Jimmie Johnson scores back-to-back wins in Texas

Jimmie Johnson has backed-up his win last week at Martinsville with a thrilling victory at the AAA Texas 500 at the ultra-fast Texas Motor Speedway.

Johnson pushed past leader, and championship rival, Brad Keselowski on a Green-White-Checkered finish to edge his lead to seven points with two races left to run at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami.

The pair battled throughout the 500 mile race with paint exchanged at times. Sitting in for the ride was Kyle Busch, who also had his chance to take the victory.

With long green flag runs during the race both Johnson and Keselowski enjoyed plenty of time at the front of the field. An economy run to the finish was ended when Australia’s Marcos Ambrose hit the wall after having a tyre go down.

The final round of stops saw Keselowski go to the lead after taking just right-side tyres, as compared to four all-round for both Johnson and Busch.

Keselowski appeared to be in the box seat, but another caution at the end gave Johnson his chance off the final re-start and he took it.

Ambrose ran inside the top-10, but when the sun went down so did the Tasmanian. The accident saw him placed 32nd 25-laps behind.

Despite the result Ambrose was pleased with the weekend with new crew chief Crew Chief Drew Blickensderfer.

“It’s a shame that we didn’t get the end result we deserved, but the early signs are that we are going to be strong,” said Ambrose.

“We’re communicating well, and improving the car with each session.

“Running with those guys in the fight for the Chase is a great feeling, and of lot of that came down to some smart work in the pits.

“We were front runners at Phoenix earlier this year, and we’ll head there next week with an aggressive mindset.”

Unofficial Race Results : AAA Texas 500

FIN	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	48/2	335	Running
2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	43/1	335	Running
3	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Snickers	42/1	335	Running
4	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Ford EcoBoost	41/1	335	Running
5	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	39/0	335	Running
6	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	38/0	335	Running
7	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Diet Mountain Dew	37/0	335	Running
8	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Furniture Row	36/0	335	Running
9	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Rheem / Budweiser	35/0	335	Running
10	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	34/0	335	Running
11	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot / redbeacon.com	33/0	335	Running
12	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Quicken Loans	33/1	335	Running
13	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	Carlyle Tools by NAPA	31/0	335	Running
14	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	30/0	335	Running
15	Aric Almirola	Ford	Farmland	29/0	335	Running
16	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	28/0	335	Running
17	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	0	335	Running
18	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	McDonald’s	26/0	335	Running
19	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	25/0	335	Running
20	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Office	24/0	335	Running
21	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	23/0	335	Running
22	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	0	335	Running
23	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Dr Pepper	22/1	335	Running
24	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	0	335	Running
25	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	HendrickCars.com / Great Clips	19/0	335	Running
26	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King	18/0	333	Running
27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Quaker State / Menards	17/0	332	Running
28	David Ragan	Ford	CertainTeed / 31-W Insulation	16/0	331	Running
29	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	15/0	329	Running
30	Scott Speed	Ford	B&D Electrical / TWD	14/0	328	Running
31	Ken Schrader	Ford	Federated Auto Parts	13/0	328	Running
32	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Mac Tools	12/0	310	Running
33	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Wounded Warrior Project	11/0	284	Running
34	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Huggies	10/0	279	Running
35	David Gilliland	Ford	Long John Silver’s	9/0	225	Out of Race
36	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction	8/0	107	Running
37	Josh Wise *	Ford	MDS Transport	7/0	41	In Pit
38	Michael McDowell	Ford	Phil Parsons Racing	6/0	37	In Pit
39	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	5/0	37	In Pit
40	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves	0	33	In Pit
41	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Plinker Tactical / MCM Elegante	0	32	In Pit
42	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	MaxQworkforce.com	2/0	10	In Pit
43	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Plinker Tactical / MCM Elegante	0	6	Out of Race

* Denotes Rookie

 

Unofficial Driver Standings:  Race 34 of 36

RANK	+/-	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	POLES	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10
1	—	Jimmie Johnson	2339	Leader	34	4	5	18	24
2	—	Brad Keselowski	2332	-7	34	0	5	13	22
3	—	Clint Bowyer	2303	-36	34	0	3	9	22
4	—	Kasey Kahne	2281	-58	34	4	2	11	18
5	+3	Matt Kenseth	2267	-72	34	1	3	13	19
6	—	Jeff Gordon	2267	-72	34	2	1	10	17
7	-2	Denny Hamlin	2266	-73	34	3	5	13	16
8	+2	Tony Stewart	2259	-80	34	1	3	12	16
9	-2	Martin Truex Jr.	2259	-80	34	1	0	7	18
10	-1	Greg Biffle	2256	-83	34	3	2	11	19
11	—	Kevin Harvick	2238	-101	34	0	0	4	12
12	—	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	2188	-151	32	1	1	10	19
13	—	Kyle Busch	1048	-1291	34	1	1	11	18
14	+1	Ryan Newman	969	-1370	34	0	1	4	12
15	-1	Carl Edwards	965	-1374	34	1	0	3	13
16	—	Paul Menard	938	-1401	34	0	0	1	8
17	—	Joey Logano	918	-1421	34	1	1	2	12
18	—	Marcos Ambrose	892	-1447	34	2	1	3	8