ESPN

After an entire elementary school lived up to their promise, five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup series champion Jimmie Johnson lived up to his.

Johnson, who visited Clara Love Elementary School in Justin to crown the "Speeding to Read" champions in April, was asked during a Q&A session with the student body if he would bring them ice cream again just like he did when he was voted the school's most popular NASCAR driver in 2010 by the students.

The question made Johnson double over in laughter and brought a roar out of the 600-plus students and faculty on hand.

"How do you say no when a little kid is asking you for ice cream?" Johnson said in a statement. "I know I can't say no to it myself. I told the students that if they kept up with their reading I'd see what I could do."

After the students met their reading goal to live up to their end of the deal, Johnson responded by sending enough ice cream for the entire student body and faculty to enjoy Friday.

Said Johnson: "They definitely deserve some ice cream."

Former Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello will be making his first IndyCar Series oval runs during open testing at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday.

Barrichello will be joined by IndyCar Series drivers Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball, Mike Conway and Ed Carpenter for two sessions as the DW12 Dallara chassis makes its debut at TMS.

Barrichello, who won 11 races on the Formula One circuit, has finished in the top 10 of each of his last three IndyCar Series races. It will be the driver's first runs on an oval track.

The first session will be run from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., and the second session will be from 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Both sessions are open to the public and are free. Fans should enter Gate 4. Coolers are not allowed, but concession stands will be open.

The Firestone 550 will be run at TMS on Sat., June 9.

Greg Biffle wins for the first time in 50 races and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kasey Kahne get checkered flags. Plus, Carl Edwards tells all about his visit to the White House.

 

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Now that the 16th annual Samsung Mobile 500 is over, let's take a look at a few drivers whose stock is rising and others whose stock is falling:

STOCK UP

Greg Biffle: He was the points leader coming in, but winning Saturday's race validates his spot in the standings. The Chase for the Sprint Cup is seeded based on wins and now Biffle has one. He's been the most consistent driver all season.

Jeff Gordon: He started 34th and in a race with so many green-flag laps, it would seem difficult to make up 30 spots. But Gordon had a superb car and his crew had a good night in the pits. He went from 34th to fourth. Impressive.

Martin Truex Jr.: The polesitter wasn't able to compete with Biffle, Jimmie Johnson or Mark Martin at the end, but he did finish fourth and moved up to fourth in the point standings (he was sixth before the race started).

STOCK DOWN

Tony Stewart: He won at TMS in November and usually performs well at the track, but nothing went right almost as soon as he unloaded this week. He hit the wall in practice and his backup car never seemed right. The only time he was able to work his way up a little bit was by taking two tires in the pits. He finished two laps down and dropped from third to seventh in the point standings. But if the Chase started today, the defending Cup champ would have the No. 1 seed thanks to his two wins.

Brad Keselowski: A problem with the fuel system effectively ended Keselowski's race early. He had to go to the garage and did come back out to eventually run 312 laps and pick up some points.

Kyle Busch: He just can't seem to get going in 2012. He started 17th and did get the car to 11th, but wasn't ever a factor in the race. He's 14th in the point standings and has just one top-5 this season.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- It was just off.

That was crew chief Steve Addington's simple explanation for Tony Stewart's worst finish of the season Saturday at the Samsung Mobile 500.

In November, Stewart was shooting off guns in the winner's circle at Texas Motor Speedway. At Saturday's Samsung Mobile 500, Stewart never led, never really threatened -- he was never really there.

Stewart finished an unsual week in Fort Worth with a 24th-place finish.

The week started poorly, too. Stewart struggled in his first practice session Thursday, and things got worse when he wrecked his primary car during Friday's practice.

During the race, Stewart moved up a few spots to 19th. After 100 laps, Stewart fell back and never really moved up or down.

Stewart was optimistic during the beginning of the race because his front end was good. The back end was a different story, though. The heavy winds pushed Stewart even more off balance, but Addington said it wasn't the reason they finished poorly.

"Everybody has to deal with it. That's no excuse for the way we ran," Addington said. "We were just off tonight."

Stewart didn't talk to reporters after the race, but Addington spoke about the problems Stewart's team had getting the No. 14 working correctly.

"It was just off," Addington said again. "If I could explain it I could have fixed it. Everybody worked really hard, we just missed the balance on it."

With two wins on the season, Stewart is still in great shape for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but Addington's team isn't going to just forget about this weekend and move on.

"We're not going to just sweep it under the rug because we won two races," Addington said. "We have to figure out what we're doing when we come back here."

Stewart apologized to his team for wrecking the primary car, but Addington said that wasn't a good excuse, either. Stewart drove that same backup car to victory in the November win at TMS.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team," Addington said. "We're a good enough team that we should be able to drag a car off the trailer and get closer than we did tonight."

The finish moves Stewart down four spots into seventh place in the Sprint Cup standings.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jeff Gordon's qualifying effort on Friday put him in a hole as the green flag dropped to start Saturday's Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

And with just two cautions in a race that was run almost exclusively under green flags, Gordon didn't exactly get many chances to gain positions on restarts. He just had a good car, worked his way through the field and found himself in the top-10 by the halfway point.

With a few more laps, Gordon might have caught Mark Martin for third place. But jumping 30 spots was a terrific effort for Gordon, who jumped four spots in the points standings as well, to No. 17. He's 42 points out of 10th.

Gordon said a couple of issues for him and his No. 24 team this season were self-induced and others were out of their control.

"We’ve been running so good," Gordon said. "It's nice to have things come together. I'm so proud of everybody. What a racecar we had. Got it up there with only two cautions. We've had this many times, but haven't been able to get it going, so it's something great we can build on. [We] can't wait to go to Kansas."

Gordon struggled at TMS in the first four races (1997-2000), never finishing better than 25th. And he's had some issues at times -- even finishing last in the April 2008 race. But he did win at Texas in April 2009 and has seven top-5 finishes now at TMS.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Greg Biffle said a few days ago that his team didn't want just the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points lead, that it also needed wins. Well, he got one Saturday night, taking the lead from Jimmie Johnson with 40 laps to go and eventually claiming the checkered flag in the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Here are some quick thoughts on the race:

What it means: Biffle leaves Texas having increased the Cup points lead but also having won his first race since Kansas in October 2010. Along with the win, Biffle has three third-place finishes and hasn't finished worse than 13th. No one has been more consistent.

Lots of green-flag laps: The Samsung Mobile 500 finished under green and had more than 200 consecutive green-flag laps leading up to that finish. It's the first time since 1999 at Homestead that there's been 200 or more consecutive green-flag laps at a superspeedway in a NASCAR event.

Can't get 200: Hendrick Motorsports is still waiting for victory No. 200. Johnson appeared to have it in sight but Biffle was able to get around Johnson, who led the most laps. Johnson still doesn't have a win in 2012. This is Johnson's fifth runner-up finish in the past 12 races at TMS. He also has one win (November 2007) in that span.

Mover and shaker: The most impressive move of the night has to go to Jeff Gordon, who started 34th (outside Row 17). He moved up steadily and got himself into the top 10 at the halfway point. Gordon, who had just one top-10 finish coming in, finished fourth. He struggled at TMS early in his career but won in April 2009 and had a top-10 in November (ending a streak of three straight finishes of 23rd or worse).

Junior can't quite break through: Dale Earnhardt Jr. now has gone 136 races without a win. He ran pretty well Saturday night -- finished 10th after starting 16th -- and continues to have a solid start to the 2012 season, but he wasn't in Victory Lane. Junior last won in June 2008 in Michigan. He won at TMS in 2001 and 1998, and had two straight top-10 finishes in Texas coming into the race.

Fuel system issue: Brad Keselowski started eighth (outside Row 4) and was competitive until he had a problem with the fuel system. He tried to hang around but was not running fast enough lap times to stay on the track consistently. He had to go to the garage and work on it on Lap 159. He did get back on the track to pick up as many points as he could.

Wind factor: When the green flag dropped, winds were gusting at 21.5 mph from the south, meaning it was with the drivers on the backstretch and against them on the frontstretch. The wind coming out of Turn 3 might have contributed to Trevor Bayne touching the wall early in the race, but otherwise it didn't appear to be a big issue.

Side-by-side racing? We didn't see much of it at TMS on Saturday night. The cars got spread out on the 1.5-mile oval thanks in large part to few cautions. The Nationwide race Friday was much more exciting racing than the Cup cars were Saturday. Plus, tires didn't appear to be wearing out much, something that's been the case all season.

Smoke's struggles: Tony Stewart, who won at TMS in November and has run well in Texas, had to start in his backup car after a wreck in practice Friday. He started 29th but quickly dropped back from there and ended up 24th (two laps down). He wasn't able to generate any momentum or get the car where he wanted it. His crew tried a two-tire stop early in the race to gain some track position, but the car wasn't good enough to hold it. Debris cautions before the race was 100 laps old kept him from getting lapped, but he was lapped in the second half and just didn't have it. It's been a long time since Stewart, who was dominant at TMS in the fall and won the Sprint Cup title, has struggled this much.

Golf meets racing: Denny Hamlin was hoping some of Bubba Watson's major championship luck would rub off on him this week in Texas. Hamlin, who won at Phoenix in the second race of the season, was Watson's caddie for the par-3 tournament at Augusta National Golf Club last week. Of course, Watson went on to win the green jacket as Masters champion. Hamlin worked his way up after a slow start but wasn't able to get all the way to the checkered flag, finishing12th.

Crowd: The estimated attendance for Saturday night's race was 159,200. There weren't many empty seats in the frontstretch, but there were spots without folks on the backstretch. No matter how you look at it, it was a large crowd.

What's next: The NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit heads to Kansas Speedway for the second annual STP 400. The race is April 22 at 1 p.m. ET with Keselowski as the defending champion.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- With 34 laps left, Greg Biffle has stolen the lead from Jimmie Johnson. The two remain neck-and-neck.

Mark Martin is seven seconds behind in third. Jeff Gordon is building on his impressive run and has moved into fourth followed by Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr.

Tony Stewart has fallen two laps behind the leader on his disappointing night.

Kasey Kahne has come back from several problems to move into the eighth spot.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jimmie Johnson continues to lead the pack. His car and pit crew have been nearly flawless through 250 laps. He has now led 102 laps.

Greg Biffle remains just behind Johnson, and continues to stay right on his tail.

Martin Truex, Jr. has moved back into fifth after leading for much of the early parts of the race.

Jeff Gordon remains in the pack at sixth, and continues to impress on his way up from the 34th starting position.

Tony Stewart has been the disappointment of the Samsung Mobile 500. He is 24th through 250 laps in his backup car.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The race is moving along and is now past the 200-lap marker. Jimmie Johnson, a winner at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2007 and a runner-up three times since then, leads the race. He's had a strong car since the green flag dropped and is now running up front.

Mark Martin is second with Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth -- two cars that have hovered around the lead all day -- are third and fourth, respectively. Martin Truex Jr., the man who has led the most laps, is fifth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is eighth. He was in the top-5 briefly but has stayed around eighth to 12th for most of the night. It will be interesting to see if he can get something going.

Jeff Gordon continues to impress. He started 34th and was sixth after Lap 200.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Martin Truex, Jr. stole his lead back from Jimmie Johnson after a pit stop, and the pole winner remains ahead of the pack.

Johnson continues to be in the thick of things, and has been the fastest car of the night.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. continues to move up, and currently sits in sixth.

Greg Biffle's car was great early, but he has moved back into fifth.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Caution for debris on Turns 3 and 4 had the field slowing up as it inched to Lap 100 in today's Samsung Mobile 500.

Martin Truex Jr., who started from the pole, is back in front. Greg Biffle follows and has had a solid car all night.

Jimmie Johnson, who has run well in recent years in Texas, has moved up from 10th to third with Matt Kenseth and Marcos Ambrose right behind him.

Tonight's biggest mover has been Jeff Gordon, who started 34th and is now running seventh. Dale Earnhardt Jr. slipped into the top-12 briefly but has hovered around 14th. He started 16th.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Greg Biffle leads through the first 50 laps of the Samgsung Mobile 500. Here's the top 10:

1. (16) Greg Biffle
2. (29) Kevin Harvick
3. (56) Martin Truex, Jr.
4. (17) Matt Kenseth
5. (55) Mark Martin
6. (9) Marcos Ambrose
7. (2) Brad Keselowski
8. (48) Jimmie Johnson
9. (99) Carl Edwards
10. (1) Jamie McMurray

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Matt Kenseth has the highest odds to take home the cowboy hat at the Samsung Mobile 500, according to ESPN.com senior writer Terry Blount. Here are some of the favorites for Saturday's race.

Matt Kenseth (4-to-1): With 10 top-5 finishes at TMS, Kenseth has to be the favorite.

Tony Stewart (5-to-1): He's on fire so far this season. A third win on the season would give him big momentum toward winning another Sprint Cup championship.

Greg Biffle (6-to-1): Biffle has seven-straight top-10 finishes at TMS.

Jimmie Johnson (8-to-1): He is always near the top at TMS but hasn't won here in seven years.

Carl Edwards (9-to-1): Edwards has had success at TMS, and he might be due after more than a year without a Sprint Cup win.

Read the rest of Blount's odds here.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- After the lights went out on the third turn of Friday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 300, Texas Motor Speedway officials decided to replace all of the circuit breakers for the Samsung Mobile 500, according to NASCAR.com.

An outage caused two cautions during the O'Reilly 300, including a 10-minute red flag to replace the broken breaker. Maintenance crews replaced the rest of the breakers overnight.

The breakers could have overheated, causing them to shut off to avoid further problems.

The circuit breakers were 15 years old, according to the report.

This is the second year that the O'Reilly 300 and Samsung Mobile 500 races took place at night.