The 2015 AAA Texas 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on November 8, 2015, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Contested over 334 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval, it was the 34th race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, eighth race of the Chase and second race of the Eliminator Round. Jimmie Johnson won the race, his fifth of the season. Brad Keselowski finished second. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five.

Keselowski won the pole for the race and led a race high of 312 laps on his way to a runner-up finish. The race had 15 lead changes among eight different drivers, as well as nine caution flag periods for 47 laps.

This was the 75th career victory for Johnson, fifth of the season, sixth at Texas Motor Speedway and eighth at the track for Hendrick Motorsports. The win moved him up to 12th in the points standings. Chevrolet left Texas with a 63–point lead over Toyota in the manufacturer standings.

The AAA Texas 500 was carried by NBC Sports on the broadcast NBC network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Report

Background

Texas Motor Speedway (formerly known as Texas International Raceway from September to December 1996) is a quad-oval intermediate speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Jeff Gordon entered with an eight–point over Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. Kevin Harvick entered fourth 10–points back. Carl Edwards entered fifth 17–points back. Brad Keselowski entered sixth 34–points back. Kurt Busch entered seventh 36–points back. Joey Logano entered eighth 38–points back.

Driver suspension On the Tuesday after the 2015 Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500, NASCAR suspended Matt Kenseth for two races for his role in the incident that took out Joey Logano. According to NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell, Kenseth "eliminated the No. 22 car’s opportunity to continue to compete in the race. Additionally, we factored aspects of safety into our decision, and also the fact that the new Chase elimination format puts a premium on each and every race. These actions have no place in NASCAR.” Shortly after the announcement, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that they would appeal the decision and "challenge the severity of the penalty which is believed to be inconsistent with previous penalties for similar on-track incidents. There will be no further comments from JGR personnel during the appeal process."

On the Thursday before this weekend's race, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel upheld the original penalty levied by NASCAR. Later that day, National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss upheld the two race suspension, but amended the probation penalty to conclude on December 31 instead of in six months.

Erik Jones drove in place of Kenseth this weekend. He said that being "part of that next wave that people think [of] is pretty cool and a pretty big honor. I never thought I’d be in that position. A few years ago, I kind of wondered where is my opportunity going to come from, where is my spot going to be in the sport? But everything works out at the end of the day, and it’s working out more and more every day.”

This marked the first race since the 1999 NAPA 500 that Kenseth didn’t compete in, snapping a 571 race starting streak.

Hauler fire On the Thursday before the race, the hauler carrying the primary and backup cars for HScott Motorsports's Michael Annett caught fire on Interstate 20 west of Longview, Texas. A team spokesperson said nobody was injured and the team sent a spare hauler from their shop in Spartanburg, South Carolina. However, it was unable to make it to the track prior to the garage opening at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time Friday, so Annett used the backup car of teammate Justin Allgaier to race this weekend. The spare cars served as both drivers' backups.

Entry list The entry list for the AAA Texas 500 was released on Monday, November 2 at 12:21 p.m. Eastern time. Forty-five cars were entered for the race. All but Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell were entered in the previous week's race at Martinsville. Joey Gase returned to the seat of the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford. Brian Scott returned to the seat of the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet. Reed Sorenson drove the No. 62 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet. With Kenseth being parked by NASCAR, Erik Jones made his second career Sprint Cup Series start in the No. 20 Toyota.

Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 2 Brad Keselowski (PC3) Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Kevin Harvick (PC1) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 14 Tony Stewart (PC4) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Erik Jones (i) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21 Ryan Blaney (i) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing Toyota 24 Jeff Gordon (PC6) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 26 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing Toyota 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 32 Joey Gase (i) Go FAS Racing Ford 33 Brian Scott (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 34 Brett Moffitt (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 41 Kurt Busch (PC5) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 48 Jimmie Johnson (PC2) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 62 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing Toyota 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 98 Ryan Preece Premium Motorsports FordOfficial initial entry listOfficial final entry list Key Meaning (R) Rookie (i) Ineligible for points (PC#) Past champions provisional

Practice Brad Keselowski was the fastest in the first and only practice session with a time of 27.403 and a speed of . The other two practice sessions scheduled on Saturday were cancelled because NASCAR had difficulties drying the track due to a combination of overnight rain, high humidity and weepers (water seeping out of the surface of the track which happens largely at tracks with older asphalt surfaces).

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 27.403 197.059 2 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 27.492 196.421 3 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 27.516 196.249Official first practice results

Qualifying

Brad Keselowski won the pole with a time of 27.421 . He said that his "Wurth Ford Fusion has been really good since we unloaded. Very similar to where we were at Kansas - really fast in practice and really fast in qualifying. But we just need that to stay with us in the race and we didn't get that in Kansas." He also joked that his team will "have the first pit stall and we get to keep it this time. We are really excited about the race Sunday.” Kevin Harvick, who qualified second, said that he practically "ran the same speed in all three rounds there. Didn’t quite have the raw speed in the first round, but this is a racetrack where you want the car to keep going as long as you can. Felt like we had a good start to our race trim practice today and going to have a good spot to start on Sunday.” Kyle Busch, who qualified third, said that while his team doesn't "need to win...we would love to win. I feel like this is a good opportunity for us to have a really good day and for us to score a victory. We come to every race trying to win and this one’s no different. I hope that Texas will bode well for us and we can score that win. If not, a solid top-five finish is exactly what we need. That’s where we need to be at the end of the day and carry on that momentum and go into Phoenix and hope for another solid day there.” Joey Logano, who qualified fourth, said while he doesn't "think we are bad in race trim...I do think we have a little bit of work to do there, so I am anxious to get at that tomorrow and get to work on it and find a little bit more speed for Sunday." Erik Jones, who qualified sixth driving in place of the suspended Matt Kenseth, said that his qualifying run was "a really good effort for us. We made the final round at Kansas as well so it’s cool to make the final round in both our starts. We’ll see where it goes from here, obviously we’ve got a long ways to go yet for Sunday – 500 miles. This definitely helps everybody’s confidence a little bit for that.” Martin Truex Jr., who qualified 23rd, said that his car "never really clicked in qualifying trim today and that's why we're starting in the middle of the pack. But we've been there before and fought our way to the front. As I keep on saying this team never quits. We're always working hard to find the right combination and I am hopeful that our car will perform better in race trim during tomorrow's two practice sessions."

Qualifying results