Team XTR – Motorsport & Track Days

Jimmie Johnson takes the flag ahead of Mark Martin to win the 2009 AllState 400 at The Brickyard. Kyle Busch crashed midway through the race, runing his chance of getting some serious points and denting his chance of being competitive as the drivers soon enter the Sprint for the Cup.

Alain Menu sealed a superb victory and 1-2 for Chevrolet in race 1, with Brit Rob Huff second place. Huff held off fellow Brit Andy Priaulx in the BMW in the closing laps.

Augusto Farfus and Jörg Müller made it a 1-2 for BMW in Race 2 after the Brazilian fought his way back from last place to 8th in Race 1 after an incident at Druids which caused mayhem on track, gifting him pole for the second race. Leading from start to finish the BMW’s romped away secure a safe victory.

Despite a late push from Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon held on to secure his maiden victory at the Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson caught Gordon in the last few laps after Gordon was held up by an unfortunate back-marker. Things didn’t work out quite so well for Kyle Busch – supported by TeamXTR – after a good start he tripped on a back-marker and then had a pit lane speeding penalty to boot. A lucky free-pass near the end of the race saw him gain a lap back but it wasn’t enough. On the plus side, his car looked extremely fast in the later stages so we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for a good result at the Phoenix International Raceway in 2 weeks time.

A well-timed nudge with 15-to go at Martinsville gave Jimmy Johnson a narrow victory over Denny Hamlin. Hamlin, less than impressed with the incident was understandably quiet in the post-race interview, perhaps remembering the same nudge he’d presented to Johnson at an earlier restart and the questionable poke he’d aimed at the back of Gordon’s car early on.

Kyle Busch’s race went from bad to worse after slipping down the field with a car which looked more at home in pit lane than it did on the track. After an incident with Scott Speed he went straight on at turn 1 with a tyre problem which cost he 2 laps. Brother Kurt could not keep up his early pace and slumped from 2nd to 18th, thus ending the brothers’ impressive start to the 2009 season.

The Nr 18 car lead 378 laps of the 503 lap race beating JGR team-mate Denny Hamlin by 0.391 seconds. The win is Busch’s second this season. Unfortunately brother Kurt finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place following an early incident dented his hopes of victory. Everything crossed now for Martinsville this weekend! (29th March).