Top 5 and 5 to watch: Texas

Top 5 and 5 to watch: Texas



Here's a look at the top five drivers in the Sprint Cup Series standings and five drivers to watch in Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway. All statistical references are for Sprint Cup races at Texas unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past 11 races at the track.


1. Jimmie Johnson, 99.0 driver rating. With three races to go and the standings so tight, the order of finish REALLY matters now. For Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, just finishing close to each no longer cuts it. Each needs to finish ahead of the other. Johnson has a 10.1 average finish with one win and seven top fives in 14 starts. He finished second in the spring to Hamlin.
2. Denny Hamlin, 97.2. Hamlin trails Johnson by 14 points, and when he won this race in April, he finished 15 points ahead of Johnson. One position, 15 points. Order does matter. Hamlin's average finish is 9.6, and he finished second in this race a year ago. He has one win and four top fives in 10 starts.
3. Kevin Harvick, 83.0. Harvick is winless with three top fives in 15 starts. He has a 12.9 average finish. Two of his seven top 10s have comes in the past two races, including fifth in last year's race. As well as Harvick is driving this year, he should make it three in a row. The bigger question, though, is will he cut into his 38-point deficit to Johnson?
4. Jeff Gordon, 93.7. Gordon is down to three races to pick up his first win of the season; otherwise he will have his second winless season in three years. He has one win and nine top 10s in 19 starts, but he also has four DNFs, three for crashes, including in April.
5. Kyle Busch, 98.3. It has been 10 races since Busch's last Cup win, which seems like an eternity for a driver who has been to victory lane 21 times this year in NASCAR's top three series (three times in Cup). Busch is winless in 11 starts with five top 10s, including finishing third in April. In last year's race, he led 232 laps but finished 11th.


Five to watch
9. Kurt Busch, 94.5. Busch won this race last year and finished fourth in the spring. He is driving for pride but has been in a funk of late. He hasn't had a top 10 since Dover and has a best finish of 13th in the five races since with an average finish of 22.0.
12. Clint Bowyer, 88.4. Bowyer won last week and has two wins in the Chase. He has a fast car, which will come in handy on one of NASCAR's fastest tracks. And he's still smoldering from the 150-point penalty levied after his win at New Hampshire in the first Chase race. He is winless in nine starts with four top 10s, but he's hot right now.
13. Jamie McMurray, 77.7. Bowyer, McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, the next driver we highlight, are on the watch list because Texas is all about speed, and their three cars are powered by Earnhardt Childress engines. McMurray's three wins this year are on big tracks: Daytona, Talladega and Charlotte . His record at Texas is spotty—six top 10s in 13 starts with finishes of 38th, 20th and 30th in his past three starts—but he should have the car to make some noise Sunday.
16. Juan Pablo Montoya, 78.3. Montoya does not have a good record at Texas . He has as many top 10s (two) as DNFs for crashes. And four of his seven finishes have been 25th or worse. But you look at the Montoya package this week—engine, car, driver—and see a driver who has the potential to pick up his first Cup win on an oval. He won his third pole of the year last week at Talladega and finished third. As well as Montoya is qualifying, he should be in the mix on Sunday.
17. Joey Logano, 52.0. Logano has a poor record, too—no top 10s in four starts with a 29.2 average finish. Then you look at what he has done since finishing 35th at Loudon—four top 10s, three in a row, in six races with a worst finish of 17th—and you expect good things this weekend. No driver outside the Chase has more top 10s than Logano's 14. And his three in a row is a personal record. Four straight is in reach.
By Bill Marx

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Serv