Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Driver Finishes 21st in NRA 500 

Date: April 13, 2013 

Event: NRA 500 (Round 7 of 36) 

Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 

Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile oval) 

Start/Finish: 13th/21st (Running, completed 333 of 334 laps) 

Point Standing: 22nd (158 points, 111 out of first; 48 behind 10th) 

Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

A long race was made even longer when an ill-handling racecar plagued Tony Stewart throughout the NRA 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

With a car that was loose on entry into the track’s 24-degree banked corners, tight in the middle and then loose off, Stewart had to manhandle his No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS every lap around the 1.5-mile oval. No matter what changes were made to the chassis, it never seemed enough to overcome the car’s evil ways. It all led to a 21st -place finish in the nearly three-and-a-half hour race. 

“We just couldn’t get the car right,” said Stewart, a two-time Sprint Cup winner at Texas. “It’s pretty obvious we’ve got some work to do.” 

Stewart’s disappointing finish was at least offset by the top-10 result earned by his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate Ryan Newman. 

Newman rallied his No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS from his 31st -place starting spot to finish 10th. It was Newman’s fourth top-10 of the season and his fourth top-10 in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas. 

Fellow SHR teammate Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS, had an outing similar to Stewart’s, finishing 28th. 

With round seven of 36 complete, Newman leads the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He moved up six spots to 17th and is 100 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson. Stewart maintained his 22nd -place standing and is 111 points out of first. Patrick maintained her 26th-place standing and is 134 points behind Johnson. 

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 12 spots ahead of Stenhouse, who placed 40th.

Kyle Busch won the NRA 500 to score his 26th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas. Busch is tied for 23rd on the all-time Sprint Cup win list with Fred Lorenzen. 

Martin Truex Jr. finished .508 of a second behind Busch in the runner-up spot, while Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five. Johnson, Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10. 

There were seven caution periods for 36 laps, with five drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race. 

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the STP 400 Sunday, April 21 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m. 

-TSC-