Johnson Bests Harvick in Texas-Style Shootuot

Jimmie Johnson (C) is "happy, happy, happy" in Texas victory lane,
posing with track president, Eddie Gossage (L) and  Duck Dynasty star
and owner of Duck Commander, Willie Robertson (R) (Google Images)

After an uncharacteristically bad finish at Martinsville two weeks ago, Jimmie Johnson was looking to turn things around at Texas Motor Speedway. Apparently the Easter break made a huge difference because after finishing 35th at Martinsville, 36 laps off the pace with steering problems, Johnson led nine times for 128 laps and cruised to victory in the Duck Commander 500.

But just because Johnson dominated the race, that didn't mean the rest of the field didn't put up a fight. Last year's champion Kevin Harvick has been on a roll all season. The No.4 team already has two wins and, until the race at Auto Club Speedway, they had a streak of eight consecutive top two finishes. Clearly Harvick and his team are going to be tough to beat in their fight for a second straight title. They were also tough to beat at Texas on Sunday, leading nine times for a total of 96 laps, second most in the night.

Just like at Fontana, Kurt Busch started on the pole flanked by his teammate Harvick. The Stewart-Haas Racing duo traded the lead back and forth for the first 100 laps until Johnson grabbed the top spot on lap 109. Harvick was able to run with Johnson, but Busch faded as the track cooled and Tony Gibson had trouble keeping up with adjustments as the track cooled and the sun went down. Most of the other teams had this same problem and had to resort to strategy to try and stay in front of the No. 48 car.

Midway through the event, Jamie McMurray and crew chief Matt McCall decided to put two right side tires on the No. 1 car while every other car took four tires. FOX commentators Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip, in their infinite wisdom, proceeded to question the move. Neither believed that McMurray would be able to hold his own up front on two tires and that he would get passed by the rest of the field. However, he was able to maintain a spot in the top ten and show that, while Johnson and Harvick might not be beaten on speed, it might be possible later in the race to beat them with a pit call like that.


Jimmie Johnson (48), Kevin Harvick (4) and Joey Logano (22) were the three
best cars all night long (Google Images)

Pit strategy also provided an interesting element to a race that saw several debris cautions and the HScott Motorsports cars of Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett get wrecked. It also meant that we could stop talking about how Michael Waltrip spilled a taco on Denny Hamlin's car. Just when you thought you'd seen NASCAR's resident buffoon do just about everything, he spills a few shreds of lettuce on the No. 11 car and it turns into a running joke that never should've broken into a brisk walk to begin with.

But on the last pit stop of the night, the story switched from spilled Mexican food and a dominant Lowe's Chevrolet to a battle for the win that had fans on their feet cheering for someone to take down that same Lowe's Chevy.

Remember how Jamie McMurray took two tires on a pit stop earlier in the race? Well late in the race with the win on the line, he and his team decided to try and make that gamble work for them again. Once again McMurray held his own and actually led six laps. It looked like there could be a surprise winner at Texas and that the No. 1 team might be No. 1 for the first time in 2015. But with 15 to go, coming off turn four, Harvick slid up the track trying to pass McMurray and enabled Johnson to slide under both of them and take the top spot back. Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr, a new contender in third place, would race hard for second. They would get within a few car lengths of the No. 48, but neither would be able to get to him and pass him. Harvick drove so hard trying to win he got into the wall off turn two with three laps to go.

It's not the entire last 15 laps, but you can click here to watch some key highlights from this Texas shootout.

The other story on the night was Joey Logano's team working on their No. 22 car to try and get more competitive as the night went on. They were up front most of the night, but as the race wound down, they were really the third best car on the track. But while he wasn't on the same level as the No. 48 car, Logano did provide the best piece of driving we'd seen all night. He threw a block on Harvick in the closing laps, Harvick bumped him and Logano shot up the track towards the turn one wall. But somehow, he managed to save it and show that, while he might be a spoiled rich kid from Connecticut, but he still has talent behind the wheel of a race car. Logano would come back to finish a very strong fourth on the night.


Kevin Harvick came close, but couldn't take down the No. 48 Chevy
 (Google Images)

A few other notes bright spots in the race results were McMurray coming home a solid sixth after a two tire gamble that took the Missouri native from zero to hero. Martin Truex Jr also continued his streak of top ten finishes. He's had one in every race this year and grabbed the ninth spot Saturday night. Carl Edwards has really underperformed in his first few races in  a Joe Gibbs Toyota. But he ran in the top ten for most of the race, even cracking the top three for a time. But he came home a respectable tenth in the Duck Commander 500.

This Sunday, the Sprint Cup Series will visit the track that is the polar opposite of Texas Motor Speedway. The tour will be stopping at "The World's Fastest Half Mile" race track; Bristol Motor Speedway. You can catch all the beating, banging, and classic shot track racing action from Thunder Valley on Sunday on FOX at 1 pm/et.