The 2009 Dickies 500 was the 34th stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the eighth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on November 8, 2009, at Texas Motor Speedway, in Fort Worth, Texas, before a crowd of 167,000. Kurt Busch of the Penske Racing team won the 334-lap race starting from third position. Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished second and Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth was third.
Going into the event, Jimmie Johnson was leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin in the Drivers' Championship by 184 points. Jeff Gordon won the pole position with the quickest recorded lap time in the qualifying session, although he was almost immediately passed by Kasey Kahne at the start of the race. Many Chase for the Sprint Cup participants, including Johnson and Carl Edwards encountered problems during the race. Kyle Busch was leading the race with three laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the victory, to Kurt Busch. There were a total of eight cautions during the race and thirteen lead changes among four different drivers during the course of the race.
The race saw Kurt Busch achieve his second win of the 2009 season, his first at Texas Motor Speedway, and the 20th of his career. The result advanced Busch from sixth to fourth in the Drivers' Championship, 171 points behind the leader Johnson and seven ahead of third-placed Tony Stewart. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, fifty-five ahead of Toyota, eighty-nine ahead of Ford, and ninety-six in front of Dodge. The race attracted 5.82 million television viewers.
Background
The Dickies 500 was the 34th of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the eighth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on November 8, 2009, in Fort Worth, Texas at Texas Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that hold NASCAR races. The standard track at Texas Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval track that is long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, and both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch have a five degree banking.
One team chose to replace their regular driver with a substitute. Penske Championship Racing driver David Stremme (who was unable to secure a top-ten finish) was replaced by the 2009 Aaron's 499 winner Brad Keselowski for the final three races of the 2009 season, to allow Keselowski to gain experience before driving full-time with the team the following season. Richard Petty Motorsports switched from fielding a Dodge to a Ford for driver A. J. Allmendinger in its 44 entry starting from the Dickies 500 as preparation for the team fielding three Ford Fusions for the following season.
Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship, with 6,248 points, with Mark Martin 184 points behind in second and Jeff Gordon a further eight points adrift in third. Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart were fourth and fifth, and Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers rounded out the top twelve drivers competing for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet were leading with 244 points, sixty-two points ahead of their rivals Toyota. Ford with 145 points, were nine points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third. Edwards was the race's defending champion.
With three rounds of the season remaining, Johnson said he felt he could win one or two more races and would not approach the final three events with a view to protecting his points lead, "We're showing up to win races. Finishing 10th isn't as easy as it sounds. It's a tough field of cars out there and we need to be on our game." His teammate Martin crashed in the preceding race at Talladega Superspeedway and was worn out over people talking to him about his standing in the points, adding, "I'm just ready to have a fresh outlook and get back to it just being about the race itself." Jeff Gordon had won the Samsung 500 at the circuit earlier in the season but acknowledged his team had to "take another step forward", saying, "If we showed up this weekend with the same setup we used in April, we'd run 15th. That's just the way the sport is. Everybody is constantly learning and the competition is constantly getting better and quicker."
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday, and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 45 minutes, and the third and final session 60 minutes. In the first practice session, Clint Bowyer was fastest with a lap of 28.514 seconds, placing ahead of Biffle in second, and Johnson in third. Gordon was fourth fastest, and Edwards placed fifth. Kurt Busch, David Ragan, Jeff Burton, Keselowski and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session. Max Papis damaged the right-hand side of his car when he hit the turn two wall; Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann and Mike Bliss also hit the turn two wall. Bliss went to a back-up car because the right side of his car was heavily damaged. John Andretti's engine failed during the early phase of the session, and Andretti changed engines. Burton switched to a back-up car after he collided with the turn two outside wall.
A total of forty-seven drivers were entered in the qualifier on Friday afternoon; according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Gordon clinched his first pole position of the season, and the 68th of his career, with a time of 28.255 seconds, which was a record in qualifying for the Car of Tomorrow specification at the circuit. This extended his streak of securing a pole position in the Cup Series to seventeen successive seasons. He was joined on the grid's front row by Kahne who held pole position until Jeff Gordon's lap. Kurt Busch qualified third, Stewart took fourth, and Kyle Busch started fifth. Edwards qualified sixth after sliding sideways leaving the final turn, while Martin set the seventh fastest time. Biffle qualified eighth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ninth and Clint Bowyer tenth. The four drivers that failed to qualify were Tony Raines, Dave Blaney, Papis and Mike Bliss. Derrike Cope withdrew from the race prior to qualifying. After the qualifier Gordon said, "Our efforts here have improved because we've really focused on it, They started with qualifying, and luckily last time they showed up in the race. ... So we certainly hope we can take this qualifying effort and create those types of results as well."
On Saturday morning, David Reutimann was fastest in the second practice session by setting a lap time of 28.906 seconds, ahead of Stewart in second, and Montoya in third. Kyle Busch was fourth quickest, and Kurt Busch took fifth. Kahne managed sixth. Matt Kenseth, Hamlin, Martin and Johnson followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase, Gordon set the eleventh fastest time, while Biffle was placed thirteenth. Later that day, Johnson paced the final practice session with a time of 28.928 seconds, with Edwards in second, and Hamlin in third. Biffle was fourth quickest, and Bill Elliott took fifth. Ragan managed sixth. Robby Gordon was seventh fastest, Earnhardt eighth, Reutimann ninth, and Martin Truex Jr. tenth. Other Chase drivers included Montoya in fourteenth and Newman in sixteenth. Harvick collided with the turn two wall; he sustained minor damage, allowing his team to repair his car.
Qualifying results Grid No. Driver Team Manufacturer 124 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.255 191.117 29 Kasey Kahne Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 28.276 190.975 32 Kurt Busch Penske Championship Racing Dodge 28.281 190.941 414 Tony Stewart Stewart–Haas RacingChevrolet 28.328 190.624 518 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.343 190.523 699 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.399 190.148 75 Mark Martin Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.408 190.087 816 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.413 190.054 988 Dale Earnhardt Jr.Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.427 189.960 1033 Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.428 189.954 1177 Sam Hornish Jr.Team Penske Dodge 28.436 189.900 1248 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.442 189.860 1300 David Reutimann Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 28.448 189.820 1420 Joey Logano Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.451 189.800 1583 Brian Vickers Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 28.452 189.793 1644 A. J. Allmendinger Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.466 189.700 176 David Ragan Furniture Row Racing Ford 28.466 189.700 1843 Reed Sorenson Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 28.482 189.593 1947 Marcos Ambrose JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota 28.483 189.587 2042 Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.510 189.407 2102 David Gilliland Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.579 188.950 2226 Jamie McMurray Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.589 188.884 2370 Mike Skinner TRG Motorsports Chevrolet 28.595 188.844 2429 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.617 188.699 2511 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.619 188.686 2639 Ryan Newman Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.625 188.646 271 Martin Truex Jr.Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.634 188.587 2871 Bobby Labonte TRG Motorsports Chevrolet 28.670 188.350 297 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota 28.675 188.317 3017 Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.677 188.304 3182 Scott Speed Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 28.721 188.016 3278 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 28.725 187.990 3319 Elliott Sadler Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 28.732 187.944 3487 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 28.751 187.820 3512 Brad Keselowski Penske Championship Racing Dodge 28.754 187.800 3607 Casey Mears Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.755 187.793 3736 Michael McDowell Tommy Baldwin Racing Toyota 28.804 187.474 3896 Erik Darnell Hall of Fame Racing Ford 28.849 187.182 3998 Paul Menard Robert Yates Racing Ford 28.903 186.832 4055 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 28.964 186.438 4134 John Andretti Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 29.003 186.188 4231 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.385 183.767 4321 Bill Elliott Wood Brothers Racing Ford 4437 Tony Raines Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 28.929 186.664 4566 Dave Blaney Prism Motorsports Toyota 29.008 186.156 4613 Max Papis Germain Racing Toyota 29.057 185.842 4709 Mike Bliss Phoenix Racing Dodge 29.413 183.592 WD08 Derrike Cope John Carter Racing Toyota
Race The race began at 3:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and was televised live in the United States on ABC. Commentary was provided by play-by-play announcer Jerry Punch, with analysis given by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. At the start of the race, weather conditions were cloudy. Approximately 167,000 spectators attended the race; Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said that he had anticipated that between 175,000 and 185,000 people would go to the race. Dr. Roger Marsh began pre-race ceremonies by giving the invocation. The Texas Christian University Marching Band performed the national anthem, and rock band ZZ Top gave the command for drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, two drivers moved to the back of the grid due to unapproved changes: Bill Elliott because of a transmission change, and Andretti because he changed his engine.