In what was otherwise a rather forgettable race today at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson surged to the front late (looked just like last week) and won the Dickies 500 over Matt Kenseth….taking over the points lead in the process. Johnson nabbed his third in a row and 9th this season by .944 seconds over Kenseth. Victory #32 for his Nextel Cup career moves him into a 19th place tie with Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart on the all-time list. This was win #166 for Hendrick Motorsports (and a whopping 17 on the season), and was worth $486,211 from the healthy $7.2M+ in posted awards. Matt Kenseth (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Chicagoland in July. Martin Truex Jr (3rd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Michigan in August. Mike Skinner (24th) had his best finish since he was 22nd at Daytona in February of 2004 (only 15 races). STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 6 Top-10’s in a row. Jimmie Johnson has 5 Top-5’s in the last 6 races. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Ricky Rudd (+24), followed by Jeff Burton (+21), J. J. Yeley (+21), and Tony Raines (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was A J Allmendinger (-34), followed by Mark Martin (-24), Juan Pablo Montoya (-22), Denny Hamlin (-22), and Casey Mears (-22). Nice to get Ricky a “Shaft” appearance this season…. Jimmie Johnson’s win catapulted him into a 30 point lead over teammate Jeff Gordon. We whacked everybody from 7th on down out of the competition this week….and we’ll lose at least three more next week. In Classic Points, Jeff Gordon maintains a smooth 400 point margin….that’s gotta really salve the wounds of a 7th place finish today, huh? Ryan Newman (16th to 14th) and Tony Raines (30th to 28th) made the best advances today and the only driver to fall more than one spot was the absent Jeff Green (28th to 31st).(Stock Car Fans)(11-4-2007)
