Thursday, April 12, 2007

By the Numbers: Texas

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
April 12, 20070
9:55 AM EDT

Twelve races. Twelve different winners. Texas Motor Speedway is the only track on the Nextel Cup circuit to carry the distinction of never having had a repeat winner. From Jeff Burton in 1997 to Tony Stewart this past October, a different driver had made his way to Victory Lane in the track's short history. more

Interesting Fact
47 - Number of starts at Texas for Rick Hendrick as a team owner. His only victory came courtesy of Terry Labonte in 1999. Hendrick's cumulative 19.2 average finish is his worse at any current track.

Fun Fact4-24-1982 - Date of birth for Kelly Clarkson, recording artist and 2007 NASCAR performer and spokeswoman. Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, home city to Texas Motor Speedway, and grew up in nearby Burleson, Texas.

All the Facts1 - Victories at Texas won from the pole: Kasey Kahne in April 2006.
---2 - Drivers to win their first race at Texas: Jeff Burton (1997); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2000).
---2 - Crashes by Greg Biffle at Texas in 2006. Biffle was the only driver to start both TMS races and fail to finish either of them.
---3 - Drivers to finish in the top 10 in both Texas races last year: Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick. Stewart and Harvick each had top-five finishes.
---3 - Consecutive top-10s at Texas for Denny Hamlin, his first three starts there.
---4 - Former winners at Texas with an average finish outside the top 20 there: Greg Biffle (26.2); Kasey Kahne (22.6); Ryan Newman (27.9); Elliott Sadler (23.1).
---7 - Races won at Texas from a top-five starting spot. Nine of the 12 races have been won from a top-10 starting position.
---7 - Wins at Texas by Ford, most of any manufacturer.
---9 - Drivers who have competed in all 12 Texas races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip.
---10.5 - Average finish at Texas for Casey Mears, his best at any track. He has four top-10s in six starts.
---12 - Worst finish at Texas by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the eight races he has been running at the finish. Junior has one DNF at TMS.
---12.3 - Average finish at Texas for Martin Truex Jr., who like Denny Hamlin has completed all 1,007 laps in his three starts there.
---14.7 - Average start and average finish for Dale Jarrett in 12 Texas starts.
---120.8 - Driver rating for Tony Stewart in the past four races at Texas, best of any driver.
---453 - Laps led at Texas by Tony Stewart, most of any driver. Stewart led 278 laps there in November 2006, the most for any winner.
---7,253,642 - Purse for the Samsung 500, third-largest of the 36 races on the Nextel Cup schedule. Only the Daytona 500 (in excess of $18 million) and the Allstae 400 at the Brickyard (excess of $9 million) pay out more.

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