Stewart Wins Another Chase Race in Texas
After winning at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, Tony Stewart laid the smack down by telling NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points leader Carl Edwards that he’d better not sleep too much because he was coming for him. Stewart kept his word at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Entering the weekend eight points behind Edwards in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup, Stewart turned in a dominating performance in the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday and claimed his fourth win through eight Chase races.
“Do not count us out of this thing,” Stewart said in victory lane. “Our performance today spoke for itself.”
Edwards minimized the damage with a second-place finish.
“It’s truly going to come down to Tony and I,” Edwards said after the race, noting that he and Stewart had pulled away somewhat, points-wise, from the rest of the Chase field. “It’s going to get pretty exciting.”
Matt Kenseth took the lead from pole-sitter Greg Biffle on lap 24 of the 334-lap event and was a mainstay up front until Stewart claimed the top spot on lap 119. It was then that Stewart’s show of dominance got underway.
Edwards did spend some time in the front late in the race when he beat Stewart off pit road during a caution that came out with 73 laps remaining to restart first. Another caution, the final one of the race, came out just a few laps later for debris. On the final restart, Stewart reassumed the lead.
“He timed it just right on that last restart,” Edwards said.
Drivers began cycling through a final round of green-flag pit stops with about 38 laps to go. Jeff Burton and the No. 31 team, though, decided to attempt to win the race on fuel mileage and not make a stop during the final green flag run. That plan didn’t work out, as he ran out of fuel with five laps remaining to hand the lead back to Stewart.
Kasey Kahne finished third, Kenseth was fourth, and Biffle was fifth.
With two races remaining, Edwards leads Stewart by three points. Their closest championship pursuer is Kevin Harvick in third, 33 points out of the lead.
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Photo of Tony Stewart (14) and Carl Edwards (99) courtesy of NASCAR Media
