David Reutimann started on the pole for the Samsung 500, with Jeff Gordon right alongside.

Right from lap 1 David led and right up to lap 49 it was all David Reutimann. At lap 49 though Matt Kenseth took over the top spot and surprisingly, or maybe not, Marcos Ambrose was sitting in 6^th. Matt led for about 55 laps until about lap 90, when Tony “Smoke” Stewart flew by him to the lead, and stayed out front. A hundred or more laps in, Greg Biffle took over and led for awhile.

At half way through, Jamie McMurray found himself in the garage with transmission problems and Kyle Busch was totally pi$$ed off - he’s two laps down after speeding on pit road. Kevin Harvick is on the same lap as Kyle also penalized for speeding on pit road, and Reutimann is one lap down for pitting outside the pit box.

The biggest surprise might have been the cars in the top ten, and the ones lurking just outside. While Greg Biffle was still in the lead, Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Stewart and David Ragan are the top five, followed by Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson. The other two HMS cars are in 11^th and 12^th, and Marcos Ambrose is in 13^th.

Roush Racing has shown domination at this track today, with 4 of their 5 cars in the top ten. Jamie McMurray was the exception, having transmission issues. And while Tony Stewart has also shown domination today, Ryan Newman, has unfortunately struggled. He’s riding around back in the thirties.

As the race is winding down, my predominant thought has been that the racing is actually pretty good. Not one car has been dominant, and even though Kyle Busch is down two laps, he hasn’t shown the kind of strength we have come to expect. Instead, all of the cars seem to be about the same. Even the strong Roush cars haven’t been so strong that they have outrun the rest of the field. Texas has always been a favorite track, simply because it always seems to have good races. Even though it is technically a cookie cutter track, being one of the mid-size D-shaped tracks, the racing here stands out. The other thing I’ve noticed is that although Carl Edwards was dominant at Texas last year, winning both races and grabbing the “double-flip” nickname for his victory move, he hasn’t been the factor everyone thought he might be here. In fact, Carl hasn’t been the factor this year at all, as fans and critics alike predicted.