Charlotte Motor Speedway - NEXTEL All-Star Challenge
NEXTEL OPEN WINNERS: MARTIN TRUEX JR. AND JOHNNY SAUTER
NEXTEL OPEN FAN VOTE WINNER: KENNY WALLACE
Martin Truex Jr.: 1st (started 11th)
- The car was extremely tight but was good enough at the end to pass leader Carl Edwards and hold off a hard-charging Johnny Sauter for the win. Very exciting finish!
Michael Waltrip: 20th (started 32nd)
-The whole weekend was just miserable for Mikey. He downshifted while accelerating during practice and blew the engine. As per NASCAR’s rules, he would have to start at the rear of the field. However, during Open qualifying, Michael crashed his car without even taking the green flag, forcing them into a backup. The Open was kinder, but the NAPA machine was very loose and the team was unable to do much with it. In the last 20 lap segment, Michael had to pit for a flat tire and finished the race 2 laps down and out of contention. Hopefully the team had a successful “test session”, but I’m not really getting my hopes up.
David Reutimann: 21st (started 28th)
- David seemed to have similar problems as his team owner (except he was tight) and was often racing near him at any given point. He claimed that the frequent cautions hurt him. Then, just like Michael, he had a tire go down in the last segment and pitted under green. It states on both NASCAR.com and Race2Win’s race results that the #00 team also had an electrical problem, which may explain how they finished 7 laps down, but I cannot find anything about it in any race report.
Other Notes:
- As I suspected would happen, Juan Pablo Montoya caused a Lap 1 wreck when he passed to the inside of Dave Blaney on the start and dove too hard into Turn 1, sliding up into David Gilliland. The resulting melee took out several cars, including Gilliland, Paul Menard, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek and Jon Wood. AJ Allmendinger also spun but did not hit anything. I wasn’t surprised about the wreck at all and was even less surprised when Montoya acted like it was no big deal. It will not be long before the other drivers stop treating him nice because he’s such a big shot.
- The other Toyotas of Blaney and Allmendinger ran well. Blaney finished 4th and I really thought he was going to contend for the win for a while. Despite AJ getting caught up in Montoya’s arrogance, he was racing respectably and ended up 15th. The night before, AJ almost won the Craftsman Truck race and I think frightened eventual race winner Ron Hornaday for quite some time. All lot of people laugh at AJ and call him “Wall Dinger” or “Wallmendinger”, but he’s starting to really show what he’s made of.
NEXTEL ALL-STAR CHALLENGE WINNER: KEVIN HARVICK
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 9th (started 10th)
- His car handled well for the first few laps at the beginning of each run but would develop a shake after a while. The #8 team continued to improve on the car, but Junior sped on pit road after the first segment. Eventually the car was good enough to drive back up to 10th.
Martin Truex Jr.: 10th (started 19th)
- He moved up from his starting position but the car lost its Open-winning charm.
Dale Jarrett: 12th (started 13th)
- He used the race as a test session much like his teammates, but unlike them he ran well.
Casey Mears: 18th (started 16th)
- The car would get very loose in spite of the crew making constant changes to the car. In the third segment he brushed the wall and then was caught speeding on pit road. With 17 laps remaining in the last segment, the looseness got the better of him. He lost in underneath Denny Hamlin and the two cars crashed pretty hard. However, Hamlin stated during the broadcast that he was actually thankful that Casey put him out of his misery!
Kurt Busch: 19th (started 3rd)
- It looked as if Kurt’s night was getting better. He was just passing Jeff Burton in the quad-oval when his brother Kyle nudged him from behind and then attempted to pass him into Turn 1 although his leftside tires were in the grass! Kurt yanked his car to the left slightly as if to say, “Whoa! Not appreciated!” But it all ended in Turn 1 when Kyle dove in hard and lost control, wrecking both cars. It was pretty upsetting to watch (though I’m sure the majority of NASCAR fans loved every minute of it). I like Kyle and will defend him when it’s due, but this one was on him. Kurt kept his head in a post-wreck interview and even had a sense of humor about it, saying that he won’t be eating Kellogg’s any time soon! Kyle took off understandably. I’m sure they will talk about it and put it behind them – after all, it wasn’t a points race and it was for a million dollars.
Other Notes:
- Surprising, in spite of all the hype SPEED made of the race, it wasn’t very exciting. True, Jimmie Johnson looked like he was going to pass Kevin in the closing laps, but all in all the racing was poor. A lot of people blame the tires being too hard, but when you look all the way back, Humpy Wheeler caused the whole mess when he levigated the track a couple years ago. That blew up in his face (literally…remember all those blown tires?) and then he had to repave it. Of course, the speeds picked up to dangerous levels and the track hasn’t aged at all. NASCAR can’t have tires blowing left and right and wrecks at over 200mph, so a hard tire compound slows the cars down. Unfortunately, they also have no grip whatsoever. It’s just a shame – Charlotte was such a good track that was ruined because its president thought things would be greener on the other side of the fence.
- At the worst time for NASCAR, AT&T was announced by a judge to be allowed on Jeff Burton’s car during NEXTEL’s race. This is a situation where I feel bad for both parties, but this is what happens when cell phone companies sponsor things. In general, I’m on NASCAR’s side because NEXTEL was there first and it’s not their problem that AT&T bought out Cingular. But I also have sympathy for Jeff Burton as this must be incredibly stressful.
- The wing bracket deal for Dale Jr.’s #8 team resulted in a 100 point penalty and his crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was fined $100,000 and suspended for 6 races. I love Tony, but I believe he knew he did something wrong, for he explained in great detail why the brackets were wrong and how they performed in the wind tunnel. DEI is appealing the penalties (which is why Tony Jr. was there this weekend), though I highly doubt they will get far. It just sucks that this happened to the team after Dale Jr. announced he is leaving after this year.
NEXTEL OPEN FAN VOTE WINNER: KENNY WALLACE
Martin Truex Jr.: 1st (started 11th)
- The car was extremely tight but was good enough at the end to pass leader Carl Edwards and hold off a hard-charging Johnny Sauter for the win. Very exciting finish!
Michael Waltrip: 20th (started 32nd)
-The whole weekend was just miserable for Mikey. He downshifted while accelerating during practice and blew the engine. As per NASCAR’s rules, he would have to start at the rear of the field. However, during Open qualifying, Michael crashed his car without even taking the green flag, forcing them into a backup. The Open was kinder, but the NAPA machine was very loose and the team was unable to do much with it. In the last 20 lap segment, Michael had to pit for a flat tire and finished the race 2 laps down and out of contention. Hopefully the team had a successful “test session”, but I’m not really getting my hopes up.
David Reutimann: 21st (started 28th)
- David seemed to have similar problems as his team owner (except he was tight) and was often racing near him at any given point. He claimed that the frequent cautions hurt him. Then, just like Michael, he had a tire go down in the last segment and pitted under green. It states on both NASCAR.com and Race2Win’s race results that the #00 team also had an electrical problem, which may explain how they finished 7 laps down, but I cannot find anything about it in any race report.
Other Notes:
- As I suspected would happen, Juan Pablo Montoya caused a Lap 1 wreck when he passed to the inside of Dave Blaney on the start and dove too hard into Turn 1, sliding up into David Gilliland. The resulting melee took out several cars, including Gilliland, Paul Menard, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek and Jon Wood. AJ Allmendinger also spun but did not hit anything. I wasn’t surprised about the wreck at all and was even less surprised when Montoya acted like it was no big deal. It will not be long before the other drivers stop treating him nice because he’s such a big shot.
- The other Toyotas of Blaney and Allmendinger ran well. Blaney finished 4th and I really thought he was going to contend for the win for a while. Despite AJ getting caught up in Montoya’s arrogance, he was racing respectably and ended up 15th. The night before, AJ almost won the Craftsman Truck race and I think frightened eventual race winner Ron Hornaday for quite some time. All lot of people laugh at AJ and call him “Wall Dinger” or “Wallmendinger”, but he’s starting to really show what he’s made of.
NEXTEL ALL-STAR CHALLENGE WINNER: KEVIN HARVICK
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 9th (started 10th)
- His car handled well for the first few laps at the beginning of each run but would develop a shake after a while. The #8 team continued to improve on the car, but Junior sped on pit road after the first segment. Eventually the car was good enough to drive back up to 10th.
Martin Truex Jr.: 10th (started 19th)
- He moved up from his starting position but the car lost its Open-winning charm.
Dale Jarrett: 12th (started 13th)
- He used the race as a test session much like his teammates, but unlike them he ran well.
Casey Mears: 18th (started 16th)
- The car would get very loose in spite of the crew making constant changes to the car. In the third segment he brushed the wall and then was caught speeding on pit road. With 17 laps remaining in the last segment, the looseness got the better of him. He lost in underneath Denny Hamlin and the two cars crashed pretty hard. However, Hamlin stated during the broadcast that he was actually thankful that Casey put him out of his misery!
Kurt Busch: 19th (started 3rd)
- It looked as if Kurt’s night was getting better. He was just passing Jeff Burton in the quad-oval when his brother Kyle nudged him from behind and then attempted to pass him into Turn 1 although his leftside tires were in the grass! Kurt yanked his car to the left slightly as if to say, “Whoa! Not appreciated!” But it all ended in Turn 1 when Kyle dove in hard and lost control, wrecking both cars. It was pretty upsetting to watch (though I’m sure the majority of NASCAR fans loved every minute of it). I like Kyle and will defend him when it’s due, but this one was on him. Kurt kept his head in a post-wreck interview and even had a sense of humor about it, saying that he won’t be eating Kellogg’s any time soon! Kyle took off understandably. I’m sure they will talk about it and put it behind them – after all, it wasn’t a points race and it was for a million dollars.
Other Notes:
- Surprising, in spite of all the hype SPEED made of the race, it wasn’t very exciting. True, Jimmie Johnson looked like he was going to pass Kevin in the closing laps, but all in all the racing was poor. A lot of people blame the tires being too hard, but when you look all the way back, Humpy Wheeler caused the whole mess when he levigated the track a couple years ago. That blew up in his face (literally…remember all those blown tires?) and then he had to repave it. Of course, the speeds picked up to dangerous levels and the track hasn’t aged at all. NASCAR can’t have tires blowing left and right and wrecks at over 200mph, so a hard tire compound slows the cars down. Unfortunately, they also have no grip whatsoever. It’s just a shame – Charlotte was such a good track that was ruined because its president thought things would be greener on the other side of the fence.
- At the worst time for NASCAR, AT&T was announced by a judge to be allowed on Jeff Burton’s car during NEXTEL’s race. This is a situation where I feel bad for both parties, but this is what happens when cell phone companies sponsor things. In general, I’m on NASCAR’s side because NEXTEL was there first and it’s not their problem that AT&T bought out Cingular. But I also have sympathy for Jeff Burton as this must be incredibly stressful.
- The wing bracket deal for Dale Jr.’s #8 team resulted in a 100 point penalty and his crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was fined $100,000 and suspended for 6 races. I love Tony, but I believe he knew he did something wrong, for he explained in great detail why the brackets were wrong and how they performed in the wind tunnel. DEI is appealing the penalties (which is why Tony Jr. was there this weekend), though I highly doubt they will get far. It just sucks that this happened to the team after Dale Jr. announced he is leaving after this year.
