Speed is name of the game for NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway

Mike Hembree | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption NASCAR: Top contenders heading into Texas Motor Speedway SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Mike Hembree previews the upcoming O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 race.

There is racing on the edge. And then there is racing at Texas Motor Speedway.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers return to the 1.5-mile track near Fort Worth this weekend for the third race since the speedway surface was repaved early last year. Sunday's O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET (Fox Sports 1).

The track surface has been super-fast since the repave. Kurt Busch won the pole for last November’s playoff race at TMS with a stunning speed of 200.915 mph.

Denny Hamlin says Texas’ new landscape produces “crazy speed,” and Michael McDowell went a step beyond that.

“You’ve got to be precise; you’ve got to be willing to put your life on the line there and really hang it out,” he said. “Any time we have these repaves, they’re pretty treacherous. But Texas has done a great job with it, dragging tires and doing all those things to kind of age it. And the grooves widened out way faster than we all anticipated.”

Drivers hate repaves, largely because new track surfaces can take years to “wear in” and create several lanes for passing. The result in the first few races after a repave often is a lot of single-file racing.

Texas has been pro-active in that area, driving its so-called “tire monster” for thousands of laps around the track in an attempt to add rubber to the middle and upper grooves and entice drivers to run in those areas.

Also, Goodyear, the circuit’s lone tire supplier, is using a new left-side tire this weekend. The tire, with a new construction and a new compound, is designed to wear faster.

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Busch said he expects competition to be improved this weekend.

“The feel of the tire and the asphalt were better in the fall than the spring,” he said. “Now that it’s aged even more through the wintertime with the rain and the cold and the track settling a little bit more, the track will be that much better.”

The Busch brothers – Kurt and Kyle – are expected to be among the favorites this weekend. Both own wins at TMS, and Kyle has scored 11 top-five runs in 24 races at the track. Kyle also will be motivated by the fact that he has run very well this year — four top-three finishes in six races — but hasn’t notched a win.

Jimmie Johnson easily has the best record at TMS with seven victories and five runner-up finishes. But it’s difficult to label the Hendrick Motorsports driver a favorite because his season through six races has been disappointing, with just one top 10.

Among the drivers who are winless at TMS across their careers are 2017 season champion Martin Truex Jr. (0-for-25) and Brad Keselowski (0-for-19).