NASCAR Sprint Cup: Tony Stewart Backs Up Smack Talk with Win at Texas

Racin’ with Russ—After Tony Stewart won last week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville, he immediately started smack-talking about points leader Carl Edwards not being able to sleep over the next three weeks, as they were coming to get him.

Stewart once again rose to the occasion by winning the 500 miler at Texas Motor Speedway, narrowly besting points leader Edwards. While Greg Biffle started the race on the pole, it was Stewart who took the lead from Matt Kenseth early and led the lion’s share of laps en route to his fourth Chase win and now sits just three points back with just two races remaining on this year’s schedule.

The race was relatively boring with Stewart out front by several seconds for most of the day. Kasey Kahne showed some strength throughout the race staying among the top five. The caution flag rarely flew and when it did, it was for a fender bender or some mystery debris issues…translated, they never showed what the caution was for. Rounding out the top five finishers included Kahne, Kenseth and Biffle.

Note: Kyle Busch’s replacement (more on this topic under Truckin’) Michael McDowell struggled in the No. 18 and finished 33rd, a little better than teammate Joey Logano and a little worse than Denny Hamlin.

Dale Earnhardt Jr actually had a decent day finishing seventh, just one spot back of Jeff Gordon. With Edwards finishing runner-up, it is now a two horse race between Edwards and Stewart just three points apart, while the rest of the pack is way behind .

Nationwide: Carl Edwards dominated most of the Texas race until a final restart saw teammate Trevor Bayne zip ahead, and grab his very first Nationwide win in 77 attempts.

Kyle Busch’s replacement Denny Hamlin rallied from dead last to finish second with Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five.

Danica Patrick started and finished 11th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr remains on top of the points gaining a couple of markers over Elliott Sadler, who is now 17 points back with two shows to go.

Truckin’: Friday night's truck race at Texas set the tone and tongues wagging for the remainder of the weekend. By lap 14 of the Camping World truck race, Ron Hornaday and Kyle Busch were side by side as they lapped another truck and wound up into each other and the outside wall, albeit lightly and certainly not race ending hits.

Busch lost his mind and any good sense by going after Hornaday, ramming him in the back under caution then turning the championship contender into the outside wall with great force. This intentional absurd and despicable hit destroyed both trucks, and any chance for Hornaday to win a fifth title as he was only 15 points out of the top spot.

Once again, another reason full-time Cupsters shouldn’t be running in the lower ranks. NASCAR quickly stepped in and parked Busch for the night.

Saturday morning saw NASCAR officials parking Busch for the rest of the weekend, much to the approval of all concerned from fans to drivers and team owners.

What’s your opinion? Was parking Busch for the weekend appropriate or what would you have done?

The race found Kevin Harvick run away with the win followed by Austin Dillon, his brother Ty Dillon, Nelson Piquet and Matt Crafton.

From Rumorville: Michael Waltrip Racing announced this week that David Reutimann is out after the final race this year and will be replaced with 52-year-old Mark Martin for 25 races for each of the next two seasons. Bad deal for Rooty, as most decent rides are long gone. 

Another Cup driver possibly on the outside looking in is David Ragan. This talented Roush-Fenway driver has been informed it’s ok to start looking elsewhere. Although, there is a possibility he may share a ride with teammates Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

It all comes down to sponsor dollars.

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will review the Cup and Nationwide results from the newly revived Phoenix race track along with more racing news from around the globe.