By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch won his fifth straight NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano to the finish line by .688 seconds in Monday’s rain-delayed O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.

Busch is the third driver in series history to win five consecutive races at one track, sharing that distinction with Dale Earnhardt (Daytona) and Jack Ingram (South Boston).

With Denny Hamlin having won the rain-delayed Samsung Mobile 500 Sprint Cup race earlier in the day, Busch completed the sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing, marking the first time an organization has won both legs of a same-day NASCAR doubleheader. Busch finished third in the Cup race behind Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson.

Busch led 153 of 200 laps at the 1.5-mile track. In his five wins at Texas, Busch has led 810 of a possible 1,000 laps. The victory was his third of the season and the 33rd of his career.

“It was just a phenomenal day,” said Busch, who pulled away from a Lap 174 restart after contact in Turn 2 between the Fords of Roush Fenway Racing teammates Colin Braun and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caused the fourth caution of the race on Lap 167.

“We were able to just run around there all day and bide our time, and there at the end, we were going to try and save fuel and go the rest of the way if need be. But that caution came out, and we had to race Joey for it.

“He kept me on my toes there. We were a little too loose to try to go real, real hard. I couldn’t get away from him, but then it seemed like he got a little bit tight, and I started moving away.”

Busch, the reigning Nationwide champion, took a 20-point lead over fourth-place finisher Brad Keselowski in the series standings. Carl Edwards, the 2007 champion, broke an axle late in the race and finished 30th. Edwards dropped three positions to fifth in the standings, 106 points behind Busch.

Reed Sorenson finished third. Kevin Harvick was fifth, and Jamie McMurray sixth in his first start in JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet. All three also ran the Cup race.

Asked whether his success this year might make him reevaluate his decision not to run a full Nationwide schedule, Busch deferred to team owner Joe Gibbs.

“I had no more gotten to the winner’s circle when about three of the crew guys are going, ‘Hey, can we run for a championship?’ ” Gibbs said. “I think we’ve laid out a plan there. We’ll talk it over with Kyle.”

Busch said the noncompanion events would pose a logistical problem in running full schedules in both the Cup and Nationwide series, though he did so last year.

“I want to, but it’s up to these guys,” Busch said, pointing to Gibbs. “I’d like to, but we know how difficult it is to run both, and what it takes away from the premium spot, which is the Sprint Cup Series title.

“When you go from Sonoma to whatever the new road course is in Wisconsin (Road America, with both races scheduled for the June 18-20 weekend), you’re going to have to skip all of Saturday in Sonoma to be there for that event in the Nationwide Series in Wisconsin, so you really hinder your chances to get a good racecar setup for the race that’s going to be on Sunday in Sonoma.

“That’s the biggest thing that I look at, but all the other ones aren’t too bad, so maybe we skip one and can still win the deal—I don’t know.”

Note: Busch won a Camping World Truck Series/Nationwide doubleheader at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.) in February 2009 for two different owners—Billy Ballew in the truck series and Gibbs in Nationwide.

FORT WORTH, TEX. — Denny Hamlin might have had a hard time climbing in his race car because of his bum knee but he certainly had no problem climbing from 29th starting position to Victory Lane.

Hamlin, who had knee surgery recently, held off a hard-charging Jimmie Johnson to win Monday’s Samsung Mobile 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
A big crowd, in excess of 100,000, braved two days of steady rain and hung around for a race that delivered what Texas is known for – extraordinary things.
A multi-car accident just 20 laps from the finish set the stage for the blazing shootout between Hamlin and Johnson. The four-time Sprint Cup champion took on four tires at the finish while Hamlin took only two and Johnson whittled Hamlin’s lead from three seconds to thousandths of a second.

It was Hamlin’s second win of the season and boosted him back in the top 12 in the points positions. He won at Martinsville earlier this season and took advantage of the Easter Break to have his knee repaired, an injury suffered in a pickup basketball game.
His win Sunday came after race leader and four-time champion Jeff Gordon, along with other frontrunners, were eliminated in a free-for-all accident on an earlier restart. With Jeff Burton leading at the time, Tony Stewart, Gordon, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray and Paul Menard wadded up on the frontstretch trioval with every one of them gunning for the front. It was one of those racing accidents where you just cannot pack twenty pounds in a two-pound sack.

Hamlin, Johnson and Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch managed to dodge the wreck and wound up capturing the top three spots in the race.
Rounding out the top 10 finish positions were Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Martin Truex, Jr., Greg Biffle and last week’s race winner Ryan Newman. Burton wound up eleventh.

NASCAR threw a precautionary- caution at Lap 25 so teams could take a look at tire wear on the green race track. Two days of steady rain, two inches in the local area, had washed away whatever rubber was on the race track.

Pole-sitter Stewart led the first 20 laps then Biffle moved in front before the mandatory competition caution fell. When racing resumed on Lap 33, Biffle was still out front, but Stewart quickly took the lead and Kyle Busch moved into second. Johnson was third and Earnhardt had moved into fourth. Biffle dropped back in the field, down to seventh.

By Lap 50, Johnson had taken the lead. Stewart was second, Earnhardt third, Gordon fourth and Bowyer fifth. At this early point in the race, it appeared Johnson was liking the new spoiler that replaced the wing on the rear of the car. Monday was the first race on a big track with the spoiler. The spoiler was raced for the first time this year at Martinsville and most drivers said they couldn’t tell much difference.

At 60 laps, the top 10 consisted of Johnson, Stewart, Earnhardt, Gordon, Bowyer, Burton, Edwards, Montoya, Kahne and Biffle.
Earnhardt took over second place on Lap 67. Ten laps later, he passed Johnson for the lead.
The caution came out on Lap 80 for debris on the track after Brian Vickers spun when his Toyota cut a right rear tire.

When the race resumed on Lap 84, Stewart was back out front with Earnhardt second. Another caution on Lap 100 for debris on the track (Vickers’ Toyota had another tire problem) slowed the field again. Johnson told his crew he might have run over Vickers’ tire carcass before the caution.
When the track was cleaned up and the green flag waved again at Lap 107, the front of the pack was sprinkled with cars that only took two tires, including leader Earnhardt, Burton, Gordon, McMurray and Stewart.

Sam Hornish brought out another caution on Lap 110. The restart on Lap 116 had Earnhardt out front with McMurray second. However McMurray, the Daytona 500 winner, took over the top spot one lap later. Reutimann, Hamlin and Kurt Busch were running in the top five. Burton dropped way back in the field (23rd) after running up front all day as the result of a pass-through penalty for hitting the commitment cone on pit road.

Earnhardt, meanwhile, regained the lead on lap 127 when he took the high line around McMurray in Turn 1. Earnhardt’s performance at this point in the race had the Earnhardt Army of fans sitting on top of the world. It has been a long, dry spell since Earnhardt won a race – his last victory coming at Michigan in 2008, 64 races ago.

By the halfway point of the race, Gordon and Johnson were back up front and Earnhardt was back in 18th due to pit cycles. Gordon led with Johnson second but Montoya took second when Johnson pitted and then took the lead when Gordon pitted. Montoya pitted in sequence with Gordon and Johnson and that put Earnhardt back out front again.

Massive wreck on the front stretch took out Jeff Gordon, who led the most laps (124), Tony Stewart the pole sitter, plus Carl Edwards, Juan Montoya, Paul Mendard, AJ Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer.  It appeared that the 24 tapped the 14, and then chaos ensued.   Tony Stewart in post race interview claimed responsibility for the wreck.

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RACE RECAP | TEXAS | CUP SERIES
10 Greg Biffle
9 Martin Truex Jr.
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7 Kevin Harvick
6 Mark Martin
5 Kasey Kahne
4 Kurt Busch
3 Kyle Busch
2 Jimmie Johnson

VICTORY LANE

1 Denny Hamlin takes home his 2nd win in the last 3 races, holding off Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps.

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-Jimmie Johnson led his 10,000th lap

-Jeff Burton was penalized coming to pit road when he hit the commitment cone

-Jeff Gordon got aggressive on a pass, bounced off the 48, and Jimmie Johnson had a tire rub, that ultimately sent him to the pits for fresh rubber

-The Hendrick cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon ran up front for most of this race

-Juan Pablo Montoya found the wall with a flat tire

-David Reutimann’s #00 blew up while running top 10, exploding into a fireball

-Massive wreck on the front stretch took out Jeff Gordon, who led the most laps (124), Tony Stewart the pole sitter, plus Carl Edwards, Juan Montoya, Paul Mendard, AJ Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer. It appeared that the 24 tapped the 14, and then chaos ensued. Tony Stewart in post race interview claimed responsibility for the wreck.

Disclosure: The Final Lap received no money for this review, and corresponding free razor offer (below) We simply received a review unit of the razor without any expectations of a good review from Gillette.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICPATED

Review: As a NASCAR sponsor, Gillette approached us with a review unit of their brand new razor Fusion ProGlide Power coming in June. As a long time user of cheap generic disposable razors, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I always felt the disposables were good enough, and other razors were a bit pricey for not much more performance.

I received the review unit from Gillette and it came in a very wiz-bang marketing box. Included were the razor itself, shaving gel, and a warming pre-shave. I followed the directions for this shaving experience to the letter as described in the literature.

The razor features 5 blades, a precision trimmer, and requires a battery for the vibrating action of the unit. At first I thought having a battery, power button, and vibrating on a razor was a bit gimmicky, but more on this later. The razor is very slick looking, feels comfortable in the hand, is slightly heavier compared to my disposables, and almost has the experience of an electric razor.

First I used the warming gel, designed for the pre-shave experience. The sensation was a bit odd, as my hands felt truly hot before I put it on my face. This step in hindsight seems essential to the process.

Next I used the shaving gel, which as a user of cream also took some getting used to, however cream now seems overkill compared to the gel.

With all of the prep out of the way, it was time to dive into some shaving, as this was a review of the razor right? Having used the disposables for such a long time, I’ve come to expect the usual tugging on the beard the cheaper blades have. The Gillette was such a smooth glide down my face, that I actually had to check to see if it had worked. Seriously, there was no pain, tugging, or re-covering an area after the first run. If I had to compare the Gillette to the disposable, it would be like the difference between a Lexus and a Yugo, it’s that drastic.

The vibration is certainly part of the experience as I believe it helps with the lack of tug that you feel with other razors. There is no doubt that this radio host is making the switch to the Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power coming in June.

This razor truly is a big change in a long time, and truly does what their slogan says “Turns Shaving Into Gliding” After my shave, I was amazed at how smooth my face was afterwards, which I have never experienced before with disposables. In addition, I think by using this complete system, I didn’t have the usual nicks, scrapes, and rash that was normal for my shaving experience.

I used to dread shaving, and only did it a couple of times a week. The only problem I have now with the ProGlide is, I only have one blade to use until June with my review unit.

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