beginning this weekend @ Texas. We left off with Carl Edwards on top of the Nationwide Series point standings.
Kyle Busch won the spring race last year @ Texas. Kyle will lead the field to the green in Saturday's O'Reilly 300.
He won the pole award with a lap of 28.685 seconds at 188.252 mph. It's his 16th pole in the series and 1st of this season. Busch swept both Texas races last season.Matt Kenseth qualified second and Paul Menard 3rd.
I'm counting 12 full-time cup drivers pulling double duty in Texas this weekend also including: David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Burton, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
TV coverage for the Samsung 500 starts at 1:30 on Sunday on FOX.
David Reutimann won the pole for Sunday's race. It's his 2nd pole in 70 cup races. His 1st pole and 4th top-10 start this season.Jeff Gordon will start 2nd and Matt Kenseth 3rd.
Click here to view the starting line-up.
Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR
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