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The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Nov. 6, 2015
What to Watch: Friday
by The Frontstretch Staff
ThorSport Racing Leads Practice Sessions at Texas Motor Speedway
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Records and facts
Last year, Jimmie Johnson was able to get past Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon on the first green-white-checkered attempt. After contact with Brad Keselowski caused Gordon's tire to go down, resulting in a spin, Johnson held off Kevin Harvick to take the win. Of course, as you likely remember, that was just the beginning of the action as Gordon was none too pleased with Keselowski. A brawl broke out in the pits when Gordon confronted Keselowski after Harvick pushed Keselowski into the fray.
Johnson is the winningest driver in the Sprint Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway with five career wins, including the last two races and three of the last four. Carl Edwards has the next most with three while Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart all have two.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.5 mile quad-oval, 334 laps (501 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees in turns
Frontstretch: 2,250 ft, banked 5 degrees
Backstretch: 1,330 ft., banked 5 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 122,377
Total Permanent Seating (including suites): 138,122
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1997
Website: http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasmotorspeedway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TXMotorSpeedway
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice No. 2: Saturday, November 7, 11 - 11:55 a.m. on CNBC
Happy Hour: Saturday, November 7, 2 - 2:50 p.m. on NBCSN
Qualifying: Friday, November 6, 6:45 p.m. on NBCSN
Say What?!
"I don't really get into drama and excitement. For me, it's really about being intense in our own little bubble. I know, for us, it seems like there is more to navigate than there was last year just for the fact that we've had so many things go wrong up to this point. I think we've had one that has gone right and that was at Dover, so every other week we've had to navigate something or work through something to get the best finish we can. Hopefully, we can clean all those things up and do a little better over the final couple of weeks. I'd say at Texas you need to have a well-balanced car. It's a very fast racetrack, but I think as you look at the bumps and the way that the asphalt has worn out, cars drive pretty tough and have become more difficult to drive as you get later in the run. So you need to have a well-balanced racecar to try to make as much speed as possible." - Kevin Harvick
"Texas [Motor Speedway] gets more and more character as it ages. It definitely makes it more of a challenge for us as drivers, but that makes for better racing for the fans. We have Texas Lottery on the car this weekend and I want to get a good finish for them since it's their first time on our car." - Justin Allgaier
"You have to be comfortable or you're not going to go fast. The more comfortable I am, the faster we go. This track – the grooves have moved around, especially in the last couple of years. We've seen the track get wider and it's made it to where you can move around on the racetrack and where you can run the top side or the bottom side. It's nice from a driver's perspective to be able to have that flexibility behind the steering wheel, knowing that if your car's not driving exactly the way you want it to, you can move around the racetrack and find a spot the car likes better." - Tony Stewart
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Q: The 2000 O'Reilly 400 at Texas Motor Speedway was sadly overshadowed by the crash that took the life of Tony Roper. Later in the event, there was a bizarre crash on the backstretch involving Derrike Cope. What happened?
Thursday's Answer:
Q: Speedway Motorsports, Inc., the parent company (owner) of Texas Motor Speedway, normally uses _________ Motor Speedway as the name of their tracks. However, another track already held the rights to that name. Before the name trade a few months before the track opened, what was Texas Motor Speedway originally going to be called?
A: Originally, the track was going to be called Texas International Raceway because a dirt track located 170 miles away in Killeen filed to use the name Texas Motor Speedway first. Eventually, a settlement was reached to allow SMI to use the name Texas Motor Speedway, but not before they sold merchandise with the Texas International Raceway name.
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