2016 AAA Texas 500

Second practice

Ryan Blaney was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 28.645 and a speed of 188.515 mph (303.385 km/h).^[14]

Final practice

Brad Keselowski was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.319 and a speed of 190.685 mph (306.878 km/h).^[15]

Qualifying results

First half

The start of the race was delayed for nearly six hours due to rain.^[20] The aged surface compounded the drying time.^[21] Austin Dillon led the field to the green flag at 7:56 p.m. under yellow flag conditions as the track surface was still not completely dry. The race went green at lap 7. Dillon was no match for Joey Logano who beat him on the restart to take the lead. The second caution of the race flew on lap 29. It was a scheduled competition caution.

The race restarted on lap 34. Green flag stops started on lap 73. Logano pitted from the lead on lap 76 and handed it to Dillon. He pitted the next lap and gave the lead to Denny Hamlin. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Kyle Busch who pitted the same lap on the next trip by, and the lead cycled back to Logano.

The third caution flew on lap 109 for Brian Scott spinning out in turn 4.

The race restarted on lap 116. Debris on the backstretch, a piece of hose, brought out the fourth caution on lap 117. The piece of debris punched a hole through the front bumper of Busch's car.^[22]

The race restarted on lap 121. The fifth caution flew on lap 143 for Paul Menard spinning in turn 3. Adding to his drama, a tire appeared to "explode" in his stall when it was something related to the inner liner. “When a car spins it generally flat spots the tires, which is exactly what happened here,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales. “It flat spotted both front (tires). The damage that was done to the left front as he drove around the race track looked like it partially unseated the inner liner. So it was actually the inner liner that let go on pit road. It wasn't the tire itself. The tire was already down.”^[23]

Second half

The race restarted on lap 149. Green flag stops commenced on lap 188. Logano pitted on lap 189 and the lead cycled to Martin Truex Jr.

He and Edwards were fighting for the lead when both decided to pit on lap 224 and Chase Elliott took over the lead. He pitted the following lap and the lead cycled back to Truex.

The sixth caution flew with 80 laps to go for David Ragan turning Dillon in turn 3. Edwards exited pit road first.^[24]

The race restarted with 74 to go. A three-car wreck on the frontstretch involving Dillon, Casey Mears and Scott brought out the seventh caution with 72 to go.^[25] Dillon said afterwards that Harvick "sucked down on my door tighter than anybody had all night. He knew how tight he was at my door, that’s why I slid up in front of him. He didn’t check (up). He had the opportunity to. He didn’t like it that the silver spoon kid was outrunning him tonight, so we’ll be alright. We’ve got two weeks left. We just want to come out and win a race.”^[26] Harvick said after the race that "there was no intent there. I like racing with Austin. I like everything that they do. There was no reason [to hit him]. I was running seventh [or] sixth. He slid up and got loose and I hit the back of him."^[27]

The race restarted with 64 to go. Rain brought out the eighth caution with 45 to go. The race was red-flagged with 41 to go, declared official a few minutes later and Edwards was declared the winner.^[28]

Driver comments

Edwards said in victory lane that he "actually enjoyed [the race]. Obviously this is what we had to do. The guys got me off pit road first and that's what won it for me. We've got a shot at the championship at Homestead and that's all we wanted."^[29]

Logano, who led a race high of 178 laps, said to come "that close to winning and [leading] the most laps, second stings. That's our goal every week, is to win. Anything short of that is a failure. I feel like we were so close to that today. But ultimately, we did gain some points. We're in right now. We were out going into this race. So, you know, we did the best we could as far as leading laps and getting that bonus point, or those two bonus points with the most laps led as well. But we didn't get the win part. That would have been nice."^[30]

Race summary

• Lead changes: 12 among 8 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 8 for 37 laps
• Red flags: 1
• Time of race: 3 hours, 16 minutes and 0 seconds
• Average speed: 134.541 miles per hour (216.523 km/h)

Television

NBCSN covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, two-time Texas winner Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth, while Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast handled pit road.

Radio

PRN had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.