Kenseth takes commanding victory

The Roush Fenway Racing driver scored maximum points by virtue of leading more than half the race distance on his way to breaking a 76-race winless streak he carried since February of 2009.

Kenseth claimed the lead for the first time under the second caution of the day, thanks to a good pitstop that allowed him to jump Kurt Busch, who had fended him off before that.

Once Kenseth was ahead in clean air, there were very few who looked capable of challenging the #17 Ford for the rest of the night. First was Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer, who was able to claim the lead at one point in the second half of the race, before almost spinning out while trying to avoid contact with the Red Bull Toyota of Brian Vickers as he tried to lap him.

Tony Stewart (Stewart Haas) also looked a challenger as he tried to make a different strategy work in the closing laps, gambling on an earlier final stop relative to his rivals. However his move was compromised when he was caught speeding while entering the pits for the last time, which subsequently perhaps forced him to burn the fuel that he was missing on the final lap of the race, when he ran completely dry while running third.

Following David Ragan's pole position and Carl Edwards' Nationwide Series victory from pole on Friday night, the weekend was one to celebrate for Jack Roush, whose cars were clearly the class of the field again on Sunday, all of them crossing the finish line in the top seven. Kenseth's supreme speed gave his boss a record eighth win at Texas, the second one for the former Cup champion at the mile and a half oval.

"I haven't had something like this for a long long time," said Kenseth, who jumped up to third in the points standings with his 19th career Cup win. "It has been a long time... The goal every year is to win a championship and you can't do that if you aren't in the Chase so we have been pretty good over the last four weeks and now we have a pretty dominating win. Hopefully we can carry this momentum back to victory lane a couple more times."

Bowyer was second in the end and admitted his mistake when trying to lap Vickers probably cost him victory.

"Yeah, that was my fault," said Bowyer. "I shouldn't have stuck it in there. Track position is so big. You come up on those lappers, it hurts you so bad that it almost killed my chances to even have a finishing day. But hats off to Matt Kenseth. He was the class of the field. He deserved to win the race. We were definitely a second-place car."

Edwards was the pre-race favourite but struggled with a very loose car in the early stages of the race while also feeling unwell. He was given some medicine during pitstops in order to help him deal with an apparent food poisoning that he managed to keep under control. His third place finish puts him back at the top of the points for the third time this year.

"I hate to throw my mom under the bus but she cooked something last night that I don't think was too good," said Edwards. "I think we chose the wrong package too. [crew chief] Bob [Osborne] and I were just talking about it. I feel good because Matt and those guys did a great job. Congrats to them... The nice thing is that I know exactly what he was running.

"I felt a little bit [ill] this morning, but I felt good and then once the race started I got a little sick again for a minute. I am good right now though. A good run like that makes you feel great. Although we would like to win, that is pretty cool to see Matt in victory lane."

The third Roush Ford of Biffle was fourth ahead of the ever improving Paul Menard, followed by Australian Marcos Ambrose and the other Roush car of polesitter Ragan. Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson had a slow start as he struggled for balance but recovered to finish eighth ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Penske's Kurt Busch was one driver taking different strategy approaches at various stages during the race, the last one in the closing laps as his team pushed his final stop as late as possible hoping a caution would come out to help him gain track position. It did not pay off in the end but he still was able to get a top-10 finish, recovering from running further down the order in the first half of the event.

Caution lights came on just five times during the race, meaning there were plenty of long green-flag periods that saw only 12 drivers finishing on the lead lap, the last of them being Stewart, who coasted to the start-finish line after running out of fuel.

Former points leader Kyle Busch was only 16th and a lap down in the end following a loose wheel that forced him to pit under green shortly after his penultimate stop. His Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Denny Hamlin, victorious twice at Texas last year, had yet another lacklustre race, finishing right ahead of Busch.

Results - 334 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            3h21m26.000s
 2.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet              + 8.315s
 3.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford               + 17.158s
 4.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford               + 18.066s
 5.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet             + 19.217s
 6.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                      + 21.267s
 7.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford               + 21.548s
 8.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet              + 22.034s
 9.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet              + 22.663s
10.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                    + 24.216s
11.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet             + 27.168s
12.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet          + 32.770s
13.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap
14.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet            + 1 lap
15.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap
16.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap
17.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford                + 1 lap
18.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap
19.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                       + 2 laps
20.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 2 laps
21.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota                  + 2 laps
22.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2 laps
23.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 2 laps
24.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                     + 3 laps
25.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 3 laps
26.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota                   + 3 laps
27.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota                  + 4 laps
28.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet                + 4 laps
29.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota                   + 5 laps
30.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 5 laps
31.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                     + 6 laps
32.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                   + 10 laps
33.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                   + 15 laps
34.  Tony Raines         Front Row Ford                  + 15 laps

Retirements:

     Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   213 laps
     Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet               213 laps
     Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          212 laps
     David Starr         Leavine Fenton Ford              122 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      60 laps
     Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                         56 laps
     JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet                 52 laps
     David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                    44 laps
     Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota                    36 laps