Records and facts

Last year's AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 took forever to actually run.  52 laps were completed Sunday afternoon as scheduled before rains showed up and ended the festivities for the day.  Monday was no better as mist and cold weather prevented NASCAR from getting the track dry to restart the event.

Tuesday afternoon saw more heavy mist fall, preventing the track from being dried.  That forced a rare third postponement to Wednesday afternoon.  

Once the race finally got back going after a three-day delay, there was no true favorite to win.  No one led more than 100 laps, but Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer led the most.  Ultimately, the race came down to a battle between the two drivers late.  Busch took the lead away from Bowyer with 24 laps to go and held on to take the victory.

Martin Truex Jr. was second, while Christopher Bell finished a then-career-best third after running the leaders down from way back.  Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five, while Bowyer ended up finishing a lap down in 17th after a late stop.

Jimmie Johnson is the all-time leader in triumphs at Texas Motor Speedway with seven career victories.  Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards each have four Texas wins.  Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick both have three wins, while four separate drivers (Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton) have two wins.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.5-mile quad-oval, 334 laps (501 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees

Frontstretch: 2,250 ft., banked 5 degrees

Backstretch: 1,330 ft., banked 5 degrees

Grandstand Seating: 128,655

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

Say What?

"Texas, obviously, has been a real tough place for us. I feel like the good news is we had a really good run there at the All-Star Race for the first time since the repave, so that was really encouraging. Sometimes you’ve got to be careful about having a good run and going back because it doesn’t always work out. The way that we’ve performed at all three of the upcoming tracks earlier in the year, I feel like we can go and have a shot to win any of them, really. I hope we can lock ourselves in and go have another shot at a championship." - Chase Elliott

"It’s always been a really good place for me, whether that was before the repave or after the repave. A lot of credit goes to Joe Gibbs Racing and the cars they bring there for me. We’ve had a lot of success at Texas over the years, whether that is in the Xfinity Series, winning five in a row as we did there, winning in the Trucks, and now we have four Cup wins there, too, after the win last fall. It’s just been a really good place for me, and our team has been better with the 550 [horsepower] package this year, and hoping we can get into victory lane there this weekend with our Interstate Batteries Camry and punch our ticket to Phoenix early." - Kyle Busch

"I think the most difficult thing at Texas is that it’s repaved and they changed the banking in turns one and two, and it’s just the speed you carry through the banked corner of turns three and four, and then you have to get slowed down for the flat turns one and two. That has made it very challenging. Then, the exit of turn two is very flat, so you’re carrying some speed there and the car just doesn’t have a lot of grip because there isn’t any banking." - Aric Almirola

"Texas [Motor Speedway] is kind of it’s own animal, as far as 1.5-mile tracks go. All four turns are just so different that it’s hard to get your car to handle well. You have to really have your car so high in the air, essentially, for [turns] 3 and 4, that it’s hard to get through [turns] 1 and 2 and have your car driving good. It’s a tough balance, but I like Texas. I enjoy racing there. Since the repave, it’s been a little bit narrow. But I think in the last year or so, it’s started to widen out a little bit. Hopefully it continues to go that way so we can start to move around a little bit more. I think that’s going to help the racing a lot." - Erik Jones

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.