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FORT WORTH, Texas -- Matt Kenseth has led more laps than anybody in Texas. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . Current points leader Greg Biffle has seven consecutive top-10 finishes here. Carl Edwards is the only three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked track. This place certainly brings out the best in the Roush Fenway drivers. "I dont really know why, but it has been a pretty good track for us in the past," said Kenseth, who has two wins and 13 top-10 finishes in 19 starts. "Whenever you come back to a track youve had success at, then I think you probably always look forward to coming back to it maybe a little bit more." Owner Jack Roush was winning races at Texas Motor Speedway even before his current trio of drivers. He has been to Victory Lane and gathered quite a collection of winning cowboy hats by taking eight of 22 races. Jeff Burton won the inaugural Texas race in 1997 driving for Roush, and Mark Martin won the following year when there was still only one Cup race a year at the track. "You feel like you need to capitalize when you come to this track," Kenseth said. "You feel like yourself or one of your team cars needs to have a shot to win, and you should all be running up toward the front." That is where the Roush drivers hope and expect to be Saturday in the first scheduled night race of the season. Remember, the Daytona 500 was postponed to Monday night. Martin Truex Jr. is on the pole for the race after a qualifying lap of 190.369 mph Friday in his Michael Waltrip-owned Toyota. Its his seventh career pole and second at Texas, where he finished third five years ago. Qualifying right behind Truex were the Fords driven by Kenseth and Biffle. Edwards qualified 20th. Owners Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick both have three victories in Texas, the closest to Roush. Hendrick Motorsports is still looking for its first win this season. The next one will be the owners 200th in a career that began in 1984 when Geoffrey Bodine won at Martinsville. "Were thinking about it all the time, and Rick reminds us all the time to get it out of the way," Jimmie Johnson said. "Man, weve been all around it, and have had a lot of shots at it this year. ... We had one through three locked up there at the end of Martinsville, and felt like that was the day for it to happen." But the special bookend for Hendricks 200th victory didnt happen after Clint Bowyers aggressive move on a late restart took out front-runners Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Ryan Newman won and Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third in that last race before the Easter weekend break. Kasey Kahne, the first-year Hendrick driver, starts fifth in Texas. Johnson qualified 10th, Earnhardt 16th and Gordon 34th. All three Roush drivers Saturday night had top-five finishes in both Texas races last year. "It is a fun race track for me and for our team," said Biffle, who had a win in 2005, three years before his stretch of top-10 finishes started. "It is nice to come to a track where if during practice you are slow or have trouble qualifying or are slow during the race, you know you can fix it and you can go out and win. We have that confidence. It is nice to sit in a race car and know that we can do this." Kenseth ended a two-year drought with a dominating victory last spring. He led 169 of 334 laps, upping his career laps led to 756 and his average finish to 8.73, both track bests. The Roush team is smaller this season, down from four teams to three. "We havent seen a huge impact," Biffle said. "Obviously wed like to be a four-car team but we understand economics, and right now were a three-car team and were working with that. It doesnt seem like its affecting us as a group." Roush also scaled back its Nationwide operation, running full-time only the No. 6 car of defending series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse won the Nationwide race on Friday night for Roushs ninth Texas victory in the second-tier series. But the No. 60 Roush Fenway car driven by Trevor Bayne that was fourth in the standings was parked because of a lack of sponsorship. Bayne is set for his third Cup start Saturday night, starting 19th for the Woods Brothers team he drove for last year when he won the Daytona 500. Biffle, the relaxed points leader coming off a Bahamas vacation last week, started this season finishing third in each of the first three races. He hasnt finished lower than 13th. But this will be Biffles 50th race since last winning in October 2010 at Kansas, where the series goes next week. The drought isnt bothersome for him yet, and not too surprising. "Considering how we ran last year, no. Considering we are only six (races) in this year, I am not too nervous about it yet," he said. "We get halfway through the season and we havent won, then I will be. Wholesale Jerseys . While Canadian women have stood on the Olympic podium in the sport, a Canadian man never has. Cheap NFL Jerseys . -- Henrik Zetterberg didnt wait long to make an impact in his first game back from injury.Some will continue to argue the womens hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics remains a two-team race between Canada and the United States. That may indeed be the case, but Finland threw a mighty scare into Team Canada on Monday. The Finns matched Canadas speed and were the more aggressive team through the first two periods, but Canadas offence took control in the third period scoring three goals, blanking Finland 3-0. Canada outshot Finland 27-10 through 40 minutes, but couldnt beat goaltender Noora Raty. Meghan Agosta-Marciano finally gave Canada a 1-0 lead on its fourth power pay of the game when she drilled a slap shot to the top corner at 9:27 of the third period. That was followed by a goal by anothher veteran, Jayna Hefford, who deked two Finnish defenders and then fired a high shot from in tight. Cheap Jerseys. Late in the third Rebecca Johnston scored her second goal of the 2014 Olympics, converting a three-on-one. Finland has finished third or fourth at every Olympics and World Championship tournament since it began international play, so the Canadians knew they were in for a tough game. "They just never give up," said Canadian forward Brianne Jenner. "They are a hard-working team and they clog the middle of the ice. We knew that coming in so our game plan was to not be impatient and stick with what we wanted to do and it turned out that it worked in the third period." cheap jerseys from china cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
