Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Johnson does Texas two-step
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Jimmie Johnson is on one of those rolls most drivers can only dream about. After coming into the weekend's race nine points behind teammate Jeff Gordon, he emerged 30 ahead after taking the lead of the race in Texas from Matt Kenseth with less than two laps to go.

Talk about rising to the occasion... Johnson has now won nine Cup races on the year and three in a row over the past several weeks.

Gordon struggled for most of the day, trying to get a handle on the mile-and-a-half track, yet came up seventh in the final rundown, now sits 30 points behind his teammate with two races remaining.

The overall race was a snoozer until the final laps battle between the two ex-champs. The top five wound up as Johnson, Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.

Clint Bowyer finally fell from grace, netting a 19th, and slipping 181 points behind Johnson. Kyle Busch moved up two spots to fourth and Carl Edwards had suspension problems for more than half the race, finishing three laps down in 26th, slipping a spot in the Chase to fifth.

Soooooooo, we're down to Phoenix and Homestead for the Cup title decision. Gordon or Johnson are only separated by as little as six spots on the track. This could very well come down to the final turn of the final lap in Florida.

What do you think? Will Johnson repeat as champion or will Gordon notch his fifth big trophy? Drop me a line.

The triple header of NASCAR racing started the weekend with Friday night's wild finish to the Craftsman truck race.

When the smoke cleared, it was veteran racer Ted Musgrave standing tall in the winner's circle after Jack Sprague and rookie Chad McCumbee took each other out on the final restart.

On the previous restart, top contenders Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner battled with Hornaday slipping up into Skinner while young McCumbee zoomed by.

Hornaday's truck was pretty much junk and Skinner was able to rejoin the fray and miraculously lucked out to claim a third after starting seventh.

Musgrave was in the right place at the right time to earn his 17th career win and first in 66 attempts.

Musgrave, Brendan Gaughan, Skinner, Mike Bliss and Rick Crawford wrapped up the top five finishers.

Skinner left Texas with a 57-point lead over Hornaday (after 18th place finish) and two shows to go.

The Busch race on Saturday looked as if Greg Biffle would add yet another Texas win to his resume. But the Roush-Fenway driver felt a serious enough vibration to make him think he had a tire going down while in the lead. Unfortunately the tires were fine, and Biffle had to settle for 16th while the lead and an easy win went to Kevin Harvick, his 32nd career and sixth on the season.

Others in the top five included a disappointed Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth.

Carl Edwards cruised home to an 11th place finish, good enough to wrap up his first NASCAR title and second Busch title for Roush.

From Rumorville

With Bruton Smith shelling out a record $340 million in purchasing New Hampshire International Speedway, many feel there are methods to his madness, namely buying the New England track to give one of his other tracks a second date…namely Las Vegas. While the cagey billionaire says he has no plans right now to do just that, you can take that bet to the bank with almost certainty that Las Vegas will get that second date. He did the same thing with buying North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. The only thing different with this move were additional zeros to the equation.
When it does happen, and it will, not in 2008, but in 2009, it will once again take away a date on the right coast to fluff up the West coast. Can't fight it. What do you think? Drop me a line.

Penske's Better Idea - What do you do when you have a talented open-wheel driver that can't seem to qualify for a Cup race? Why, in this case with Sam Hornish Jr, you read the rule book a little closer and create a guaranteed situation for Hornish to get started with. How? Take the top-35 status of Kurt Busch and hand it (the number) over to Hornish. After all, if Kurt doesn't make a race for some strange reason, he's got his ex-champion's provisional to fall back on. Right now, that's what appears to be on the agenda for next season as Hornish as yet to make a Cup race after six failed attempts to get in.

Did you know?

Out of 159 competitors in the Busch series, only NINE have competed in all 33 races so far this season. That means there were only nine season 'regulars'. That's pretty sad, and I look for NASCAR to turn situation that around and soon.
That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the NASCAR results from Phoenix and more racing news from around the globe.