Rubbin' is Racin': Real Racing, Not Chase-ing

Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway gave me that feeling of something I haven't seen in a while.

Most likely, I had that feeling because, well, I hadn't.

Sunday's race, the third win in-a-row for Jimmie Johnson, had a grand total of 55 loop lead changes -- the most NASCAR has had in a race since it started keeping tabs on the data provided by the several different scoring loops around the track.

Yes, NASCAR stars of today swapped position, for the lead, multiple times, with much at stake. Awesome!

I can imagine that those high numbers could be easily chalked up to a couple of quality battles -- side by side nonetheless -- that happened during the Dickie's 500 for the lead. (The best example starts at about 8:41)

First, it was Denny Hamlin vs. Matt Kenseth with less than 100 laps to go. Hamlin drove like he hasn't won a race in awhile to battle Kenseth for the lead for several laps. Swapping the position back and forth, Kenseth finally got the better side of the deal when Hamlin lost control of his No. 11 Chevrolet off of turn two. Hamlin never spun the car, but he impacted the wall hard enough to end any chances at a win (starts about 7:57).

Kenseth luckily avoided Hamlin's mess to find himself dueled in another battle in the closing stages on the event.


Johnson, on fresher tires, mowed down the top five and found himself on Kenseth's bumper with eight to go. As you see, Johnson and Kenseth battled, with Kenseth showing some impressive saves. One save was particularly reminiscent of the save Carl Edwards didn't have when racing Casey Mears at the fall Busch race in Charlotte in 2006.

This time, though, Kenseth hung on.

Johnson had a save or two himself, and could have easily decided that the championship wouldn't be won or lost by taking second place.Instead, he risked getting taken out with a late-race charge.

With four laps to go, Johnson was back to Kenseth's bumper. Side-by-side they battled, hardly making any contact. Finally, with two to go, Johnson found the right line and enough room to cut off Kenseth and made the final pass for the lead stick coming out of turn two.

A majority of NASCAR fans probably wouldn't have expected Johnson to battle so hard on the end with the championship between himself and teammate Jeff Gordon so doggone close.

But really, you've to applaud his efforts, and the ability of Kenseth to race Johnson so well without any contact.

Love him or hate him, Jimmie Johnson is showing right now why he is one of the best wheelmen in the Cup garage.