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Next Race: AAA Texas 500
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
The Date: Sunday, Nov. 6
The Time: 3 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN, 2 p.m. (ET)
Radio: PRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
Distance: 501 miles (334 laps)

Texas Motor Speedway Sprint Cup Quick Facts

Location – Fort Worth, TX
Completed – 1996
Distance – 1.5 miles
Shape – Quad-oval
Banking
24° turns
5° straights
Frontstretch : 2,250 feet
Backstretch : 1,330 feet
Twitter: @TXMotorSpeedway
Facebook: www.facebook.com/texasmotorspeedway

Number Sprint Cup Races: 21

Different Sprint Cup Winners: 16

Different Sprint Cup Poles (start 1st): 16

Different Sprint Cup Poles (start 1st) to win: 1 Drivers / Total 1 Times

Race Record: Carl Edwards 151.055mph (11/06/2005)

Qualifying Record: Brian Vickers 196.235mph (11/05/2006)

Texas Motor Speedway Sprint Cup History

History
· Construction began in 1995.
· The first NASCAR race was a NASCAR Nationwide Series event on April 5, 1997.
· The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was on April 6, 1997.

Notebook
· There have been 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway, one per season from 1997 through 2004 and two races per year since 2005.
· Four drivers have competed in all 21 Texas races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin.
· Jeremy Mayfield was the first pole winner, in 1998. Qualifying for the inaugural race in 1997 was canceled.
· Jeff Burton won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
· 15 drivers have scored poles, led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon with two.
· 16 drivers have won races, led by Carl Edwards, with three. Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton each have two wins.
· 15 of 21 races have been won from a top-10 starting position. Only one has been won from the pole (Kasey Kahne in 2006).
· Matt Kenseth started 31st en route to his victory at Texas in 2002, the deepest in the field that a race winner has started. Kenseth started fourth and won earlier this season at Texas.
· Both Jeff Burton (1997) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2000) scored their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Texas, and 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne made his first series start at Texas (11/07/10). Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup competitor Brad Keselowski also made his first career start at Texas (11/2/08).
· Martin Truex Jr. (11/04/07)and David Ragan (04/09/11) scored their first series poles at Texas.
· Matt Kenseth (9.0), Denny Hamlin (9.3) and Jimmie Johnson (9.9) are the only three active drivers to average a top-10 finish.
· Roush Fenway Racing leads all owners in victories, with eight. Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports have three wins each.
· There has been two season sweeps, by Carl Edwards in 2008 and Denny Hamlin in 2010.

Top 12 In Points – Full Points Standings

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The Race: O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
The Date: Saturday, Nov. 5
The Time: 12:55 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN2, 12 p.m. (ET)
Radio: PRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
Distance: 300 miles (200 laps)

Texas Motor Speedway Nationwide Quick Facts

Location – Fort Worth, TX
Completed – 1996
Distance – 1.5 miles
Shape – Quad-oval
Banking
24° turns
5° straights
Frontstretch : 2,250 feet
Backstretch : 1,330 feet
Twitter: @TXMotorSpeedway
Facebook: www.facebook.com/texasmotorspeedway

***Number Nationwide Races: 21
***Different Nationwide Winners: 10
***Different Nationwide Poles (start 1st): 17
***Different Nationwide Poles (start 1st) to win: 2 Drivers / Total 2 Times
***Race Record: Kyle Busch 151.707mph (04/05/2008)
***Qualifying Record: Jeff Green 193.493mph (04/06/2002)

Texas Motor Speedway This Week’s News

Danica Patrick Goes All In

She’s back, and this time for good. Danica Patrick is now a full-time NASCAR driver, competing in the final three 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series races as she prepares to run the entire series schedule for JR Motorsports in 2012. In addition, she’ll run a limited schedule in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Texas will be her 10th start this year and her first since Kanas where she finished 15th.
Patrick has posted one top five and three top 10s in her previous nine races, including a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas that put her in the record books as the highest-finishing female in any NASCAR national series race.
Patrick finished 22nd last year at Texas in her series track debut. Heading to the 1.5-mile speedway this weekend her pre-race Driver Rating is 51.6 and her Average Running Position is 29th.
When she gets to Phoenix in two weeks – her city of residence – she’ll be running her third series race at the 1-mile track, her most starts at any NASCAR track other than Daytona. Patrick finished 32nd at Phoenix and 19th at Homestead to close out the 2010 season.
Patrick continues to improve each time out, her season-to-date Driver Rating is 79.9 and average finish is 16.1 – both better than last season’s average finish of 28.0 and a Driver Rating of 51.7.

Championships Abound: Three-Race Showdown To Decide It All

Only three races are left for the top contenders in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver and owner championships to showcase their talents and seal the deal on the 2011 titles. The spectacle couldn’t get any bigger as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Four heavyweights and two significant bouts – driver standings leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. vs. second-place Elliott Sadler and owner standings leader Joe Gibbs Racing vs. second-place Roush Fenway Racing – headline the bill this weekend.
The scene has been set for an epic final three races.
Not since 2005 and the standoff between Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer has the driver championship been this close this late. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds a 15-point lead over second-place Elliott Sadler in the driver standings. Which Sadler has closed from a 22 point margin after Dover.
Stenhouse has made three starts at Texas posting an average finish of 16.0. His pre-race Driver Rating is 98.0. While Sadler has made seven starts at Texas posting an average finish of 15.3 and a pre-race Driver Rating of 87.0.
On the owner side, all-time series wins leader Kyle Busch returns to pilot the No. 18 and Joe Gibbs Racing is going for its record-breaking fourth consecutive series owner title and has a scant three-point lead over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing team, led by 2007 series driver champion Carl Edwards. The No. 60 has gained 47 points on the No. 18 since being 50 points behind the leader following the August race at Bristol.
Busch had won five consecutive races at Texas before Edwards won this event last year. Edwards also won the spring event at Texas this season.

Top 12 In Points – Full Points Standings

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The Race: WinStar World Casino 350K
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
Date: Friday, Nov. 4
The Time: 8 p.m. (ET)
TV: SPEED, 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
Distance: 220.5 miles (147 laps)

Texas Motor Speedway Trucks Quick Facts

Location – Fort Worth, TX
Completed – 1996
Distance – 1.5 miles
Shape – Quad-oval
Banking
24° turns
5° straights
Frontstretch : 2,250 feet
Backstretch : 1,330 feet
Twitter: @TXMotorSpeedway
Facebook: www.facebook.com/texasmotorspeedway

***Number Trucks Races: 27
***Different Trucks Winners: 14
***Different Trucks Poles (start 1st): 19
***Different Trucks Poles (start 1st) to win: 5 Drivers / Total 5 Times
***Race Record: Todd Bodine 153.133mph (06/05/2009)
***Qualifying Record: Clint Bowyer 184.464mph (11/03/2006)

Texas Motor Speedway This Week’s News

Three Challengers Good At TMS But Is It Good Enough

Call it a good, old fashioned Texas shoot-out.
A posse of three is gunning for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader Austin Dillon and if past performances mean anything, Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter and James Buescher are at full gallop into Texas Motor Speedway.
• Hornaday, after a fifth title, is a three-time Texas winner including the track’s 2011 spring event. A victory would give the 53-year-old Californian a season sweep for the second time.
• Sauter had victory in sight in June – until he jumped the race’s final restart, was penalized and finished a frustrated 22nd. The Wisconsin native finished second in both Texas races a year ago.
• Buescher, a 21-year-old from Plano, Texas, sat on the pole in June and led three times before finishing ninth. Still looking for his first NASCAR national series victory, the Katy, Texas resident was sixth in both Texas stops in 2010.
With Dillon’s lead in double digits – and just a single point between finishing positions 2nd through 36th – each of the three faces the same challenge: win and collect the bonus points the victory carries. Hornaday and Sauter are under the greatest pressure trailing Dillon by 15 points apiece.
Waiting for the leader to stumble appears problematic at best. Dillon has finished third or better in three of his last six races.

Top 12 In Points – Full Points Standings

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