Jimmie Johnson made a late race charge at Texas Motor Speedway to spoil the hopes of NASCAR Chase Grid driver Brad Keselowski and take the win in the AAA Texas 500.

Texas was the second race of the Eliminator Round in NASCAR’s playoffs. Any Chase Grid driver that wins a race in this round automatically gets an advance to the final race of the year at Homestead, the Championship Race. Four drivers in that race will have a chance to win the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Jeff Gordon earned his spot in the final four with his win last week at Martinsville.

Joey Logano started the race at Texas knowing he had to have a good race to make up for the terrible finish last week at Martinsville after the on track incident with Matt Keneseth. However, this week misfortune would find Joey again as his tire blew on lap 10 of the race and caused massive damage to his car which sent him to the garage and relegated him to a 40th place finish in Sunday’s (11/9) race. That means it will be a must win situation for Joey next week if he wants to advance to Homestead with a chance to win the championship.

Several other drivers also had tire issues during the race including Kevin Harvick and Dale Earhardt Jr. who were able to rally back for good finishes for the afternoon.

Brad Keselowski, like all the remaining Chase Grid drivers, knew that winning at Texas would punch his ticket to the final race at Homestead with a chance to win the championship. He set out to remove the pressure from himself and his race team by doing just that. Brad won the pole for the start of the race and immediately made the statement that he was the car to beat in the AAA Texas 500. Brad not only led the most laps in the race, he dominated it by leading the field for more than 93% of the race taking the front spot for 312 of the 334 laps (a Texas Motor Speedway track record).

However, there is a reason that they race every lap scheduled. Often the dominant car is NOT the car that wins the race.

Following the race’s ninth and final caution period, Jimmie Johnson began charging forward to challenge Brad. The #48 Chevrolet stayed on the back bumper of the #2 Ford lap after lap. With four laps left, Jimmie made the pass and took the lead in the race. Jimmie was able to hold that lead for the final laps in the race and capture his sixth win at Texas Motor Speedway and sweep the 2015 Texas races. I stated that Jimmie should be considered a serious threat as a spoiler to the Chase Grid drivers in my pre-race blog last week and in fact he did just that.

Brad was able to hold on for a runner-up finish. The rest of the top five finishers were also drivers that remain eligible to advance on the Chase Grid as Kevin Harvick finished third, Kyle Busch fourth and Carl Edwards grabbed the fifth place finish. See the complete race results for the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR race here.

That leaves Jeff Gordon as the only Chase driver with a guaranteed  spot in the final four for the Championship Race in two weeks. The other seven remaining Chase Grid Drivers will have to try to win the race next week (and again, for Joey Logano that is his ONLY was to advance) or earn enough points to be in the top four at the end of the race to advance. For some drivers to advance on points alone it will mean having a great race AND having other drivers having disastrous finishes. To control their own destiny in the Chase, those drivers will have to win the race.

See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

The final race in the Eliminator Round will take place Sunday afternoon, November 15th at Phoenix International Raceway. That’s when we will see which drivers join Jeff Gordon at Homestead with a chance to win the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

By: Buck Stevens