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| Busch comes home with a decisive victory in the Texas spring race for the second year in a row. |
Texas used to be one of Kyle Busch's least favorite tracks. “I used to dread coming here,” he recalls.
“I couldn’t figure it out. But I definitely have gotten a lot better
since. We have a good basis of what to do here." I don't think anyone would argue that the 18 team certainly has something figured out here. With this win Busch is the fourth driver to secure a spot in the 2014 Chase.
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| Massive wreck on lap 14 |
Everything's bigger in Texas, and the wreck that took place on lap 14 was certainly no exception. Nearly half the field of 43 cars were involved when Austin Dillion's #3 Cheerio's car cut low coming out of turn 4 to take what looked like an unscheduled pit when points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit him and caused a massive pileup of cars. Several cars that were damaged in the incident were taken out of contention for a top 10 finish including Earnhardt, Keslowski, and Dillion.
Carl Edwards, the pole sitter and fastest car in practice, looked good at the start of the race and led the first 10 laps. The car seemed to lose its handle a bit mid race, but he still finished strong in 5th place.
Jeff Gordon had another car that looked like a sure thing, leading the most laps and looking like the clear favorite in his Texas A&M themed paint scheme. The car fell back on lap 74 and would end up finishing in 3rd. “I so badly wanted to get this Texas A&M Engineering, maroon and
those Aggies a win today here in Texas,” Gordon said after the race.
“That was an awesome race all day. I have to thank all the fans that
came out and all those watching at home.”
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| Hamlin's day is done |
Denny Hamlin seems to have lost all his mojo after winning Daytona. His #11 Fedex had its ups and downs all day, but seemed poised to land in the top 10 towards the end. After starting in 6th Hamlin soon fell back to 36th around lap 18 trying desperately to get a feel for the car. After some adjustments in the pits he rebounded strong and worked his way back up to 13th with some of the fastest laps on the track when he and Kurt Busch got tangled up on lap 64. Busch would go on to make repairs and finish 18th, but Hamlin wasn't so fortunate. The damage to the #11 was too severe and they finished in a disappointing 38th.
