The Sprint All-Star Race

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Carl Edwards won the race off pit road, then pulled away on the restart and led every lap of the final ten-lap segment to win the 2011 Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night.


Edwards won the second and third segments (both 20 laps each) of the four-segment race.  After the third segment, the cars lined up on pit road for a ten-minute intermission.  The cars then left pit road under yellow, then returned for a mandatory four-tire change.  Edwards beat Kyle Busch off pit road, then dominated the final segment, a ten-lap shootout, to win the $1,000,000 grand prize.  In all, Edwards won $1,203,300, the largest amount ever in a single All-Star Race.

Edwards beat Busch to the finish by 0.443 seconds.  David Reutimann finished third, followed by Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle.  Biffle, who won the first segment, a 50-lap affair, led twice for a race-high 46 laps.  (All-Star Race results)  It was Edwards's first All-Star Race win in six starts.  He becomes the eighth different All-Star Race winner in the past eight years.

As All-Star Races go, it was a pretty low-key affair.  No drama, no feuding, very few incidents, just a lot of hard racing.  There were only two cautions for accidents.  Both were one-car slides.  The only real incident of the evening occurred on Lap 2 of the preliminary event, the Sprint Showdown.  Landon Cassill's left rear tire blew causing him to spin.  He came up the track in front of Derrike Cope, who T-boned him in the driver's side door. 

Carl Edwards had some issues after winning the race while attempting a celebratory spin through the grass.  He went across a paved strip, then, when he hit the grass again, the nose of his car dug in and almost flipped the car over.  The front end of his car was destroyed, and NASCAR had to move the Victory Lane celebration to the front straightaway.

Eighteen drivers qualified for the All-Star Race.  David Ragan and Brad Keselowski raced their way into the All-Star Race by finishing first and second respectively in the Sprint Showdown.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. got into the All-Star Race by winning the fan vote.

NASCAR: NSCS -- Martinsville: Tums Fast Relief 500 Results

Image by Hans J E via FlickrDenny Hamlin rallied to pick up his third straight Sprint Cup Series win at Martinsville Sunday in the Tums Fast Relief 500, Kevin Harvick finished a surprising third, and we're left with the closest points battle with four races to go in the history of the Chase format.  And the true wild-card race in the Chase, Talladega, is up next.

The final 98 laps (of 500) were run under green, a benefit to Hamlin whose car was much better on long runs.  On the final restart on Lap 402, Harvick led the field to green with Jeff Burton second and Hamlin third.  Hamlin got around Burton on Lap 453, then battled Harvick side-by-side for several laps before finally taking the lead for good on Lap 471.

Hamlin started on the pole and led the first ten laps until he was passed by Marcos Ambrose.  By the first caution 47 laps in, Hamlin had faded to 12th.  But the crew kept working and the track finally came to Hamlin.  He beat Mark Martin to the finish by 2.318 seconds.  It was Hamlin's 15th career Cup win, his series-leading seventh of the year, and his fourth at Martinsville, including the last three in a row.

Martin's day started out bad, then got much worse before he put on a furious rally at the end to finish second.  By Lap 30, Martin was overheating his brakes and had to baby them the rest of the way.  On Lap 226, he spun, backing into the wall and doing considerable damage to his car.  He fell two laps down and was 18th on the final restart before rallying to a runnerup finish.  He was coming hard at the end and might have won if the race had gone ten laps more.  Martin said adjustments didn't make much of a difference. "I think the race track just came to us. We had a good setup in the car for the race track when it was rubbered up in the second half of the race."

Harvick, whose previous best at the track was a seventh-place finish, was expected to lose ground in the points battle.  His 36th-place start also added to those predictions.  But he quickly moved up through the field.  By that first caution on Lap 47, he was in ninth, three spots ahead of Hamlin.  He stayed near the front for the rest of the race and led most of that last long green flag run until Hamlin and Martin passed him in the closing laps.  Harvick also benefited from a crew swap with Clint Bowyer before the race.

After a long, multi-lap battle, Kyle Busch pulled ahead of Johnson in the closing laps to finish fourth.  Johnson, whose car was much better on short runs, held on for fifth, followed by Joey Logano.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 90 laps around the midpoint of the race and finished seventh for just his second top 10 in the last 14 races.  Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Burton led a race-high 134 laps before fading at the end.  After a restart on Lap 364, he got into an on-track feud with Harvick, his RCR teammate.  Burton was running on the outside and attempted to cut down in front of Harvick.  Harvick cut him off, then accused Burton of cutting him off.  Over the radio, he also accused Burton of doing the same thing at Indy and Loudon.  A short time later, during another caution, Harvick bumped doors with Burton.  For his part, Burton was perplexed:  "I have no clue what he could possibly be upset about.  I cleared him and turned to the bottom the same way he cleared me on the restart and turned to the bottom.  It's Martinsville, that's what you do."  Calmer heads eventually prevailed, and Harvick dismissed the dustup in his postrace press conference:  "We were just racing."

Another on-track incident put the final dagger in Jeff Gordon's fading championship hopes.  On Lap 384, Gordon was trying to nose ahead of Kurt Busch going into Turn Three.  He came in too hot and the two got together.  Gordon tapped Busch.  Busch got loose and Gordon went around him.  But Busch accelerated and caught Gordon coming out of Four.  He hooked him and spun him down the frontstretch.  Gordon lost a lap as his crew tried to repair the damage.  He got the lap back, but lost two more on the final green flag run as his damaged car struggled to keep up.  Gordon got inside of Busch again in the closing laps and pushed him up the track.  Busch lost one spot as a result and finished 16th.  Gordon finished 20th.

Other Chase drivers:  Matt Kenseth finished 15th, Tony Stewart 24th, Greg Biffle 33rd, and Clint Bowyer 38th.  (Race results)

The top three in the points standings have tightened up with Johnson's lead over Hamlin down to just six points.  Harvick gained 15 points on Johnson and is now just 62 points behind.  Although no one has been eliminated yet, it really is a three-man race with just four races remaining.  With his fourth-place finish, Kyle Busch moved into fourth in the standings, 172 points back.  Gordon dropped to fifth, 203 points behind Johnson.

NASCAR: NSCS -- Charlotte: Bank of America 500 Results

Image by i heart him via FlickrJamie McMurray got by Kyle Busch on a late restart and pulled away to an easy victory in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, and Jimmie Johnson added a few more points to his lead in his quest for a fifth straight championship.

McMurray got ahead of Busch coming out of Turn Two on the final restart of the night on Lap 314 (of 334) and pulled away as Busch battled Johnson for second place.  McMurray crossed the finish line 1.886 seconds ahead of Busch for his third win of the season, the sixth of his career and his second at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was only the 13th win by a non-Chase driver in a Chase race since the format was adopted in 2004.

The victory comes almost eight years to the day after McMurray's first career victory.  He won at Charlotte in 2002, driving in relief of Sterling Marlin, who had broken his neck in an accident two weeks earlier.

Busch, who led a race-high 217 laps was upset with the runner-up finish.  He appeared to be on his way to victory when NASCAR threw a caution for debris on Lap 308.  "I don't know what the caution was for.  You know, apparently there was a mouse that ran across the race track or something," Busch said.  Around the 100-lap mark, Busch had almost a four-second lead on Jeff Gordon when his throttle stuck.  That problem eventually resolved itself.

Early on, it looked like it might not be Jimmie Johnson's night.  He started tenth, but quickly started falling back with a loose car.  It got too loose and he spun it around coming out of Turn Two on Lap 34.  He was in the middle of traffic, but somehow managed not to hit anything or get hit.  He dropped as far back to 37th, but got up toward the front by staying out when most of the lead lap cars pitted during a caution on Lap 128.  He restarted fifth, then moved up to third through a long round of green-flag stops.  Johnson finally ran down McMurray and took the lead on Lap 189, holding it for 15 laps until Marco Ambrose spun to bring out a caution that got finally got Johnson back in sequence with everyone else.  He was quite happy with his third-place finish.

Denny Hamlin also had to overcome some adversity to finish fourth.   Ryan Newman got loose and pounded the wall on the second lap of the race.  Hamlin had to slam on the brakes to avoid Newman and flat spotted his tires.  After pitting for fresh rubber, he restarted in the rear of the field, but steadily worked his way up toward the front.  He finally settled into the top five, but couldn't get the adjustments he needed to challenge for the win.

Only three other Chase drivers finished in the top ten.  Greg Biffle finished fifth, Matt Kenseth sixth, and Kevin Harvick eighth.

After putting himself back in championship contention with good runs in the last two races, including a win last week at Fontana, Tony Stewart is back to long odds again.  He slowed when Newman spun on Lap 2 and got tagged in the rear by David Gilliland.  He made several pit stops to try to repair the damage, but fought an ill-handling car the rest of the night and came home 21st.

Jeff Gordon also had his share of problems.  The polesitter led the first seven laps, but fell back with a loose car.  On Lap 190, it died on him with a bad alternator.  He coasted around to the pits and lost a lap changing out the battery.  He got the lap back with the free pass on the caution for Ambrose's spin, but was never happy with the way his car was handling.  A pit road speeding penalty on the final stop of the night doomed him to a 23rd-place finish.

Kurt Busch was going for the sweep of the three Charlotte Cup races (including the Sprint All-Star Race), but he spun out on Lap 24.  He didn't hit anything, but couldn't quite get going again.  He finished 30th, worst of all the Chase drivers.

Other Chase drivers:  Carl Edwards finished 12th.  Clint Bowyer was 17th.  After a spin of his own, Jeff Burton finished 20th.  (Race results)

With his third-place finish, Johnson increased his lead over Hamlin to 41 points.  Harvick is the only other driver within 100 points of Johnson; he's 77 points down.  Gordon stayed in fourth place, but dropped 156 points down.  Kyle Busch moved up four spots in the standings to fifth.  He's now tied with Stewart, 177 points behind Johnson.  With the win McMurray moved past Newman into 13th, best of the non-Chase drivers.  (Points standings)

A pre-race stunt caused a fiery mess along the frontstretch of Charlotte Motor Speedway, but no one was injured.  Daredevil Spanky Spangler, driving an RV with "Hold my beer. Watch this" spray-painted on the side, was being chased by a police car driven by his son Bryan.  There was a series of planned explosions as the vehicles approached a jump, but the bottom of the RV caught fire and landed nose first on some junked cars near the ramps.  It took several minutes for rescue workers to pull Spanky from the RV, but he walked to an ambulance that took him to the infield care center.  He was treated and released.

NASCAR Basics: The Sprint All-Star Race

Originally published at Meanwhile... on May 14, 2008

The Sprint All-Star Race, formerly known as The Winston and the Nextel All-Star Challenge, is a non-points event held in May at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The race is open to drivers who have won a race in the current or previous season, past Sprint Cup champions*, and former winners of the event.

The Sprint Showdown, held just before the All-Star race, is open to drivers who haven't otherwise qualified. The top two finishers of the Showdown transfer into the All-Star Race. In addition, one driver is also voted in by the fans.

The race was first run in 1985 and has been held at Charlotte Motor Speedway every year except 1986, when it was run at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The format has changed many times over the years. Currently, the race is 100 laps run in four 25-lap segments. A ten-minute "halftime" break follows the second segment. The third and fourth segments are separated by a five-lap caution period. Drivers will make a mandatory pit stop (at least a "stop and go") during the break.

Since no points are on the line, only prize money, look for drivers to take chances that they normally wouldn't take. Because the racing is so hard, drivers almost always prepare separate cars for the Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600, held at Lowe's on the following weekend.

The All-Star weekend's festivities also include the Burnout Competition, the Pit Crew Challenge, and a Camping World Truck Series race.

* The past champions must have won the championship in the past ten years and competed in a Cup race in the current or previous season.