Texas Motor Speedway Race Report
Richard Petty Motorsports results:
- 10th - AJ Allmendinger- Ford. Drive One. Ford Fusion - now 26th in points.
- 22nd - Elliott Sadler - Stanley Dodge - now 25th in points.
- 33rd - Kasey Kahne - Budweiser Dodge - now 10th in points
- 36th - Reed Sorenson - Valvoline Dodge - now 28th in points.
Notes:
- Race winner: Kurt Busch
- 2nd-5th: Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.
- Kyle Busch ran out of gas with three laps remaining handing the victory to Kurt Busch.
- Points leader Jimmie Johnson's car suffered severe damage in a lap two accident.
- Johnson now has an 73 point leader over Mark Martin with just two races remaining.
- As part of pre race ceremonies - 40 soldiers from Ft. Hood held a large American flag - 45 soldiers were scheduled to hold the flag, but five were injured in the Thursday tragedy.
- Next race is Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.
NOTES AND QUOTES
AJ ALLMENDINGER
- Allmendinger started 17th and finished 10th
- Narrowly missed a spinning Jimmie Johnson on lap two then missed Sam Hornish on lap 86.
- Climbed into the top 10 just past the halfway mark.
- Took two tires on the final stop with about 20 laps remaining while others gambled on fuel.
- Marks the second consecutive top-10 finish posted by RPM with Fords. Sadler finished ninth at Talladega last week in the team's only other Ford Race.
- Allmendinger will race a Ford at Phoenix and Homestead.
- Sunday marked Allmendinger's fifth top-10 of the season.
ALLMENDINGER: "I feel tired. That's longer than you think out there, but I'm proud of everybody on the 44 team. Obviously, the end result of a top 10 is good, but we were top 12 to 15 all day and got a little lucky on fuel mileage. We stopped and a couple of guys ran out, so I'm just proud of everybody. We kept working hard on this car all weekend and it really showed. We started off and weren't very good on Friday and just kept picking away at it. It still wasn't perfect. We've still got to work on it, but for our first race I was just really proud of everybody."
STRATEGY AND ALL WORKED OUT FOR YOU: "When you're running decent it's easy to stay calm and just kind of keep picking away at it. That's what makes the top teams so good. They're not always perfect, but they can always just keep picking at it and that's what we did. It's something to build on."
DID YOUR RACE TURN WHEN YOU WERE ABLE TO AVOID THE 48, WHICH CROSSED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE? "That was nuts. I'm glad I missed it."
ELLIOTT SADLER
- Started 33rd and finished 22nd.
- Fell down a lap on lap 42 and 120.
- Regained a lap after taking the wave around on lap 169.
- Battled a tight-center and loose-off handling condition.
SADLER: "We struggled today trying to find the handling on this track. (Crew Chief) Wally Rogers made a great call taking the wave around and a quick yellow got us one of our laps back."
KASEY KAHNE
- Kahne started second and finished 33rd
- Kahne fell back in the field in the early laps dropping as far back as 15th.
- Began charge back through the field running in ninth at the lap 225 mark.
- Running 13th when he began to report engine problems at lap 291.
- Soldiered on at reduced speed in the closing laps but ran out of gas with four to go.
KAHNE: "Overall, today was a tough day. The Budweiser team fought all day, but we ended up running out of fuel at the end. The guys did a good job of making adjustments. We just couldn't tighten it up enough to get out front and then we had an engine issue at the end."
REED SORENSON
- Started 18th and finished 36th.
- Fell down two laps to the leaders by the halfway mark.
- Cut a right front tire on lap 206 causing him to the hit the outside wall then the inside wall.
- Spent about 80 laps in the garage making repairs.
- Returned to the track and completed the race.
SORENSON: "Wasn't much we could do. I think we cut a tire and it just took off toward the wall."
