Insider's View: Wally Dallenbach

Talk about having to adapt. Only a week after the short track bumping and grinding at Bristol, the Winston Cup Series heads to the lightning-fast Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500.

	Wally Dallenbach

Bristol was its usual emotionally charged 500 laps last weekend but I'll tell you, you don't want to bring any of the grudges with you to Texas this week, not when you're racing at speeds close to 200 mph.

Texas is probably most similar to its sister track in Atlanta. They're both 1.5-mile, high-speed tracks with the trademark Speedway Motorsports dogleg on the front straightaway. Just like Atlanta, you carry a lot of speed through the corners at Texas and really, you try your best to stay on the gas as much as you can. A slight lift and a decrease in acceleration and you'll drop back pretty quickly.

Running in the low groove through the turns is the best way around Texas Motor Speedway. It's a little tricky coming off of Turn 2 though because the way the banking is there, your car wants to push toward the wall. So you're forced to feather the gas there a little bit to keep your car from going up toward the wall.

I've read about Texas installing a new caution light system for this weekend's racing. Lights have been placed right into the asphalt at the base of the wall and will be displayed in conjunction with the other safety lights around the track.

Although I haven't seen the system in person, it sounds like a good idea. Obviously I think anything that can be done to improve safety for the drivers is a great thing and I applaud the folks at TMS for taking the initiative.

	Texas Motor Speedway is one of the fastest tracks on the Winston Cup circuit. Credit: Autostock

As I was formulating my picks for this week I realized how there's been one constant so far this season in trying to predict who will do well every week -- Roush Racing. Led by Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch, it seems like we talk about the Roush cars pretty much every week. And Texas is no different.

I really like Kenseth to repeat this week at Texas. He's the defending race winner, is on top of the point standings and has figured out how to get around Texas Motor Speedway.

And it's hard not to like his teammate Busch, who finally made it to Victory Lane last week after all those runner-up finishes. Kurt has the advantage of confidence going for him and that sure helps when you get behind the wheel of that race car.

Bobby Labonte is another driver who brings confidence with him to Texas because he's run there so well in the past. A former winner, it's a homecoming weekend for Bobby as he races in front of his Texas fans. Plus he does so well at Atlanta I think that experience and success will translate well for him in Texas.

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Finally I think Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is someone to watch as well. He's shown flashes of success so far this season but hasn't been able to put it all together for a win. He's a former Texas winner and I think has a chance to finally make it to Victory Lane.

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