Sports highlights: Football, NASCAR Championship Chase #1, last IndyCar race in Japan

My Texas Longhorns had a down year last year. Losing to UCLA at home was a low-light. Fortunately we won the rematch this year convincingly. Coupled with a few upsets at the top, Texas has finally returned to Top 20. I know it's a long road for us to climb all the way back up but this is good progress. Our new QB is Colt McCoy's brother. I hope he's the real deal. There were actually quite a few Texas-California matchup this weekend. Another big game was of course Dallas Cowboys visiting 49ers in SF. I didn't have too much faith in Da Boys based on the poor performance last season as well as this season's opener. On the other hand, 49ers were supposed to be improving. And the new coach Jim Harbaugh, who had success in college, certainly brought the team some positive vibes. I was so glad to see Cowboys overcoming adversity to beat the Niners.
I didn't watch either game though. My only available time was spent on the 2 races. First, IndyCar in Japan was expected to be the race where Will Power could finally overtaken the point lead from Dario Franchitti and this was indeed the case. And this was actually indirectly affected by the earthquake earlier this year! When IndyCar races at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, it usually races at the oval track rather than the road course (Yes, Motegi has a special design that features 2 tracks). However, the oval track was damaged by the earthquake so the race was held on the road course instead, where Will Power usually performed well. In fact, he won the (Mario Andretti) trophy for being the best IndyCar road course driver 2 years in a row! Now there are only 2 more races left this season. I still think Franchitti has a better chance to win the overall championship because he outperforms Power on oval more than Power outperforms him on road courses. And both races left are on oval :(
There are nine more races left this season for NASCAR, after the 1st race of the chase completed on Monday (it was postponed from Sunday because of the rain) Just when it looked like Jimmie Johnson was gonna win and had a good headstart for his sixth consecutive championship (BORING!), there was a caution (It almost seemed like all cautions benefitted JJ but this one didn't) Tony Stewart got to the front and won this race that was decided by fuel mileage. JJ actually ran out of gas and got a bad finish. I was also glad to see that Dale Earnhardt Jr. got on the podium and improved his position in the championship chase from last to 6th. Can't wait to watch the next race!