Carl Edwards will look to win his third consecutive race in the Lone Star State, and his first race of this season, as NASCAR goes from the circuit’s slowest track and heads to one of the circuit’s fastest tracks, Texas Motor Speedway, Sunday at 2:15 p.m. for the Samsung 500.
Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile oval with 24-degree banked turns and a surface that turns slicker as the temperatures change throughout the day, putting a premium on tires and a driver’s ability to change with the surface conditions… Details
Graham Rahal on Saturday became the youngest IndyCar Series pole winner as he posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 02.4110 seconds on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg circuit.
Rahal, the defending winner of Sunday’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, is 20 years, 90 days old. Marco Andretti was 21 when he captured the pole at the Milwaukee Mile on May 31, 2008.
“It doesn’t get any sweeter,†Rahal said. “Growing up as a Rahal, any day you can beat an Andretti … Details
Whatever you do this weekend around Texas Motor Speedway, or any time in the foreseeable future, don’t accuse Carl Edwards of being “off his game,” “sub-par” or anything else even borderline demeaning.
Edwards — who closed the 2008 season with a stunning display of dominance, winning six of the final eight races in the Cup and Nationwide series combined — has yet to win in 2009. According to Edwards, there’s no need to panic…. Details
 you want to know who’s going to make this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, look no further than the results of Sunday’s Samsung 500. Those finishing in the top 12 have about a 70 percent chance of making the Chase, or at least that’s what history tells us.
Since the Chase format was introduced in 2004, an average of seven out of 10 drivers who wound up making the playoffs finished in the top 10 at Texas Motor Speedway. The number jumps to nine of 12 since NASCAR expanded the field in 2007 to include a dozen drivers.
It’s an interesting statistic, but why is Texas such a good barometer of things to come? … Details and Video