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Kurt Busch Claims Win at Texas, Johnson Crashes

Kurt Busch claimed his first win in the 2009 Chase at Texas Motor Speedway, mastering the fuel mileage strategy in the closing stages of the Dickies 500 and crossing the finish line ahead of Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.

Kurt got the best of his brother Kyle in the dying stages of the race, when the youngest of the Busch brothers decided to gamble through to his 3rd win of the weekend. After taking wins in both the Truck and Nationwide races in Texas, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver tried to push his luck in the Sprint Cup race also, only to run out of fuel with 3 laps to go.

The two had previously dominated the action at Texas Motor Speedway, following a short leading stint from Jeff Gordon. However, maybe the biggest news of the day came from championship leader Jimmie Johnson, who got hit by Sam Hornish Jr's car and had to pit into the garage with extensive damage to his car.

From that point on, it was only a matter of how many points Johnson would lose in the title race, as the mechanics tried to get him back on track as soon as possible. Staying on track and hoping many cars would go out of the race was to become his new strategy in the race. Johnson eventually finished the Dickies 500 in 38th place, but his title rivals failed to make the most of it.

Although leading the race in the early stages, teammate Jeff Gordon lost pace slowly but surely ahead of the Bush brothers. In addition, he almost got hit mid-way through the race, spinning through to avoid hitting another car. Fortunately enough, the Californian escaped with his car intact and eventually finished the race in 13th place.

Mark Martin was the first driver in the Chase – and still with some chances of fighting for the title – to benefit from Johnson's failure, finishing the race in 4th place, ahead of Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle followed through, ahead of Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger.

In the overall classification, Johnson is still very strong for his 4th consecutive title in the Sprint Cup Series, having a consistent 73-point advantage over Martin and 112 over teammate Jeff Gordon.
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