FORT WORTH, Texas (November 6, 2011) – Tony Stewart won his fourth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, including his second in a row, by capturing Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 before an estimated crowd of 151,000 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Stewart (No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet), coming off a win at Martinsville, led a race-high 173 laps and outlasted Carl Edwards (No. 99 AFLAC Ford) by 1.092 seconds in the fastest Sprint Cup race (152.707 mph) in Texas Motor Speedway history. The victory, his second at Texas Motor Speedway (fall 2006), allowed him to cut the championship points deficit from eight to three with two races remaining. Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet), who finished 13th, is in third place, 33 points behind.
“I don’t think we have to say anything; I think our performance today spoke for itself,” said Stewart, who recorded his 43rd victory in 462 career Sprint Cup races. “He (Edwards) knows already, trust me. We had a great Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy today. It was pretty balanced yesterday (in final practice). We just could not put that big lap up, up front. The big key for us was hanging on for the first 10 laps of a run and it seemed like we could start pulling away after that. Carl kept us honest today, but we did everything we could do. We got all the bonus points we could get and got the win. We gained more than we needed to gain on the average for the week, so we’re doing good.”
Added Edwards: He (Stewart) did a great job today. Those guys stepped it up and I’m proud of my guys for hanging on and for still having the points lead. At the end of the day, we’re going to the final two races. Although we would have loved to have won today in our Aflac Fusion, to be three points ahead and then to have the third and fourth-place guys farther behind, it looks like it’s truly gonna come down to Tony and I and that’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re leading these points. We get to pull out all the stops for these last two races and there couldn’t be a better place to finish it than Homestead. I think folks ought to stay tuned. It’s gonna get pretty exciting and I’m just glad Tony and I are out there and we can race for this thing.”
Despite leading more than half the laps, Stewart had to overcome the Roush Fenway Racing contingent in the early going and teams gambling on fuel or tires in the latter stages in an effort to find a way to overtake him.
Roush Fenway Racing had a stranglehold on the lead at the outset as polesitter Greg Biffle (No. 16 Scotch Blue Ford) led the first 23 laps before handing off to Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Crown Royal Ford), who enjoyed a 19-lap stint in the lead. Stewart and Edwards toyed with the lead briefly, but it was Kenseth that was showing the muscle by leading 84 of the first 112 laps.
It wasn’t until the first caution of the day on Lap 113 for debris that the Roush Fenway contingent wasn’t dominating up front. Stewart came out of the pits with the lead and opened up more than a three-second lead over Roush Fenway’s David Ragan (No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford) by Lap 150.
He led 41 of 42 laps during that stretch before losing it briefly during a cycle of green-flag pit stops. Stewart was back in the lead after three laps on 162 and led 86 of the next 90 laps. Stewart’s primary contender after a caution on Lap 202 was Marcos Ambrose (No. 9 DeWalt Ford), who was chasing his second career Sprint Cup win but first on an oval. Ambrose was able to close to 0.210 of a second by Lap 225 but Stewart maintained the lead.
Strategy came into play on the next caution (Lap 263) in an attempt to wrestle the lead from a dominant Stewart. Edwards opted for two right-side tires while Stewart and many of the others up front took four, giving Edwards the lead on the restart while Stewart was second out of the pits.
Another caution quickly ensued five laps later and Stewart got a great jump on the restart with 60 to go and took Edwards on the backstretch for the lead. Within 10 laps after the restart, Stewart stretched the lead to more than a second.
The final green-flag pit stops arrived with about 35 to go. Stewart and Edwards were on the same sequence and Stewart won the battle out of pit lane while Kasey Kahne (No. 4 Red Bull Toyota), who was running third, pitted a few laps later and sandwiched himself between Stewart and Edwards. The trio was running ninth, 10th, and 11th, respectively, as the other cars stayed out and gambled.
Jeff Burton (No. 31 CAT Chevrolet) manned the lead with Ryan Newman (No. 39 Quicken Loans/Carrier Classic Chevrolet) and Mark Martin (CARQUEST/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet) filling out the top three.
Burton’s gamble ended with five to go when he ran out of fuel and Stewart pounced back on the lead with Edwards and Kahne in tow. Kahne held on to take third and was followed by Kenseth and Biffle, giving Roush Fenway three of the top five positions.
Michael McDowell, who replaced the parked Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, finished 33rd.
| Fin | Str | Car | Driver | Lap | Pts |
| 1 | 5 | 14 | Tony Stewart | 334 | 48 |
| 2 | 7 | 99 | Carl Edwards | 334 | 43 |
| 3 | 9 | 4 | Kasey Kahne | 334 | 42 |
| 4 | 3 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | 334 | 41 |
| 5 | 1 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 334 | 40 |
| 6 | 23 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | 334 | 38 |
| 7 | 16 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 334 | 37 |
| 8 | 19 | 56 | Martin Truex, Jr. | 334 | 36 |
| 9 | 18 | 33 | Clint Bowyer | 334 | 35 |
| 10 | 26 | 43 | AJ Allmendinger | 334 | 34 |
| 11 | 12 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | 334 | 33 |
| 12 | 2 | 6 | David Ragan | 334 | 32 |
| 13 | 21 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | 334 | 31 |
| 14 | 11 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 334 | 31 |
| 15 | 4 | 27 | Paul Menard | 334 | 30 |
| 16 | 24 | 39 | Ryan Newman | 334 | 29 |
| 17 | 13 | 21 | Trevor Bayne(i) | 334 | 0 |
| 18 | 15 | 42 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 334 | 26 |
| 19 | 30 | 5 | Mark Martin | 334 | 25 |
| 20 | 28 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 333 | 24 |
| 21 | 20 | 83 | Brian Vickers | 333 | 23 |
| 22 | 6 | 0 | David Reutimann | 333 | 22 |
| 23 | 10 | 78 | Regan Smith | 333 | 21 |
| 24 | 8 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 333 | 21 |
| 25 | 33 | 13 | Casey Mears | 333 | 19 |
| 26 | 29 | 51 | Landon Cassill(i) | 332 | 0 |
| 27 | 31 | 31 | Jeff Burton | 332 | 18 |
| 28 | 32 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | 332 | 16 |
| 29 | 43 | 71 | Andy Lally # | 332 | 15 |
| 30 | 14 | 22 | Kurt Busch | 331 | 14 |
| 31 | 41 | 38 | Travis Kvapil(i) | 331 | 0 |
| 32 | 34 | 34 | David Gilliland | 331 | 12 |
| 33 | 17 | 18 | Michael McDowell | 331 | 11 |
| 34 | 37 | 32 | Mike Bliss(i) | 329 | 0 |
| 35 | 36 | 35 | Dave Blaney | 316 | 9 |
| 36 | 22 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 295 | 8 |
| 37 | 25 | 20 | Joey Logano | 258 | 7 |
| 38 | 42 | 36 | Geoffrey Bodine | 215 | 6 |
| 39 | 39 | 46 | Scott Speed(i) | 30 | 0 |
| 40 | 35 | 66 | Josh Wise(i) | 23 | 0 |
| 41 | 38 | 37 | Mike Skinner(i) | 19 | 0 |
| 42 | 40 | 87 | Joe Nemechek(i) | 14 | 0 |
| 43 | 27 | 55 | JJ Yeley | 10 | 1 |
| (i) Ineligible for driver
points in this series, # Rookie |