Bump-Drafts.com

There was some serious running going on at Texas Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Nextel Cup boys were pushing 200 mile per hour, and a good many of them ran good enough on the first lap they said "Forget it!" about a second.

Our current crop of NASCAR drivers are pretty impressive, from the old pros like Bill Elliott and Mark Martin, to the "young guns"- fresh faces who are new the scene, such as  Juan Pablo Montoya and David Ragan. Today, none looked more impressive to me than a pair of guys who look less like the traditional NASCAR driver: southern Californian Toyota driver A.J. Allmendinger and New Jersey’s own Martin Truex.

While most followers of the DEI team are following the trials and tribulations of Dale Earnhardt Jr., another guy in their shop, Martin Truex has been steadily building his NASCAR resume. The former Busch Series champ has not only notched his first career win (in June at Dover), he has also made some great runs, and enough of those to have made the Chase. The driver of the #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet has been overshadowed by the exploits of Clint Bowyer since the Chase began, but Truex has in many ways been no less impressive. Truex looked like the car to beat late in the Atlanta race before falling victim to the messy affairs at the end. Fans writing obituaries for DEI had better old up a moment, because Truex looks well poised to carry the banner for Teresa Earnhardt and Company. Today, Martin drove the wheels off his car, just enough better than Juan Pablo, Kevin Harvick and some guy named Jeff Gordon to capture the pole. With his performance, alongside veteran Mark Martin and other promising prospects like Paul Menard and Aric Almirola, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated will be just fine.

Allmendinger has just shot off like a rocket these last few races. The former open-wheeler has been running like a demon with that fearlessness the 25 year old Los Gatos native had been so famous for. His reckless abandon is apparent in how he’s driven his car during qualifying the last two weeks in particular. Much has made been, and rightly so, about how Allmendinger has benefited from extra cockpit time running for Chip Ganassi in the Busch Series for the last two months. What we’re seeing now is that his race performances are catching up to his qualifying performances. The folks at Red Bull Racing would sure be happy to see that. From a marketing standpoint, Allmendinger and teammate Brian Vickers seem like fitting images for the organization famous for their energy drink that "gives you wings." These guys are starting to run like like they’re flying low.

There’s been much speculation as to who would get the first win for Toyota in the Nextel Cup Series. At one point in the season, I would have said Vickers. Then there’s been other occasions where I thought it would be David Reutimann. On the basis of what I’ve seen lately, I am now saying it will be A.J. Allmendinger who will do it, long before Tony Stewart and the gang get to try their hand at it in 2008. I’ve got a feeling it could happen this Sunday.

But he’ll have to get past Martin Truex to do it.