After the clouds went away, Tony Stewart was all sunshine after dominating and winning a rain-delayed Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday.
“In the 27 years I’ve been racing, I can count on two hands the amount of times I’ve had a car that was this good all day long from start to finish,” Stewart said.
Stewart led 278 of the 339 laps and held Jimmie Johnson off on a green-white-checker finish giving him his third win in the past six races.
Johnson took four tires on his last pit stop, and while the No. 20 only took two, Johnson still couldn’t keep up with Stewart.
“It was a real nice run all night long. We never really had anything for the 20 to get up and lead a lap,” Johnson said. [But], “it was a good night for us.”
Johnson leaves TMS with a 17 point lead over Matt Kenseth, who started the race 36th, but finished 12th.
Kenseth’s crew chief, Robbie Reiser was disappointed with the finish.
“We just didn’t have that good of a car tonight,” he said. “We were struggling all night long running back there in 25th.”
“We just hope we can lead this thing at the end of the year,” Johnson said.
Several drivers tried to keep up with Stewart and did at times, but ultimately Stewart couldn’t be tamed.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. started 10th, but after a brush with the wall, was relegated to 34th. After making repairs during six pit stops, the No. 8 Chevrolet was able to finish sixth, despite its driver feeling ill throughout the majority of the race.
“The first part of the race, I was a mess, Earnhardt said. “Physically it was pretty tough, but the last half of the race I was fine. We knocked the crush panels out and got a little carbon monoxide sort of like taking a Valium.”
The finish puts Earnhardt third in the NEXTEL Cup points standings, up from fourth place going into the race.
Towards the end of the race, Kasey Kahne looked like the only driver who had anything for Stewart but on during a caution on lap 327, Kahne’s engine blew and he was retired to the garage.
Teammate Scott Riggs wound up in second after the caution, but sitting in third place, Kevin Harvick turned him into the wall.
“He was blocking all over the place and wound up on the bottom and I got a good run on the top. He got loose and I got into the back of him and spun him out,” said Harvick.
After the race there was an altercation between crew members of Riggs’ team and Harvick’s wife, DeLana.
“Those guys [No. 10 crew] decided they wanted to take matters into their own hands, and trip my wife in front of their pit box and ran her over,” Harvick said. “That’s a little bit unnecessary, so were not too happy about that.”
Riggs’ Team Director Rodney Childers downplayed the incident.
“We’re working with NASCAR right now to figure out exactly what happened out there,” he said. “There are always different sides to the story, and we’ll work with them to find out what the truth is.”
DeLana Harvick spent time in the infield care center after the incident.
The win is the first at TMS for Stewart’s team, Joe Gibbs Racing, although Stewart won the IROC race held at the track last April. It is also the first time a Chevrolet has won at the track since April, 2000, when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. got his first Cup Series win of his career.
The 12 cautions of Sunday’s race also tie the 2000 TMS race for most cautions at the track.
Chevrolet cars won all three races held at TMS this weekend, with Clint Bowyer winning the truck series race and Harvick taking the checkers in the Busch race.
The race was two-time Cup Champion Terry Labonte’s 854th and final of his career. His accomplishments were honored during the pre-race ceremonies.
Labonte’s daughter Kristy gave him a personal command to start his engine and his son Justin lead parade laps with him in the car that Labonte won the 1980 Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina.
“It’s been a great drive and a lot of fun. I guess everything comes to an end sometime, and I’ve been very fortunate my career has been with some good teams.”
