The Car of Tomorrow takes its first timeout this weekend in Texas.
Drivers are back in their “old” cars after the first two races in the NASCAR-developed template that’s supposed to be the full-time ride by 2009, if not sooner.
Reaction to the switch back has been the same as it was for the new car: split. Some drivers are happy to be in the car they know best. Some don’t care.
Some sort of forgot, but Jeff Burton think he knows why.
“When I walked in the gate …
NASCAROn a track that’s never had a repeat winner, it’s tough to pick a favorite. In this year of major changes, it’s even tougher. But Steve Byrnes gives it a shot and figures Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson might finally break through.
NASCARForget trying to explain them. Jimmie Johnson simply would like to extend a pair of streaks in Texas.
There have been 12 different winners in the 12 NASCAR Nextel Cup races at Texas Motor Speedway, which has gone longer than any other track without a repeat winner.
That will be 13 in a row if Johnson or any of his teammates - Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch or Casey Mears - wins the Samsung 500 on Sunday.
NASCARKyle Busch, No. 5 Cheez-It/CARQUEST Monte Carlo SS, was involved in a single-car incident during the morning practice session. Busch, who was uninjured in the incident, was forced to his backup car.
NASCARWhile Hendrick Motorsports is the overwhelming favorite to win on Sunday, Lee Spencer says Juan Pablo Montoya is a longshot, but it’s not his first time around the track in a stock car.
NASCARJeff Gordon is 0-for-Texas, shut out of Victory Lane a dozen times.
There are only two other active tracks where Gordon hasn’t won a race, but the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked Texas circuit is the only one where the four-time Cup champion doesn’t have any kind of NASCAR victory. He did win Busch races at Phoenix and Homestead.
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