Sunday’s Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway was rained out.  So they raced it today in front of a very impressive crowd.  Do these people/fans work?  I’m sure there were plenty of scratchy voices calling in sick today.  Their day off produced a very entertaining race and a huge wreck that took out many of the top contenders with 18 laps to go.  Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson went into turn 4 running 3-wide when Stewart’s car got loose and rubbed Jeff Gordon’s rear panel.  This set off the fireworks that would end up being a 9 car wreck that would result in a red flag. Denny Hamlin was the beneficiary of the misfortune and wound up with the lead.  Once the race resumed the lead cars jossled for position, but no one could really make a move because the cars had become loose and couldn’t run the fast line.  Jimmie Johnson, who had a run in with teammate Jeff Gordon earlier in the race, managed to make things interesting with about 5 laps to go by moving into 2nd position.  Johnson’s 48 car was definitely the fastest on the track at the end of the race as he gobbled up time on the leader, Denny Hamlin.  Johnson ran out of race track though and finished second to Denny Hamlin who has won 2 of the last 3 Sprint Cup events.  This marks the 16th different first time winner out of 19 races at Texas Motor Speedway.

Interesting note:  Denny Hamlin tore his ACL a few weeks back and is only 19 days removed from surgery.  He is a two foot driver….meaning he uses his left foot for the brake and the right for the gas.  In order to get back in the car this close to his surgery, Hamlin had to become a one foot driver…..using his right foot for both the brake and gas.  When Denny pulled in to victory lane it was apparent he was still in immense pain when he exited his #11 Fed Ex car.  He limped over to his crew and told reporters that it would take a few minutes for the stiffness in his knee to loosen up after being in the car for 5 hours.  Quite the story.  Most people would have taken a few weeks off, but this guy is a warrior and felt that if he didn’t race he would be letting his team down.  Congrats Denny!  You deserved the checkered flag.

Jimmie Johnson may not have won the Daytona 500, but he’s won 2 of the first 3 NASCAR races so far.  Sunday Jimmie Johnson added another trophy to the case by taking the checkered flag at the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  How did he do it?  Easy.  His crew chief made a decision to take 4 tires on the final pit stop.  The leader at the time, Jeff Gordon, only took 2 tires.

“I knew we were a sitting duck,” Gordon told reporters at the track.

Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, downplayed the decision by Gordon’s crew chief, Steve Letarte, to take 2 tires.

“I didn’t outsmart him,” Knaus acknowledged. “He did not make the wrong call. There wasn’t a wrong call to make. They came in first. They wanted to maintain track position because track position is so critical. Only way for us to beat them was to do something different.”

And beat them they did.  With 15 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson passed Jeff Gordon and held off a hard charging Kevin Harvick to win his 49th career race in 294 starts.  Is he the best NASCAR driver ever?  If he wins the Sprint Cup Championship again this year it would be hard to argue.

But, it didn’t happen that way and sometimes you’ve got to get lucky in NASCAR races.

“Yeah, the deal on pit row, there’s no way around it, we got lucky,” Johnson said. “We were running fourth or fifth at the time, so it’s not like we totally backed into this thing. We got a really nice gift with the way things worked out and it was up to me to kind of hang on to it.”

Next on the NASCAR schedule is Las Vegas this coming Sunday.  I’m sure the NASCAR tickets will be a hot seller in Sin City.  But, will Lady Luck be with Jimmie Johnson again?  Stay tuned.