ESPN

CONCORD, N.C. -- It's not often a race car driver intentionally cruises slowly at the back of the field.

Jimmie Johnson did it for roughly 60 laps Saturday night, and it earned him a cool $1 million payday.

Johnson used a calculated strategy -- he drove hard for the first and last segments, and coasted for the three in between -- to join the late Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as the only three-time winners of NASCAR's All-Star race.

The five-time champion won the first 20-lap segment of the Sprint All-Star race, then deliberately faded to the back for the next three 20-lap segments at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His plan was to keep the No. 48 Chevrolet out of trouble, then make his play for the win in the fifth and final segment.

"We did a strategy that we thought was best for our team," he said.

Read the rest of the story here.

After an entire elementary school lived up to their promise, five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup series champion Jimmie Johnson lived up to his.

Johnson, who visited Clara Love Elementary School in Justin to crown the "Speeding to Read" champions in April, was asked during a Q&A session with the student body if he would bring them ice cream again just like he did when he was voted the school's most popular NASCAR driver in 2010 by the students.

The question made Johnson double over in laughter and brought a roar out of the 600-plus students and faculty on hand.

"How do you say no when a little kid is asking you for ice cream?" Johnson said in a statement. "I know I can't say no to it myself. I told the students that if they kept up with their reading I'd see what I could do."

After the students met their reading goal to live up to their end of the deal, Johnson responded by sending enough ice cream for the entire student body and faculty to enjoy Friday.

Said Johnson: "They definitely deserve some ice cream."

Greg Biffle wins for the first time in 50 races and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kasey Kahne get checkered flags. Plus, Carl Edwards tells all about his visit to the White House.

 

FORT WORTH, Texas -- It was just off.

That was crew chief Steve Addington's simple explanation for Tony Stewart's worst finish of the season Saturday at the Samsung Mobile 500.

In November, Stewart was shooting off guns in the winner's circle at Texas Motor Speedway. At Saturday's Samsung Mobile 500, Stewart never led, never really threatened -- he was never really there.

Stewart finished an unsual week in Fort Worth with a 24th-place finish.

The week started poorly, too. Stewart struggled in his first practice session Thursday, and things got worse when he wrecked his primary car during Friday's practice.

During the race, Stewart moved up a few spots to 19th. After 100 laps, Stewart fell back and never really moved up or down.

Stewart was optimistic during the beginning of the race because his front end was good. The back end was a different story, though. The heavy winds pushed Stewart even more off balance, but Addington said it wasn't the reason they finished poorly.

"Everybody has to deal with it. That's no excuse for the way we ran," Addington said. "We were just off tonight."

Stewart didn't talk to reporters after the race, but Addington spoke about the problems Stewart's team had getting the No. 14 working correctly.

"It was just off," Addington said again. "If I could explain it I could have fixed it. Everybody worked really hard, we just missed the balance on it."

With two wins on the season, Stewart is still in great shape for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but Addington's team isn't going to just forget about this weekend and move on.

"We're not going to just sweep it under the rug because we won two races," Addington said. "We have to figure out what we're doing when we come back here."

Stewart apologized to his team for wrecking the primary car, but Addington said that wasn't a good excuse, either. Stewart drove that same backup car to victory in the November win at TMS.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team," Addington said. "We're a good enough team that we should be able to drag a car off the trailer and get closer than we did tonight."

The finish moves Stewart down four spots into seventh place in the Sprint Cup standings.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- With 34 laps left, Greg Biffle has stolen the lead from Jimmie Johnson. The two remain neck-and-neck.

Mark Martin is seven seconds behind in third. Jeff Gordon is building on his impressive run and has moved into fourth followed by Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr.

Tony Stewart has fallen two laps behind the leader on his disappointing night.

Kasey Kahne has come back from several problems to move into the eighth spot.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jimmie Johnson continues to lead the pack. His car and pit crew have been nearly flawless through 250 laps. He has now led 102 laps.

Greg Biffle remains just behind Johnson, and continues to stay right on his tail.

Martin Truex, Jr. has moved back into fifth after leading for much of the early parts of the race.

Jeff Gordon remains in the pack at sixth, and continues to impress on his way up from the 34th starting position.

Tony Stewart has been the disappointment of the Samsung Mobile 500. He is 24th through 250 laps in his backup car.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Greg Biffle leads through the first 50 laps of the Samgsung Mobile 500. Here's the top 10:

1. (16) Greg Biffle
2. (29) Kevin Harvick
3. (56) Martin Truex, Jr.
4. (17) Matt Kenseth
5. (55) Mark Martin
6. (9) Marcos Ambrose
7. (2) Brad Keselowski
8. (48) Jimmie Johnson
9. (99) Carl Edwards
10. (1) Jamie McMurray

FORT WORTH, Texas -- After bizarre lighting problems and a wild late restart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took home his second win in the first six races of the Nationwide season at the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 on Friday.

While most of the pack went in to get their last set of tires during a late caution, Stenhouse Jr. stayed in the pack.

"[Crew chief Mike Kelley] decided to go with no changes on that last pit stop, which I wasn't fond of, but he knows what he's doing," Stenhouse Jr. said. "That last restart was crazy. I think I spent the whole caution praying for a good restart."

Owner Jack Roush has had some good luck in the Lone Star State. The win was the fourth in a row for Roush Fenway Racing at Texas Motor Speedway.

"First thing I want to say is God bless Texas," Jack Roush said laughing after the race. "Texas has been really good to us."

In the race's second year under the lights, a few of them weren't quite cooperating. Some of the track lights were malfunctioning around the third turn, causing two cautions and a red flag in the 163-172th laps.

Race officials said it was a problem with one of the breakers, but Stenhouse Jr. didn't seem to mind.

"We went a few laps through there and I thought it was fine. Some people had different opinions," Stenhouse Jr. said. "It was probably safer to stop it and get it back going."

Paul Menard led for 100 laps, but couldn't hold on for a win. In the final laps, Menard went for one last push on the outside of Stenhouse Jr., but got caught in the middle when Denny Hamlin made the track three-wide.

The win moves Stenhouse Jr. into second in the Nationwide Series standings, four points behind Elliott Sadler.

"As soon as you get in the middle of a restart, you lose all of your momentum," Menard said. "I just feel like we let them get away with it."

Rookie driver Austin Dillon's crew also took the gamble not to change tires to try for a bigger lead. He ended up falling back to sixth after the red flag in the 176th lap. After another caution, he opted out of getting new tires again to try and keep his position. He ended up moving into fifth, the highest-finishing rookie.

"We're very proud of that finish, especially with less tires than the other guys out there," Dillon said.

Danica Patrick made a great late move with some new tires to move from 16th into eighth, her best finish of the year.

The action at TMS continues with the Sprint Cup Series Samsung Mobile 500 at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Martin Truex Jr. won the Coors Light Pole Award at the Samsung Mobile 500 qualifying Friday.

He won with a lap of 28.366 seconds.

After the qualifier, he continued to talk about how he can feel a win coming.

"I can't even explain it. I'm just blessed to have the team I have and be in the position I'm in," Truex Jr. said. "It makes you think back to those days when things weren't going so well."

This could be a huge step in winning his first Samsung Mobile 500. He's had problems winning the pole in the past, and he's willing to admit that.

"I'm not the greatest qualifier," Truex Jr. said. "At times I tend to overdrive the car. There are some days, like today, that the car will take that."

Asked if he did anything different to win the pole, he smiled and said he "just drove harder" this time.

Matt Kenseth finished second with a lap of 28.399 seconds.

Greg Biffle continued to be impressive at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished third at qualifying with his 10th top-10 start in Fort Worth.

It's Truex Jr.'s second pole at Texas Motor Speedway and first in the Samsung Mobile 500. His first came in the 2007 Dickies 500 where he finished third.

His best finish in the Samsung Mobile 500 came in 2007 when he started 24th and moved his way up to finish seventh.

Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman talks about being the only driver with a college degree, his partnership with the US Army and the difference between jelly and jam.

 

The last time Tony Stewart was at Texas Motor Speedway, he was shooting off the guns in Victory Lane en route to the Sprint Cup championship. Can he do it again Saturday night?

Every week, our stats and analysis team compiles a breakdown of the wrecks at the next track on the schedule. Here's this week's takeaway:

Expect the wrecks at Texas to have even more impact than in your usual race.

Dating back to the start of 2008, there have been 18 wreck-related DNFs at Texas, the highest total of any non-restrictor plate track in that time.

So the stakes will be even higher than normal this weekend, with the high speeds of Texas making a disastrous finish a reality.

For more of Matt Willis' statistical musings on his blog, and The Eliminator's pick to win Saturday night's race at TMS, click here.

8:30 a.m.: NNS Garage & Registration Opens
9:30 a.m.: Gate 4 Opens
9:30 a.m.: Pit Road Open
10–11 a.m.: NNS Final Practice
11:00 a.m.: NSCS HOT PASS IN EFFECT
Noon–8 p.m.: NSCS Garage & Registration Hours
1:30 p.m.: Gates Open (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 11)
1:30 p.m.: Luxury Suites & Victory Lane Club Opens
2–3:30 p.m.: NSCS Final Practice (TV: SPEED)
4 p.m.: Live NASCAR Memorabilia auction benefitting Speedway Children’s Charities (9th floor Speedway Club)
4:05 p.m.: NNS SportsDay Qualifying Day (TV: ESPN2)
5:10 p.m.: NSCS HOT PASS IN EFFECT
5:40 p.m.: NSCS SportsDay Qualifying Day (TV: SPEED)
7:30 p.m.: NNS O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (200 Laps, 300 Miles / TV:ESPN)

10 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series haulers enter
11 am.-6 p.m.: Sprint Cup registration hours
11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.: Sprint Cup garage hours
12:30 p.m.-6 p.m.: Nationwide Series registration hours
1 p.m.-9 p.m.: Nationwide Series garage hours
4 p.m.: Gates 3, 4 and 5 open
4 p.m.: Pit road open
4 p.m.: Luxury suites and Victory Lane club opens
4 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Hot Pass in effect
4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series practice
6:40 p.m.-8 p.m.: Nationwide Series practice

As NASCAR motors into Texas Motor Speedway, two drivers -- Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -- stop by ESPN Dallas to chat with you this morning.

Stenhouse, who drives the No. 6 Ford Eco Boost for Roush Fenway Racing, is second in points in the Nationwide Series. In five races, he's got a first (Las Vegas), second (California) and third (Phoenix). He'll get our chat block rolling at 10 a.m. CT. Click here to get your questions in early.

Then, Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth -- now a two-time winner of "The Great American Race" -- will stop by ESPN Dallas to answer your questions at 11:45 a.m. He's currently fourth in points in the Sprint Cup Series, having also finished second at Bristol and fourth in the series' last stop at Martinsville, which had a crazy ending. Click here to get your questions in early for Matt.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night, which means he'll be reunited with crew chief Tony Eury Sr. with the No. 5 car.

Dale Jr. has only raced two NNS races this season -- at Daytona (finishing 15th) and at Bristol (fifth). The green flag will drop for the 200-lap race at 7:30 p.m. and it'll be shown nationally on ESPN2.