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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas

At a Glance 

What: O’Reilly Auto Parts 500
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth, Texas
Green flag: 1:46:30 p.m. ET
TV/Radio: FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Forecast: Mostly cloudy with a high near 82, according to the National Weather Service. South winds 15-20 mph, gusty at times.
National Anthem: Danielle Peck
Grand Marshal: Jim Rome, sports radio and television host
Race distance: 334 laps, 501 miles
Pit road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 55 mph
Stage lengths: Stage 1 ends on Lap 85. Stage 2 ends on Lap 170. Final stage is scheduled to end on Lap 334.

 

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas


FORT WORTH, Texas — Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) promises to be one of the most interesting Monster Energy NASCAR Cup races of the season — and not just because the repaved, reconfigured speedway will pose an enormous challenge to the top drivers.


When the green flag waves Sunday, a large percentage of the speed in the field will be coming from the rear. The Chevrolets of series leader Kyle Larson and of Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will start toward the back on owner points because their cars failed to pass pre-qualifying inspection in time to make a run during time trails.


Further expanding the contingent at the rear of the field are: Kyle Busch, who hit the wall during opening practice and did not make a qualifying attempt; Erik Jones, who destroyed his primary car during practice and went to a backup; and seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who spun during the first round of knockout qualifying, flat-spotted his tires and will start from the back on fresh rubber.


Those drivers will be trying to work their way forward as quickly as possible, and they’ll have the muscle to do so. Larson was second-fastest to Brad Keselowski in Saturday’s first practice session. Earnhardt and Elliott were fourth and fifth on the early speed chart, all but guaranteeing a free-for-all when the race starts.


"I ain’t too worried about it," said Earnhardt, who will start 37th on Sunday. "The race is pretty long. I don’t know what was wrong with our car going through tech, but if you don’t make it, you don’t get out there and I like that. I like the rules being the same for everybody."


Though he clearly has a fast car, Larson acknowledged the difficulty in starting from the rear on the new Texas asphalt.


"I don’t know exactly what happened — we just didn’t make it through tech," Larson said. "Yeah, this is not the place you want to not make it through tech. It will be really hard to pass, I think, on Sunday. Wherever we end up starting is going to hurt us."

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas
RELATED: Race results | Sunday Snapshot | Detailed breakdown

FORT WORTH, Texas – What a difference a pit stop made.


Erik Jones gained two seconds over Ryan Blaney on his final trip to pit road, and that was all the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota needed for a convincing victory in Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.


In winning for the second time at Texas, the first time this season and the seventh time in his career, Jones led 112 of the 200 laps and stretched his advantage to more than three seconds in the late going before driving conservatively over the last three laps and beating Blaney to the stripe by .512 seconds.


"I tiptoed a lot there in the segments and ended up letting the 22 (Blaney) catch us and pass us, but then I was just super aggressive the whole time in traffic just trying to make passes as quick as I could and get as many cars as I could between myself and Ryan, and it paid off," Jones said.


"I think we were probably a little slower than him for the last few laps – he had so many lapped cars to get around that there was no way he was going to get to us."


Kevin Harvick ran third, 21.383 seconds behind Jones, as only nine drivers finished on the lead lap. Austin Dillon was fourth, followed by Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Cole Custer, who posted a career-best fifth, and Darrell Wallace Jr., who finished sixth for the fifth consecutive race.


With the final stage of the race going green from a restart on Lap 98 to the conclusion, Blaney ran down Jones and passed him for the lead on Lap 131. Jones came to pit road for fresh tires and fuel on Lap 147, and Blaney followed a lap later.


In the exchange of stops, Jones went from a half-second behind to 2.178 seconds ahead of the runner-up, and from that point on it was game over.


"I thought our car was pretty good all day," Blaney said. "The 20 seemed to be a little better than us for 35 or 40 laps. Then I feel like we could start running him down. We passed him before the last pit stop, and I thought our car was pretty decent right there. I needed to turn a little better early in a run. I knew it wasn’t going to be that long for the next stint.

"We didn’t come out with the lead, and that hurt us. I think if we would have come out with the lead, I don’t know if I could have held him off. He was pretty good right away, but we kind of over adjusted and got too free that last run. I felt like we were kind of even with them 10 laps into a run, but then he got so far out ahead that we couldn’t run him down. Just couldn’t get there."


Stage racing played a decisive role in strategies employed by NASCAR XFINITY Series regulars versus Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers moonlighting in Saturday’s race. When Garrett Smithley’s spin off Turn 2 brought out the fifth caution on Lap 84, most of the Cup drivers came to pit road. The XFINITY regulars, on the other hand, stayed on the track under the yellow to collect points at the end of the second stage, which concluded on Lap 90. William Byron won the stage and the accompanying playoff point, leading nine XFINITY regulars in the top 10 in that stage.


In contrast, Jones won the first stage, which featured only three full-time XFINITY drivers in the top 10.


Despite finishing 10th as the first driver one lap down, Elliott Sadler retained the series lead by six points over Byron in second place.


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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas

RELATED: Full lineup, roster for Sunday

FORT WORTH — In the moments following a qualifying miscue Friday evening at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson good-naturedly offered up an assessment of his 2017 season.


"I think we used up all our good luck at Homestead last year," the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion told reporters with a smile.


The luck he referred to was a happy ending to the 2016 season finale when he started last in the field and rallied to victory in the final three laps to clinch a record-tying seventh title.

MORE: Johnson ‘fortunate’ for pressures put on team


This year has been a different story — a lot less "Cinderella" and a lot more "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."


He’ll line up 24th on the starting grid for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) instead of anywhere close to the top-five effort he had put in before the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy spun in time trials.


It’s kinda been that way for Johnson early in the 2017 season. He is winless and ranked 14th in the standings entering Sunday’s race — the lowest he’s been ranked after six races ever in a Hall of Fame-certain 16-season career.


With a series-best six victories on the Texas high banks — including three consecutive from 2014-15 — Johnson is absolutely the all-time best here. He has five runner-up finishes and an all-time tops 1,023 laps led. He has a winner’s cowboy hat for nearly every day of the week.


The statistics are all promising for Johnson, however, this is also the first race on the newly paved, reconfigured Texas oval. In addition to the fresh pavement, the banking in Turns 1 and 2 has been lessened from 24 degrees to 20 degrees and the racing surface there widened from 60 to 80 feet.

READ: Texas repave prooves difficult | Drivers eager to race on repave


There was no testing prior to the race weekend, and four teams had to go to Plan B because of accidents in practice. Rookie Erik Jones and Chase Elliott will race backup cars after crashes in Friday’s practice. Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne will race back-up cars after crashes in Saturday’s final practice.


WATCH: Elliott spins | Jones to backup | Bayne with issues | Kahne into wall


Johnson, meanwhile, was the fastest in that last practice and ran more laps (45) than all but two drivers. Brad Keselowski completed 46 laps and Kyle Busch ran 47.


"I have it in me, but I think it’s a clean sheet of paper," Johnson said of the new-look Texas track. "You can’t pick a favorite right now. Anytime there is a reconfiguration, a new asphalt, it’s a total game-changer. All of past history is now out the window and it’s like we are coming here for the first time."


In addition to the Texas-specific challenges, Johnson’s results elsewhere this season appear underachieving at first glance. He has only a single top 10 in six races — ninth at Phoenix. And his average finish on the year so far is 18.2. Three times he’s finished 19th or worse. A 34th-place result — he was caught up in a crash not of his making — in the season-opening Daytona 500 left the team playing catch-up immediately.


The comforting news in all this is that the 80-time winner Johnson does not appear frantic or overly concerned about his season’s start, but rather calm and optimistic.



See: Relive all 80 wins


And when it comes to navigating the Texas high banks, Johnson has every reason to feel that way.


"I don’t mind the questions, I mean, they are rightfully asked," Johnson said last week of the more frequent questions about the team’s start. "I think the overreaction on either side is very amusing. If we are not winning, how big of a deal some make of it and when we win, how big of a deal some make of it.


"I think our history shows that we can rebound quickly and we have unfortunately had slow summers through our existence. There are a few dynamics there that are pretty darn predictable even though we try to change them, especially that summer slump.


"I am so fortunate in (that) my career has shifted in a way to where there are high expectations that come with it. I will gladly take that than a lot of shoes that other drivers are sitting in."

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas
RELATED: Erik Jones prevails | Race results


FORT WORTH, Texas — Darrell Wallace Jr. would tell you he’s not necessarily a "numbers" kind of guy.


But he leaned back against his Roush Racing No. 6 Leidos Ford on Texas Motor Speedway’s pit road Saturday, shook his head, laughed a bit and thought about the upside of scoring his fifth consecutive sixth-place finish this year.


Outside of a crash-derailed, 33rd-place effort at the XFINITY Series’ season opener at Daytona Beach, Wallace has finished sixth in every single race.


NASCAR Hall of Famer Jack Ingram finished runner-up in the series six consecutive times in 1983 — the longest streak of consistency in the series.


All of Wallace’s sixes have produced an even more encouraging number: four. Wallace is ranked fourth in the standings, 49 points behind leader Elliott Sadler with the series’ next race at Bristol, Tennessee, in two weeks.


"Unreal," Wallace said smiling. "Hats off to the crew. They put me in the game there after that last stop. I knew it was going to be a good day."


Wallace said it wasn’t until the very end that he realized his number was going to come up again. He spun out on Lap 67 racing hard with a group of cars, but didn’t make contact with the wall and was able to rally his Ford Mustang back up through the field — and even led a lap.


He was trying to catch rookie and fifth-place finisher Cole Custer in the final frantic laps.


"I didn’t know where we were when I was battling with Custer," Wallace said. "I thought we were eighth or ninth. He did a good job all day. I was thinking, ‘oh, here goes seventh,’ but we were able to hold on.


"Nine laps to go, I was clear by 10 (car-lengths). I was coming down the frontstretch and I was like, there is no way we are in sixth again."


Wallace grinned and shook his head, "I’m going to talk to Elliott here. Maybe I could buy his number."


Points leader Elliott Sadler’s Chevrolet is No. 1.

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The next generation of Petty pride is making his ARCA debut Saturday night as Thad Moffitt runs the No. 46 Ford at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

With a helmet that’s fit for "The King," Richard Petty’s 16-year-old grandson is out to prove himself at the Music City 200.

 

 

Empire Racing Group and Richard Petty Motorsports partnered to put Moffitt’s No. 46 Petty-blue Ford on the track this weekend.

 

"I love racing, being at the track and just learning and trying to get better each race," Moffitt said in a press release. "The ERG team has been great and I’ve had a lot of fun with them in the late model. They have a good ARCA program and I really wanted to make my debut in this series.

 

"A lot of great drivers have raced in ARCA, and Uncle Kyle and Adam have both won in this series. It makes me really want to follow in their footsteps."

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas
RELATED: Sunday Snapshot | Starting lineup

FORT WORTH, Texas – To help prepare its fresh new pavement, Texas Motor Speedway will continue employing the highly specialized "Tire Monster" and "Tire Dragon" again Saturday night and Sunday morning to get the racing surface ready for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.

 

Two months ago, the track unveiled its newly paved 1.5-mile racing surface — altering Turns 1 and 2 by decreasing the banking from 24 to 20 degrees and adding 20 feet of width.

 

Goodyear did not feel a tire test was necessary coming into the race weekend and the track offered an extra hour of opening practice to help the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series prepare for the race.

 

Four drivers — Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne — have gone to backup cars following incidents on Friday (Jones, Elliott) and Saturday (Bayne, Kahne).

 

But the XFINITY Series race Saturday afternoon was uneventful in terms of track issues and Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage was optimistic about Sunday’s race — especially considering the extra efforts of the "Monster" and the "Dragon" devices to work the track surface in. Both will make laps around the track Saturday from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. and then begin again Sunday morning at 6 a.m. until pre-race activities begin in an effort to apply more rubber to widen the racing grooves.

 

The vehicles drag tires and move at a constant rate to work the new asphalt in. The Dragon from Kentucky Speedway goes slowly, the Monster from Texas goes fast. And Gossage reminded that the track has been running the devices for two months in preparation.

 

Gossage said he was encouraged by the surface heading into Sunday’s race, but careful and cautious to give a two thumbs-up verdict yet.

 

"The first half of the race was full of cautions but the second half of the race was race-y," Gossage said of the XFINITY Series’ 200-lapper Saturday.

 

"All the drivers I’ve talked to say [Turns] 1 and 2 are coming in and getting wider, [Turns] 3 and 4 are treacherous. They say it’s unbelievably narrow. I explained that’s because Turns 1 and 2 are wider now. Perspective is different for them now. It’s behaving like new asphalt. We’ve done all sorts of things to prep it but at the end of day you can’t simulate it. Nothing will totally simulate race cars at speed.

 

"Ask me tomorrow about this time. There’s some anxiety to it all, but I was encouraged by the way it got better as the race went on today."

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (April 6, 2017) — Before a rousing crowd of nearly 500 elementary school students at B.B. Owen in The Colony, Darrell Wallace Jr. made a visit to surprise fourth-grader Xavier Gooden with a Lionel Racing 1:24 scale die-cast bearing his winning design.



The school welcomed Wallace in grand fashion with a police escort; The Colony High School drum line, cheerleaders and Top Cats performing at the entrance; welcome signs; and a balloon-shaped Victory Lane on the school stage for his special appearance on behalf of Texas Motor Speedway’s Speeding To Read program.


After the school’s top readers were acknowledged, Gooden was announced as the overall winner of the competition among the 5,000 students and 10 DFW schools competing in Speeding To Read this school year.



Gooden’s design, which was pink, blue and green, was themed "Cure Cancer 2017" and had blue ribbons for colon cancer awareness. The paint scheme was dedicated to his two grandmothers with colon cancer, one of which he lost recently and the other — Clara Simmons — that was on hand for the presentation with several family members.



The students presented Wallace, the driver of the No. 6 Leidos Ford Mustang, with a "good luck" banner for Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway as well as a B.B. Owen Elementary T-shirt as the honored guest.

He also participated with students in a NASCAR quiz game; signed autographs and took photos with numerous students; toured the school including the hallway of die-cast designs; and finished with a photo in the "selfie" No. 6 car the students created for him and then signed the classroom door that featured his car number and sponsor.  


The assembly became emotional when Gooden explained to the audience that his paint scheme was a tribute to his two grandmothers, one who recently passed away and the other who was on hand for the presentation along with his parents and several other family members. She came on stage in tears to give her grandson a big embrace for his tribute. Wallace also teared up from the tribute, thinking of his Granny Jan who passed away this past fall in Knoxville, Tennessee, and provided a warm embrace to Gooden’s grandmother when she came on stage.


What They Are Saying
"I just don’t know what to say. I am just speechless." – Xavier Gooden on stage after he was presented his paint scheme on a 1:24 scale Lionel Racing NASCAR Authentics die-cast.



"It (paint scheme) was for my grandmas because they both had colon cancer, but one sadly didn’t survive. But the grandma on my dad’s side, she is still around. It was really cool to have my grandma here. I didn’t know everyone (from my family) was going to come and they did." — Gooden on his paint scheme that was a tribute to his two grandmothers.



"That was special — touching. It’s still something that is really sensitive to me. I didn’t expect the waterworks to come out, but it definitely happened." — Bubba Wallace on losing his Granny Jan in November and getting tearful when hearing of Gooden’s paint scheme tribute.



"That was huge. We kind of played a little joke on them with our travel disaster we had today. We were able to make it here a little bit late, but brought the kids a face they wanted to see. It was a good time. A lot of cheers, screams. Not even a couple boos like I get at the track; it was all positive and that was a lot of fun walking out and getting to spend some time with the kids at B.B. Owen." — Wallace on the rousing reception of nearly 500 students, parents and special guests at the full-school assembly.



"It was cool having Xavier’s family here. He is such a bright, young kid. He’s got a lot going for him. He’s exciting, he loves living life to the fullest each and every day. You can see that on his face. He is taking it all in. He understands everything that is going on around him. Keeping his family close. That’s something I strive for the same thing." — Wallace on Gooden after meeting him and his family at the assembly.   


"This is our third year doing this and it’s been really great. It is something that Lionel Racing looks forward to every year. This is the first year we’ve ever put a car in our NASCAR Authentics line. Just to watch the kids get so excited about reading — it’s something really cool that Texas Motor Speedway does — it is something I would hope other tracks would eventually take on and do as well." — Lionel Racing Director of e-Commerce and Marketing Thomas DeBoyace.


"Just being here you get the goosebumps and you see the emotions — even with Bubba just losing a family member as well. All the cars were great but this one specifically being a child that was attached to cancer and had been affected by it — it was really good how he did it on the car in honor of his family member. It was phenomenal. It was like a no-brainer to pick this one as our winner for the year." — DeBoyace on the winning design and presentation of the die-cast to Gooden.



"It is truly special to see the impact that Lionel Racing, Bubba and Texas Motor Speedway can make with our elementary school visits to acknowledge the die-cast winners and the top readers," Texas Motor Speedway Vice President of Media Relations Mike Zizzo. "Having our industry inspire kids to read more frequently, find their artistic talents and dream big is an honor for all of us involved."



Fast Fact
Another significant reward of winning the Lionel Racing "Design A Die-Cast" competition is that Gooden’s design will be included in Lionel Racing’s commercial NASCAR Authentics die-cast line featuring all the cars of the sport’s stars that is expected out in December. Gooden’s car will be available in major retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R Us and Target. Proceeds from his car sales will be donated by Lionel Racing and the NASCAR Foundation to a designated charity in Gooden’s name.


"First time ever they are going to be at Walmart, Target, Toys ‘R Us and our NASCAR Authentics line," DeBoyace said. "Our NASCAR enthusiasts will collect these cars and actually get them and put them as part of their collection now with a great story behind it, with money going to charity. Knowing that a kid that is so passionate about reading and getting things done and designing his own car, it was just really cool."

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Editor’s note: Every Friday during the season, "Tweets You Might Have Missed" presents eight of the best NASCAR-related tweets from the week. 



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BUY TICKETS: See the races in 2017

In most markets, FS2 is located on the same channel previously occupied by FuelTV. Events will also be televised on FOX Sports GO, an online and mobile streaming product that allows subscribers of most cable providers to watch live sports and shows on FOX, FS1, FS2 and FOX Deportes.

Below is a channel finder as well as channel numbers for national distributors.

DirecTV: 618
AT&T U-Verse: 651/1651 (HD)
Dish: 149
Verizon FiOS: 84