Nov. 3, 2013
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
FORT
WORTH, Tex. -- Jimmie Johnson finished three positions ahead of Matt
Kenseth in Sunday's AAA Texas 500, breaking a tie for the
lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but -- make no mistake --
Johnson's performance amounted to a brutal bludgeoning of Kenseth's and
the rest of the opposition.
Kenseth
hurt his own cause with a pit-road speeding penalty, but not even a
perfect day on pit road likely would have overcome the dominance
of the five-time champion, who led 255 of 334 laps en route to his
third victory at Texas Motor Speedway, his sixth of the season and the
66th of his career.
With
two races left in the Chase, Johnson heads to next Sunday's event at
Phoenix with a seven-point lead over Kenseth, who rallied
from the speeding penalty he incurred on Lap 173 to finish fourth.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran second, 4.390 seconds behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Joey Logano came home third.
Johnson
is the first back-to-back winner of the fall race at Texas since the
race became part of the Chase in 2005. Johnson also tied
Carl Edwards for most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories at the
1.5-mile track.
Kasey Kahne finished fifth, followed by Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer.
The
race was a disaster for Jeff Gordon, who entered the event third in the
standings but blew a tire, hit the wall on Lap 74, finished
38th and fell out of contention for a possible fifth title.
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