=== This Week in Auto Racing April 14 - April 17 ===

by Steve Schwarz, Motorsports Editor

Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - After two consecutive weeks of racing on NASCAR's traditional short tracks, Nextel Cup teams travel to the Texas Motor Speedway for the fastest laps of the year.

NASCAR

Nextel Cup

Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas

From an average speed of 72.099 m.p.h. at the Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR drivers will have to quickly adjust to more than double that at the Texas Motor Speedway. Last year's pole was won by Texas native Bobby Labonte with a speed of 193.903 m.p.h. and Elliott Sadler took the race victory with an average speed of 138.845 m.p.h.

So its back to high-speed, 1.5-mile oval racing where aerodynamics and horsepower rule.

That means it is once again time for Jimmie Johnson to shine. The Nextel Cup points leader has been particularly tough at 1.5-mile tracks. This year he won at Las Vegas and finished second (by inches) to Carl Edwards in Atlanta. In fact, going back to 2004 the No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet has finished either first or second in the last five mile-and-a-half events.

Over the last two weeks Johnson has struggled with his short track car. However he still showed the "mark of a champion" by posting a pair of top-10 results. At Bristol, he qualified 14th and finished sixth and last week he started 37th and fought his way to an eighth-place result.

"It was a little 'win' though and that is what championships are all about," said Johnson. "Granted probably not huge in the big picture when we get down to the final ten races, still it is a good thing for the team to battle through."

Johnson is the only Cup Series driver to score a top-10 finish in all six of this year's events. The No.48 Chevrolet driver has had solid, but not spectacular results at TMS, finishing in the top-10 in each of his three starts, but never higher than sixth. Last year he finished eighth behind Sadler.

Sadler's win was just his second top-10 in Texas and his first since March, 1999. The Virginia native has collect three straight top-10s in 2005 and now sits third in the championship behind Johnson and Greg Biffle.

"Mission accomplished," said Sadler. "We completed our goal to come to a couple of short tracks and get a top-10 and a top-five, especially at Martinsville. It was a great job."

And now to the other end of the spectrum and the drivers who are in a bit of early season trouble.

To qualify for the "Chase for the Championship," a driver must be in the top-10 or within 400 points of the leader. After six of 26 qualifying races, the tenth-place driver, Dale Jarrett, is already 245 points behind Johnson. If the drivers were to continue at this pace, only the top-10 would qualify for the championship.

That would leave some very big names on the outside looking in. Failing to make the "Chase" would be rookie phenom Carl Edwards (11th), Kevin Harvick (13th), Jamie McMurray (15th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (16th), Jeremy Mayfield (17th), Kasey Kahne (18th) and 2003 Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth (21st).

Of course there are still 20 event to go before "cutdown day" so there is time to make up the gap, but the aforementioned drivers can no longer afford a bad day.

Searching for a driver who will make a good showing at Texas?

Besides Johnson who is obviously on quite a roll, look to the No.9 Evernham Dodge of Kahne. As a rookie he qualified third at TMS and finished second to Sadler. Add to that a fifth-place result in Atlanta the last time the teams were at a high-speed track and a strong second last week which gives the team confidence going into this race. I expect big things from the second-year driver, maybe even his first trip to a Nextel Cup Victory Lane.

Busch

O'Reilly 300 - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas

There are 12 Nextel Cup drivers scheduled to run in this week's Busch Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway. That should make for an exciting race, but also makes it tough on the full-time Busch racers.

Series points leader Carl Edwards holds an 81-point margin over rookie Reed Sorenson (1,106-1,025) and has earned seven consecutive top-10s. His performances have been outstanding including a weekend sweep in Atlanta when he won both the Busch and Cup events.

If not for Edwards, Sorenson would be the talk around the garage. How do you explain the fact that he has started just 12 Busch races in his "career" and has a win and eight top-10s. He has finished outside the top-15 just twice and been running at the finish in all but one event.

Though just 19 years old, Sorenson has a lot of racing under his belt. In five full seasons of competition in the Legends Series, he accumulated 84 wins, 152 top-five and 166 top-10 finishes in 183 starts. In 2003 at the age of 17, he became the youngest driver to win the American Speed Association Rookie of the Year title.

Still, that competition rarely prepares a driver for the high level of "warfare" which he has faced in the Busch Series. But the youngster has not been fazed and has performed with a maturity the belies his age.

After failing to qualify in Atlanta, he was given a ride in Sterling Marlin's Dodge. Despite an ill-fitting drivers seat and starting at the back of the grid, he managed to finish a respectable 19th. The following weeks he took his "frustration" out on the competition by crushing the field in Nashville by more than 14 seconds and finishing third in Bristol to Nextel Cup drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

Sorenson will be making his first start in a Busch Series car at Texas, but expect good things from the Dodge driver. Of course with all the Nextel Cup drivers in the field, that might only translate to a top-10 finish, but it might be good enough to close in on the leader before the day is done.