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Rick Hendrick has won five consecutive races, but his only win at Texas is by the retired Terry Labonte.By the Numbers: Texas
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Twelve races. Twelve different winners. Texas Motor Speedway is the only track on the Nextel Cup circuit to carry the distinction of never having had a repeat winner. From Jeff Burton in 1997 to Tony Stewart this past October, a different driver had made his way to Victory Lane in the track's short history.
Texas winners
Career victories
| Year | Driver | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Jeff Burton | 18 |
| 1998 | Mark Martin | 35 |
| 1999 | Terry Labonte | 22 |
| 2000 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 17 |
| 2001 | Dale Jarrett | 32 |
| 2002 | Matt Kenseth | 15 |
| 2003 | Ryan Newman | 12 |
| 2004 | Elliott Sadler | 3 |
| 2005 | Greg Biffle | 11 |
| Carl Edwards | 4 | |
| 2006 | Kasey Kahne | 7 |
| Tony Stewart | 29 |
But those 12 winners carry plenty of history in NASCAR, with 205 Cup victories among them.
Four -- Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Terry Labonte and Tony Stewart -- have a Cup championship to their credit. And 10 have competed in the Chase.
Jeff Gordon, however, is not among that group. Texas is one of three current tracks -- the others being Phoenix and Homestead -- at which Gordon has not won. Despite being tied with Mark Martin for the most top-fives there with four, Gordon's average finish at TMS is 16.8, his worst of all the current tracks.
Jimmie Johnson has a 6.3 average finish at Texas, best of any driver. But he, too, has yet to win there. In fact, Johnson has completed every lap in his seven starts (2,343) but on only three of them did he have the lead.
Furthermore, if any of Hendrick Motorsports' four drivers wins this weekend, it would mark only the sixth time in Cup history a team has won five consecutive races. But as good as they have been this season, history is not on their side.
Interesting Fact
47Number of starts at Texas for Rick Hendrick as a team owner. His only victory came courtesy of Terry Labonte in 1999. Hendrick's cumulative 19.2 average finish is his worse at any current track.
Fun Fact
4-24-1982Date of birth for Kelly Clarkson, recording artist and 2007 NASCAR performer and spokeswoman. Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, home city to Texas Motor Speedway, and grew up in nearby Burleson, Texas.
All the Facts
1Victories at Texas won from the pole: Kasey Kahne in April 2006.
2Drivers to win their first race at Texas: Jeff Burton (1997); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2000).
2Crashes by Greg Biffle at Texas in 2006. Biffle was the only driver to start both TMS races and fail to finish either of them.
3Drivers to finish in the top 10 in both Texas races last year: Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick. Stewart and Harvick each had top-five finishes.
3Consecutive top-10s at Texas for Denny Hamlin, his first three starts there.
4Former winners at Texas with an average finish outside the top 20 there: Greg Biffle (26.2); Kasey Kahne (22.6); Ryan Newman (27.9); Elliott Sadler (23.1).
7Races won at Texas from a top-five starting spot. Nine of the 12 races have been won from a top-10 starting position.
7Wins at Texas by Ford, most of any manufacturer.
9Drivers who have competed in all 12 Texas races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip.
10.5Average finish at Texas for Casey Mears, his best at any track. He has four top-10s in six starts.
12Worst finish at Texas by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the eight races he has been running at the finish. Junior has one DNF at TMS.
12.3Average finish at Texas for Martin Truex Jr., who like Denny Hamlin has completed all 1,007 laps in his three starts there.
14.7Average start and average finish for Dale Jarrett in 12 Texas starts.
120.8Driver rating for Tony Stewart in the past four races at Texas, best of any driver.
453Laps led at Texas by Tony Stewart, most of any driver. Stewart led 278 laps there in November 2006, the most for any winner.
7,253,642Purse for the Samsung 500, third-largest of the 36 races on the Nextel Cup schedule. Only the Daytona 500 (in excess of $18 million) and the Allstae 400 at the Brickyard (excess of $9 million) pay out more.
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Texas Motor Speedway
Race winners
| Year | Pole | Winner | Start | Make |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Rained Out | J. Burton | 5 | Ford |
| 1998 | J. Mayfield | M. Martin | 7 | Ford |
| 1999 | K. Irwin | T. Labonte | 4 | Chevrolet |
| 2000 | T. Labonte | Dale Jr. | 4 | Chevrolet |
| 2001 | Dale Jr. | D. Jarrett | 3 | Ford |
| 2002 | B. Elliott | M. Kenseth | 31 | Ford |
| 2003 | B. Labonte | R. Newman | 3 | Dodge |
| 2004 | B. Labonte | E. Sadler | 19 | Ford |
| 2005 | R. Newman | G. Biffle | 5 | Ford |
| R. Newman | C. Edwards | 30 | Ford | |
| 2005 | K. Kahne | K. Kahne | 1 | Dodge |
| B. Vickers | T. Stewart | 8 | Chevrolet |
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