Johnson sidesteps Texas talk

No offense against the Lone Star State, but Jimmie Johnson couldn’t wait to stop talking about Texas.

Johnson’s march to a record fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title was rudely interrupted last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

An early crash left Johnson with a 38th-place finish and enabled teammate Mark Martin to slash Johnson’s lead in the championship standings to 73 points from 184.

Now Johnson hopes to at least keep, or even widen, his remaining lead in today’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., the next-to-last race in NASCAR’s 10-race Chase for the Cup title playoff.

“I just look forward to getting back on the racetrack so that I don’t have the memories and thoughts of Texas in my head and have something new to think about and focus on,” Johnson said Friday ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s race.

Then the El Cajon, Calif., native qualified third in the 43-car field in his No. 48 Chevrolet prepared by Hendrick Motorsports. “It felt nice to drive a car today and shake off what happened last week,” Johnson said.

Martin Truex Jr. won the pole position with a lap of 135.120 mph on the 1-mile track, while Kurt Busch – who won last Sunday in Texas – was second at 134.579 mph.

Martin, saying he was “just a little sloppy” in his qualifying lap, will start 10th. He won the spring race here in April.

Jeff Gordon, another Hendrick driver who’s third in the Chase standings 112 points behind Johnson, qualified 14th.

Edwards delays Busch

Carl Edwards rolled to a dominating win at Phoenix International Speedway that temporarily staved off Kyle Busch’s bid to clinch the Nationwide Series title.

Busch’s first NASCAR championship is still a near-certainty – he’s up 190 points over Edwards and only needs to start next week’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to grab the title.

But early problems Saturday spoiled Busch’s bid to get it out of the way. He spun his Toyota eight laps into the race, suffered heavy damage when he hit the wall, and had to battle to a ninth-place finish.

Labonte signs with TRG

Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte has signed a deal to drive for TRG Motorsports next season.

Labonte has already raced five times for TRG this season, and will finish the year in the No. 71 Chevrolet for a total of seven races.

Labonte drove for Hall of Fame Racing for most of this season in a car that was run out of Yates Racing. Team officials replaced him for seven events this year to give developmental driver Erik Darnell some seat time.