Welcome to The Pace Lap, your catchall preview post! Let's get you started on race weekend with a metric truckload of stats, facts, opinion and innuendo.
The race: The Dickies 500 @ Texas Motor Speedway
The specs: 334 laps around a 1.5-mile track
The broadcasts: ABC, plus the live chat right here on Yahoo! Sports
Defending champ: Carl Edwards, pictured there at right shootin' up a storm. Interestingly, a woman was hit by a bullet at Texas Motor Speedway during the time of this race last year. Perhaps ... nah.
The standings leaders: Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin (-184), Jeff Gordon (-192)
The history: Texas is one of a bunch of similar -- don't say cookie-cutter! -- 1.5-mile tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. It has the dubious distinction of having closed down two different racetracks to take their dates -- North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. After Atlanta and the restrictor-plate tracks, it's one of the fastest tracks on the circuit.
Back in the springtime: Jeff Gordon notched his first win in over a year with a victory at Texas in the spring. At the time, everybody was thinking Gordon was going to be challenging for the Sprint Cup championship. And they were right ... until the Chase started.
The appropriate video: Not a race video, but a spooky scare-ya news report: what if a tornado were to hit the Texas Motor Speedway when a race was in session? Well, Jimmie Johnson would probably outrun it, but everybody else would be screwed:
Guy with the most to gain: Kyle Busch. This is his first race without crew chief Steve Addington, and it'll be interesting to see how well he and new crew chief Dave Rogers gel. A win would be nice, but we'd settle for them not bickering at each other over the radio like middle-school girls.
Guys with the most to lose: Mark Martin. He's had an exceptional -- some would say precious -- year, but he's obviously bummed about coming so far and falling short yet again. Still, he shouldn't be discouraged by what has been an exceptional season, and he should use these last three weeks as a way to roll into 2010.
Our pick to win: Denny Hamlin. He's had an up-and-down Chase, and since last week was a serious "down," this week has to be an "up," right? It's all deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic now anyway, but I'm thinking that Hamlin is going to be a serious Chase challenger when ... well, when Jimmie retires.
All right, you're up. Who's your pick for this weekend? Go!
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