From the November, 2006 issue of Stock Car Insider

Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway Recap

Tony Stewart spent most of his afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway staring at the rest of the field of drivers through his rear-view mirror. Stewart, and his car, were second only to the pace car in the Dickies 500. It seems that the former champion has decided that since he's a spectator in this year's Chase for the Championship, he may as well watch it unfold from the best seat in the house, victory lane.

While Stewart stole the show at Texas, the championship contenders, for the most part, all fared well. Six of the top ten finishers were Chase drivers. Jimmie Johnson was the best of those six by finishing in 2nd place and capturing the series' points lead.

The other championship drivers faired as follows:

1. (Leader) Jimmie Johnson is back in a familiar place, 1st, after finishing 2nd in the Dickies 500. The championship leader had a strong car for much of the day, but not strong enough top Tony Stewart.

2. (- 17 points) Matt Kenseth's fought adversity for most of the day. His car handled poorly all race, and he even spun out late in the race trying to avoid the Scot Riggs wreck. But, displaying his championship grit, Kenseth battled and battled to finish 12th and minimize the amount of points given up to Johnson.

3. (-78 points) Dale Earnhardt Jr showed his toughness yesterday. All day long, Jr was ill and fought the urge to spew out his side window. But Earnhardt Jr stayed strong, even after brushing the wall midway through the race, and held on for a 6th place finish.

4. (-80 points) Denny Hamlin's is still in the picture for the championship after finishing 10th at Texas. The rookie is showing a lot of poise, and looks like he will be a contender for years to come.

5. (-105 points) Kevin Harvick rebounded from a pour finish last week at Atlanta and finished 3rd at Texas. Kevin was trying to be the first driver in NASCAR to sweep the Busch and Cup series at Texas after he won the O'Reilly Challenge Saturday.

6. (-157 points) Jeff Gordon is showing that a champion never quits. Leaving Lowe's Motor Speedway just three weeks ago, Gordon was in 10th place. Now, he sits in 6th with an outside chance of winning the championship after finishing 9th at Texas.

7. (-146 points) Jeff Burton's season is crumbling. The championship contender suffered yet another setback after he crashed early in the race. The damage incurred from the wreck took his team over 30 minutes to fix. Burton finished the race in 38th place; his 2nd 38th place or lower finish of the Chase.

8. (-233 points) Kyle Busch had his first bright day of this year's Chase for the Championship. Busch finished 4th after gambling on taking 2 tires on the last pit stop of the day.

9. (-253 points) Mark Martin's may just as well go ahead and retire. Not that Mark doesn't have the talent to compete anymore, because he does. It's just that it's hard to watch one of NASCAR's most beloved drivers get beat up week in and week out in a series of unfortunate wrecks caused by others. Yesterday, Martin finished in 22nd place and earned every bit of it!

10. (-290 points) Kasey Kahne is doing his best to earn the sympathy of all the adoring female fans in NASCAR. Kahne clearly had a second place car until he blew an engine with just a few laps remaining. He finished in 33rd.

See complete 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Race Schedule