Johnson should inch closer to championship at Texas

Texas Motor Speedway should prove to be a stepping stone to an unprecedented fourth consecutive Cup Series title for Jimmie Johnson.

The 1.5-mile oval has held a lot of success for the No. 48 team in recent seasons. If all goes according to the blueprint, Johnson should leave Texas with an insurmountable lead, and the possibility of clinching the championship the following week at Phoenix.

This 500-mile race will shape not only the 2009 championship, but it should give us a glimpse of the drivers that will head into next season with a lot of momentum. The intermediate tracks such as Texas are a large part of the schedule, and mastering them is often the key to season-long success.

We'll take a look at the current hot streaks and the intermediate oval aces in order to give you a good lock on fantasy racing success at TMS.

Top Fantasy Racing Drivers for Texas

1. Jimmie Johnson As expected the No. 48 team has played its cards perfectly during the Chase. Johnson has won a handful of races during the playoff format, and he's posted seven consecutive top-10 finishes. That flawless consistency should continue as the series comes to Texas. Johnson has won or finished second in three of the past four races at TMS.

2. Matt Kenseth While Kenseth may not be a part of the championship picture or even a participant in the Chase that does nothing to diminish his fantasy racing value at Texas. A quick look at the Loop stats for this intermediate oval will show just how dominant the Roush Fenway Racing veteran has been at this facility. Kenseth has one career victory and six career top-fives at TMS, where he's riding a five-race top-10 streak.

3. Jeff Gordon Gordon was the April winner at Texas. He led 105 laps and out-dueled teammate Jimmie Johnson to collect his first career win at the track. That race was one in a series of great finishes for the No. 24 team on intermediate ovals this season. We don't see this weekend's race being much different for the Hendrick Motorsports star. Gordon has led well more than 400 laps for his career at TMS and he owns a series-best seven top-fives at the track.

4. Tony Stewart The championship just wasn't in the cards for Stewart in 2009, but that's all right. The owner/driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet has had a wildly successful season in his first year with his new race team. Stewart boasts one victory and nine top-10 finishes during his 15 starts at Texas. He should challenge to equal the brilliant fourth-place finish he posted there in April.

5. Greg Biffle While Biffle doesn't have the consistency at Texas that the others in this power ranking have at the 1.5-mile oval, he does have the recent success that can't be ignored when forming your fantasy racing lineups for this event. The driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford is a one-time winner at TMS and he's riding a two-race top-five streak at the facility. In April, Biffle was really Jeff Gordon's biggest threat to visiting Victory Lane.

6. Kasey Kahne The Richard Petty Motorsports star has been absolutely flawless on the intermediate ovals this season. He has a win at Atlanta and top-10s at Charlotte, Chicago, Atlanta and Kansas. While his visit to Texas earlier this season was nothing special, that should not be a concern for this race. Kahne has one win and one runner-up finish at TMS during his career, so clearly he knows how to run up front there.

7. Juan Montoya 2009 has really been a remarkable season for Montoya and his Earnhardt Ganassi team. Up until this season he was almost fantasy racing irrelevant anywhere but road courses. That has changed throughout the course of this season. Montoya has shown the consistency on intermediate ovals and larger tracks to be a true championship contender. He already owns two career top-10s at Texas, and he should extend that statistic to three.

8. Mark Martin Martin's dream season at Hendrick Motorsports is coming to the end. Now sitting second overall at 184 points behind teammate Jimmie Johnson, he can likely dismiss any thoughts of a championship in 2009. Still, it has been a wildly successful year for the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet. Martin should finish these final three races of the Chase on a positive note. He is a one-time winner at Texas, and finishes in the top 10 in better than 50 percent of his starts there.

9. David Reutimann The No. 00 Michael Waltrip team and Reutimann served notice early this season that they would be a contender for wins on intermediate ovals. He won the pole at Texas in April and led 40 laps before finishing a respectable 11th. Reutimann went on to win the rain-shortened race at Charlotte in May and collected many of the nine top-10s he has this season on intermediate tracks.

10. Carl Edwards While this season has been anything but impressive for Edwards, we still have to give him due respect on his best tracks. Still winless to this point in 2009, Texas gives Edwards an excellent opportunity to steal a win before the season is done. Edwards owns three career victories at TMS and two of those have come in the past three races.

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