NOVEMBER 6, 2006

Here and there

Tony Stewart won his second straight victory in the NASCAR Nextel Cup in Texas, but as he is not one of the 10 championship challengers, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was doing it just for fun while the fight for the title was going on behind him. Jimmie Johnson fought his way to second place in a Chevrolet 1-6 sweep and the Hendrick driver now takes the lead in the Nextel Cup from Roush Racing's Matt Kenseth. With two races now remaining and a maximum 190 points available at each one all 10 challengers are in theory still in with a chance although in reality it is probably down to the top five with Johnson and Kenseth needing to watch out for Dale Earnhardt Jr, rookie Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. Previous leader Jeff Burton suffered a tyre failure in Texas and crashed heavily. The car was repaired and finished the race but there is now little chance for Burton to win. Also in trouble was Kasey Kahne who suffered an engine failure and is not the last of the top 10 men. The most remarkable performance in Texas came from Earnhardt who hit the wall and damaged his car, had seven pit stops and a penalty for speeding in the pitlane but still managed to fight back from 34th place to finish sixth.

The teams are back in action next week in Phoenix, Arizona, with the season finale at Homestead-Miami on November 19.