truexThe Bass Pro Shops team rebuilt his favorite car that had been wrecked last week and Martin Tuex Jr. put it on the pole with a lap time of 27.964 seconds and a speed of 193.105 miles an hour. In a post qualifying interview Martin said ” I’ve got to hand it to all the guys on this team,” Truex said. “They rebuilt this car from last week. It’s my favorite car and it has been for a good part of the season. They made it as good as new.”This car here, for some reason, we haven’t been able to duplicate it. We’ve tried a few times. For some reason, we can’t get a body like this one. I don’t know what it is about this car. I love the feel of it, the way the seat’s in it, just everything about it when I get in it. I’ve got a lot of confidence I can drive really hard in it and it’s fast.”

                              AFTER LAST WEEKS CRASH

                 This Bass Pro Shops Team got on the ball after Martin Truex Jr. plowed into the back of Denny Hamlin’s race car last week at The Atlanta Motor Speedway. They got it back to the shop in Mooresville North Carolina and immediately after rolling it,or more precisely, dragging it off the hauler, they tore it apart and put it back together. Usually teams have a fleet of prepared cars at their disposal and can just grab one and set it up for the next track. But this car is special, and with only three races left in the season, its time to put up or shut up and the car needs to be the best in the stable. So if you just wrecked the best car in the stable, do you go with the second best or attempt to rebuild the best? Well after a post race BBQ at Martin Truex’s motor coach in the Atlanta infield (Truex cooking), They decided to head back to Mooresville and rebuild it.

                              How They Stack Up

                 Here are your top qualifiers for the Dickies 500 at Texas. Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field of 43 to the green followed by Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya,Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger,Kurt Bush, Denny Hamlin, Jimmy Johnson, Casey Mears and rounding out the top ten is The U.S. Army Chevrolet of Mark Martin.  Here is the complete starting grid for the Dickies 500.
POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 193.105 27.964 Leader
2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 192.424 28.063 -0.099
3 42 Juan Montoya* Dodge Texaco / Havoline 192.417 28.064 -0.100
4 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 192.239 28.090 -0.126
5 84 A.J. Allmendinger* Toyota Red Bull 192.239 28.090 -0.126
6 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 192.164 28.101 -0.137
7 11 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet FedEx Kinko’s 192.130 28.106 -0.142
8 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 192.068 28.115 -0.151
9 25 Casey Mears Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC 191.904 28.139 -0.175
10 01 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 191.605 28.183 -0.219
11 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 191.557 28.190 -0.226
12 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 191.449 28.206 -0.242
13 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories 191.388 28.215 -0.251
14 36 Mike Skinner Toyota 360 OTC 191.381 28.216 -0.252
15 20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet The Home Depot 191.327 28.224 -0.260
16 15 Paul Menard* Chevrolet Moen / Menards 191.286 28.230 -0.266
17 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet CARQUEST / Kellogg’s 191.272 28.232 -0.268
18 17 Matt Kenseth Ford USG Sheetrock / DEWALT 191.191 28.244 -0.280
19 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dodge Dealers Lifetime Powertrain Warranty / UAW 191.022 28.269 -0.305
20 10 Scott Riggs Dodge Stanley Proto Tools / Valvoline 191.022 28.269 -0.305
21 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 190.981 28.275 -0.311
22 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 190.941 28.281 -0.317
23 16 Greg Biffle Ford Jackson Hewitt 190.887 28.289 -0.325
24 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal Special Reserve 190.813 28.300 -0.336
25 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Dodge Dealers Lifetime Powertrain Warranty / UAW 190.665 28.322 -0.358
26 44 Dale Jarrett Toyota UPS 190.665 28.322 -0.358
27 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 190.570 28.336 -0.372
28 40 David Stremme Dodge HomeLife Communities 190.476 28.350 -0.386
29 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 190.181 28.394 -0.430
30 21 Bill Elliott Ford Delimex 190.034 28.416 -0.452
31 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 189.860 28.442 -0.478
32 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 189.820 28.448 -0.484
33 6 David Ragan* Ford AAA Insurance 189.807 28.450 -0.486
34 38 David Gilliland Ford M&M’s 189.640 28.475 -0.511
35 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing 189.620 28.478 -0.514
36 66 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Best Buy 189.580 28.484 -0.520
37 45 Kyle Petty Dodge National Tire & Battery 189.354 28.518 -0.554
38 18 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 188.114 28.706 -0.742
39 88 Ricky Rudd+ Ford Snickers 187.983 28.726 -0.762
40 96 Tony Raines+ Chevrolet DLP HDTV 187.911 28.737 -0.773
41 7 Robby Gordon+ Ford MAPEI / Menards 187.298 28.831 -0.867
42 70 Johnny Sauter+ Chevrolet FleetPride / Yellow 186.651 28.931 -0.967
43 00 David Reutimann* Toyota Burger King 189.321 28.523 -0.559

Failing to make the field are

Ward Burton, John Andretti,Michael Waltrip,Burney Lamar, and Kevin Lepage.

                              My Thoughts On Texas

                 The Texas motor speedway is another 1.5 mile track that carries plenty of speed in the turns. there is plenty of room to move around but the high line seems to work best after the cars get dialed in about mid race. Not everyone will be able to stay up there and some drivers will prefer the bottom so there is the potential for some good racing, even three wide for brief periods of time. Although that won’t work for long at Texas as there is not enough room in the corners for that. I look forward to a great race there but I still feel that this date was sort of stolen from another track. I loved the racing at Rockingham North Carolina and I hated to see the racing go away from there. I still to this day think that it was dirty and underhanded for the International Speedway Corporation (its really Nascar) to buy Rockingham and then move the dates to its new track in Texas. I hope the former owners can sleep at night knowing full well what they did to the Rockingham fans. There I that off of my chest.

                 The television coverage of the Dickies 500 starts at 3 P.M. eastern time on ABC with pre-race coverage starting on the same network an hour earlier. Tune in in your sleeper by hooking up to Idle Air or firing up your dish. You can try to find a truck stop that is going to watch the race in the T.V. lounge but While I was on the road I found that difficult at best. For some reason, truck stops did not care about Nascar. They all thought that we wanted to watch TNT all day long? I had to buy a dish or hook up somewhere. At any rate I hope you can catch the race this Sunday. This is one in three left on the season. Stay safe out there and keep America moving.