Texas At Ten Seasons

Texas Motor Speedway hosts its twelfth Winston Cup race as it completes its tenth season. The track's still-short history has been checkered to say the least, and ultimately leaves a less-than-delicious taste in the mouth.

The track's arrival in Winston Cup remains a bitter chapter in the sport's history; when Bruton Smith bought half of North Wilkesboro Speedway it was to close it for Texas, a track he'd begun building in early 1995. Bruton claimed that NASCAR's Billy France promised him a Winston Cup date, a claim France long denied and for which Bruton never produced any proof. Shuttering North Wilkesboro gave him a Texas date, but Bruton wanted two dates, and a lawsuit by a track shareholder (who most believe was merely a front for Bruton) eventually blackmailed NASCAR into cutting the Southern 500 and limiting Darlington to one race while also cutting Rockingham to one race and finally shutting the track down after February 2004. No doubt Kentucky Speedway would never have filed a lawsuit of its own had Texas not effectively bullied NASCAR into granting their wish.

Texas' genesis in the sport thus is a stain on the sport's history.

The treacherous transitions to and from the turns became an issue in preseason testing in 1997 and erupted in a crash-strewn Texas 500 in 1997. Some alterations were made after 1997 but broken drainage hampered 1998 qualifying and more melees in the ensuing race fed rumors that it would cost the track its Winston Cup date - though even then most could see that Mike Helton of NASCAR lacked the spine to carry out anything close to such a threat.

The turns were banked higher at their transitions after 1998 and the treacherous nature of its first two seasons was over, but the track even after that has never been a good racetrack for stock cars. Competitive stock car races at Texas have been almost nonexistent; the 40-lead-change barrier has yet to be approached, never mind broken, at Texas.

But Texas' Jekyll & Hyde personality turns on a dime when the IRL races there. A scoring breakdown in 1997 led to the embarassing spectacle of the wrong car winning the race, but in 1998 a vivid multilap battle for the lead ended in victory by A.J. Foyt's team driven by Billy Boat, and in June 2000 the IRL's Alamo 300 exploded into a nearly-unprecedented epic of sidedrafting for the lead, ultimately won by Scott Sharp over Robby McGehee.

Panther Racing, formed by John Barnes with help from former football quarterback Jim Harbaugh, arrived in force at Texas in 1999, winning with Scott Goodyear; Goodyear then won at Texas in October 2000 after a hot battle at the finish with Eddie Cheever. But it was Sam Hornish who put Panther Racing's stamp on racing history with an even greater epic war for the win ending in a photo-finish in October 2001, then did it again in October 2002 in yet another photo-finish win, this one over future Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves.

As the draft has weakened for IRL cars the last few years the intensity of racing at Texas has dropped dramatically, and Texas cut its second IRL date after 2004; even so the IRL at Texas remains must-see racing.

NASCAR, though, remains the track's bread-and-butter, and the 2006 Chase may come close to clinching in November 2006. Kasey Kahne is the early favorite but Jimmie Johnson has begun coming on strong, and the wildcard of non-Chasers has intensified with Tony Stewart's wins and strong efforts by Bobby Labonte.

Whatever the outcome, it will get a typically opulent Texas celebration as the speedway continues on from its troubled first ten seasons in the sport.