2015 AAA Texas 500: Johnson Holds Off Keselowski in a Late Restart Fight

Jimmie Johnson won the 2015 AAA Texas 500 on 8 November 2015 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The race was contested over 334 laps and was the eighth event of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Johnson took his fifth win of the season and his 75th in his career, beating Brad Keselowski, who led a race-high 312 laps.

What is Texas Motor Speedway?

Texas Motor Speedway is a 2.4 km (1.5 mi) quad-oval in Fort Worth, Texas. The track was once called Texas International Raceway, a name it used briefly in 1996 before the current name took over.

Johnson's win at the venue was his sixth at Texas Motor Speedway and his eighth at the track for Hendrick Motorsports.

The race was broadcast by NBC, with Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte in the booth. Burton was a two-time winner at Texas. The radio call was carried by PRN and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Johnson's 75th win came after a suspended Kenseth, a hauler fire and a late restart fight with Keselowski.

Why was Matt Kenseth absent from the race?

Matt Kenseth did not start the race because NASCAR suspended him for two races after an incident at the previous event that eliminated Joey Logano. The suspension meant Erik Jones took his place in the No. 20 Toyota, which made it Jones's second Sprint Cup start.

NASCAR said the incident had ended the No. 22 car's chance to keep competing in the race, and it added that safety and the Chase elimination format were part of its decision. Joe Gibbs Racing appealed and called the penalty inconsistent with earlier rulings. The National Motorsports Appeals Panel upheld the original penalty on the Thursday before the race.

The final appeals officer, Bryan Moss, upheld the two-race suspension but changed the probation so that it ended on 31 December rather than running for six months. The absence was the first race Kenseth had missed since the 1999 NAPA 500, which ended a streak of 571 consecutive starts.

What happened before the race started?

On the Thursday before the race, a hauler carrying the primary and backup cars for HScott Motorsports caught fire on Interstate 20 west of Longview, Texas. Nobody was injured. The team sent a spare hauler from its shop in Spartanburg, South Carolina, but it could not reach the track before the garage opened at 8:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday.

Michael Annett therefore used the backup car of his teammate Justin Allgaier for the weekend. The spare cars served as backups for both drivers.

The entry list came out on Monday, 2 November, at 12:21 p.m. Eastern time, and forty-five cars were entered. Every car except Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell had also competed at Martinsville the week before. Joey Gase returned to the No. 32 Ford, Brian Scott came back to the No. 33 Chevrolet, and Reed Sorenson drove the No. 62 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet.

How did practice and qualifying go?

Brad Keselowski was fastest in the only practice session that could be completed, at 317.136 km/h (197.059 mph). The other two sessions on the Saturday were cancelled after NASCAR struggled to dry the track, which had been affected by overnight rain, high humidity and weepers coming up through the older asphalt.

Keselowski won the pole at 316.927 km/h (196.929 mph), with a time of 27.421 seconds. Kevin Harvick qualified second and Kyle Busch third, while Joey Logano was fourth. Erik Jones qualified sixth in place of the suspended Kenseth, and Martin Truex Jr. was 23rd after his car never really came alive in qualifying trim.

Keselowski said his Ford had been good since the team unloaded, and he was pleased that the speed he had in practice had carried over into qualifying. Harvick said he had kept similar speed through all three rounds of qualifying. Busch said Texas was an opportunity to score a win, and a top-five finish would be exactly what the team needed if it could not win.

How did the race start?

The green flag waved at 2:21 p.m. under clear blue skies, with Keselowski leading the pack. After ten laps he had built a lead of about one and a half seconds over Harvick. The first caution came on lap 11 after a single-car wreck in turn 4, and Joey Logano was the driver at the centre of the early trouble.

Logano suffered a left-rear tyre failure on the backstretch and spun in turn 3. The damage to his fender was significant, and he fell several laps down while the crew tried to repair the car. Crew chief Todd Gordon eventually sent him to the garage. Logano later described the race as a must-win for him.

The race restarted on lap 18, and Harvick took the lead from Keselowski on lap 19 after the two raced side by side down the front stretch. The second caution followed on lap 25, when Ryan Blaney suffered a right-front tyre blowout and hit the wall in turn 1. Blaney went on to finish forty-third.

Because the caution came a lap before the scheduled competition caution, race control counted it as the competition caution, which allowed teams to take on fuel. Matt DiBenedetto stayed out and briefly led, before he came in the next lap and returned the lead to Keselowski. Allmendinger and Aric Almirola were both penalised, and Denny Hamlin had to go to the garage with a fuel pump problem.

What were the middle stages of the race like?

The race restarted on lap 30, and the third caution came on lap 36 when Harvick's left-rear tyre went down and he dropped onto the apron. His crew chief, Rodney Childers, said the team first feared it had a problem with the air pressure, but then found a piece of debris cut into the tread from an earlier wreck.

Kyle Busch briefly moved past Keselowski on lap forty-three, only to lose the place to the No. 2 car a lap later. Earnhardt pitted off-schedule after a flat right-front tyre, and the fourth caution came on lap 51 when Tony Stewart spun into the grass on the front stretch. Almirola was penalised again for too many crew members over the wall.

The fifth caution came on lap 100, after a shredded left-rear tyre from Kyle Larson's car landed on the front stretch. Ryan Newman then made an unscheduled stop on lap 146 after cutting down his left-rear tyre exiting turn 2, and the debris from that incident caused the sixth caution on lap 149. Kasey Kahne was penalised for speeding on pit road.

Earnhardt's day became harder after he struck the wall with his right-rear corner, which changed the handling of his car. He spun on the turn 3 apron and triggered the seventh caution on lap 167. Allmendinger was penalised again for an uncontrolled tyre. The eighth caution came on lap 196, when debris from Trevor Bayne's shredded right-rear tyre hit the track in turn 2.

How did the race come down to Johnson and Keselowski?

After the restart on lap 204, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards started a cycle of green-flag stops with 84 laps to go. Keselowski pitted with 83 laps left and handed the lead to Jimmie Johnson, then took it back after Johnson's own stop the next lap. Harvick was not so fortunate, pitting off-schedule with 53 laps left after a right-rear tyre went flat, and he fell to 20th and a lap down.

Edwards began the final cycle of stops with 38 laps to go, and Keselowski pitted with 37 laps left. The lead moved to Harvick, but Denny Hamlin was penalised for speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive-through. On older tyres, Hamlin could not hold off Keselowski, who passed him with ease with 35 laps to go.

A ninth caution came with 24 laps to go, when a shredded right-front tyre from Erik Jones's car brought debris onto the track in turn 2. Racing resumed with 18 laps left. Truex briefly moved ahead of Keselowski with 17 laps remaining, but Keselowski reclaimed the front on the next lap.

Johnson applied pressure to Keselowski for the next 12 laps. Keselowski later said Johnson's last run was faster, and Johnson took the lead with three laps to go to win his 75th career race.

What did the drivers say after the race?

Johnson said he had kept the pressure on Keselowski because the leader looked tight and was vulnerable for the first time that day. He said Keselowski got loose off turn 2, which let Johnson make a long run down the backstretch and carry more speed into turn 3.

Keselowski said Johnson's car had a great deal of turn on that final run, while his own car pushed badly, and that Johnson had been much faster over the last ten laps. He was 19 points out of the fourth Chase cut-off and was unsure how to feel about the result at that moment.

Harvick finished third and said his team had overcome problems week after week, which he saw as character-building. He said Phoenix, the next race, had been good for them in the past, though that did not guarantee a strong result this time. Kyle Busch finished fourth and praised Adam Stevens and the engine builders at TRD, while saying his car had been weaker on the short runs.

Kurt Busch finished seventh and said the team had limited practice time, so it was forced to rely on its best set-up effort. Martin Truex Jr. finished eighth, after a right-front wheel began shaking and his car tightened up when he thought he had a shot at the win. Jeff Gordon finished ninth, already secure in the championship race after his win at Martinsville the week before.

Erik Jones came home 12th in only his second Sprint Cup start. He had finished fourth in the Xfinity race the day before and won the Truck race two days earlier. He said he was feeling tired and that a tyre failure late in the race had cost him a shot at a top-ten finish.

What were the race statistics?

The race recorded 15 lead changes among eight different drivers, and nine cautions covered 47 laps. The race took 3 hours, 38 minutes and 38 seconds, with an average speed of 221.269 km/h (137.490 mph). Johnson took home $462,976 in winnings.

Keselowski took several awards, including the pole, the 3M Lap Leader award and the Green Flag Restart award, along with the Mobil 1 Driver of the Race award with a rating of 145.0. Kurt Busch gained five positions for the Ingersoll Rand Power Move award. Jamie McMurray won the Problem Solver award, and Brett Moffitt was named Rookie of the Race.

How did the result affect the Chase?

Johnson's win moved him up to 12th in the points standings. The result came in the eighth race of the Chase.

Keselowski's second place kept him in contention, but he was 19 points outside the fourth Chase cut-off after the race. Truex sat fourth in the standings, six points behind the leader, and said a few more spots at Texas could have made a difference.

Chevrolet's manufacturer lead over Toyota stood at 63 points after Texas.