Sunday's Race Recap: Everything is Bigger in Texas

Sundays's race at the Texas Motor Speedway had enough drama for a year's worth, especially if you are a NASCAR official. The story everyone thought was going to be the big one was quickly overshadowed by a fight between Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton.

The race started off just like every other one, but things changed as the race progressed. Greg Biffle easily had the best car of the day, but when his transmission started to act up his day was basically over. He lost a gear which made restarting impossible, especially with the double file restarts.

The cars were all very loose even though the track was baking in the hot sun all day. They became even looser when the sun went down for the day. Besides Biffle, some other cars were good early on including Mark Martin, David Reutimann, and the eventual winner Denny Hamlin.

Martin Truex had a nightmare of a day bringing out the caution numerous times for blown tires and hitting the wall. The race started to change on lap 162 when Kyle Busch was caught speeding off the pit road and during his penalty lap, he made an inappropriate gesture to a NASCAR official, getting penalized two more laps.

On lap 191 there was a yellow flag for Truex again, and Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon wrecked while under caution. Jeff Gordon walked halfway down the backstretch and a scuffle broke out between the two drivers before NASCAR officials stepped in between them. It was the most fun I have seen in a race in a long while.

With Jeff Gordon out of the race the #24 pit crew became available and the #48 pit crew was replaced by them. The #48 team was having unusually bad pit stops and, with the #48 going for the championship, Owner Rick Hendricks wasted no time pulling the plug on a 4 time championship team. Moral will be low for the #48 Lowes team for the rest of the year I am sure.

When the race was over Denny Hamlin became the new Sprint cup points leader over Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick. The rest of the Chase drivers are all fighting for positions 4 thru 12 now. 

-Vinny

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Photo Credit: sheeshoo