AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway: Takeaways and observations
By Ted Fleming
3. Two in, two spots remaining
Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards have punched their ticket into the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20 leaving just two spots left for the remaining six drivers. Phoenix has become the ultimate elimination race because there are no more chances to advance after Sunday’s Can-Am 500.
Kurt Busch is in a must-win situation being 34 points below the cutoff line after finishing 22nd at Martinsville and 20th at Texas.
“We just missed the set-up,” he said after the long day in Fort Worth. “It’s a Chase race, it’s kind of important and we missed it again.”
Another that is borderline must-win is Kevin Harvick who finds himself 18 points out. He can make it on points only if he has a good finish with disaster hitting those ahead of him. Being the first one across the finish line makes it a moot point.
“We have done it I don’t know how many times, so we will just go there and do what we always do and race as hard as we can,” he said.
Harvick also has to keep in mind that he didn’t make any friends with Austin Dillon and his crew chief Slugger Labbe after the two tangled in the AAA Texas 500 which was addressed earlier.