Charlotte Motor Speedway - All-Star Race
Jess
SHOWDOWN RESULTS
1. AJ Allmendinger (transferred to All-Star race)
2. Sam Hornish (transferred to All-Star race)
* Fan Vote: Kasey Kahne (transferred to All-Star race)
4. Brian
6. David
20. Michael
Charlotte has never been the same since it was resurfaced but the Showdown and the desperation that goes along with it gave the fans some good racing - and the best racing of the night.
Brian immediately took the lead from polesitter Elliott Sadler, which was awesome! He had a great car and pulled away. It was doubly cool because AJ was performing just as well, causing visions of the pair of Red Bull cars making the All-Star race together.
Poor Pat Carpentier wrecked within four laps.
He didn't get lucky like he did in qualifying and killed the car...I felt pretty bad for him.
AJ's evening became a little more stressful when during a restart he was tucked behind Brian with Sadler to the #84's outside. Brian appeared to get a little squirrelly and in response AJ let off to give him some room. When he did this the #84 jumped a little bit and made contact with the #19. Sadler crashed. I felt bad. AJ felt bad. But it was racing, hard racing to make one of the biggest events of the year.
I stopped feeling bad once Sadler opened his mouth afterwards. "There’s a reason why he gets taken out of that race car it seems like every other week," he said (referring to AJ - he called him "whatever his name is" and Matt Yocum quickly corrected him). "It’s a shame. We had fast race car and he got into us and just took us out."
You know what? Shut up, you idiot.
How soon he forgot the move he pulled the weekend before at Darlington. The one where he dove it in like a lunatic under Tony Stewart and crashed him. On Lap 2 of a five hundred mile points race! I used to like Sadler but after hearing (and hearing about) some of the things he's said and done I'm not a big fan anymore.
David had a great car, especially in the second segment. I feel he really could have contended for the transfer spots if he had had a little more time. Hopefully their awesome setup will work just as well for the Coke 600!
On the other hand, Michael did not have a good car. In fact, in was horrible. On TWiN he made me cringe because he said it was a good car after practice but he made them change stuff to make it "better"!
I hate when he does this! He's done it so many times and he knows he does it since I've heard him say similar things before. Michael can still run well and he can be the driver he was when he was with Tony Jr. He's just got to have more trust in Bobby Kennedy.
Brian led during the second segment but AJ took his place on Lap 20 and would hold that position to win his first NASCAR race!
I was very, very proud of him! I might have to slap myself for this but I'm going to say it anyway because I give credit where it's due: Sam Hornish did a wonderful job. He was fast and as far as I know didn't ruffle any feathers on his way to a 2nd-place finish. His car, however, looked ridiculous! "Crab-walking", they're calling it - apparently it makes these new cars turn better. It's also making it hard for the cars to fit on the inspection scales, so NASCAR is nipping this funky modification in the bud.
#00 (yes, the last hurrah for the Reutimann number) Quotes of the Race
(Shawn's encouragement before the green flag)
Shawn: "Remember last week when they dropped the green in the Busch race and you passed twelve cars in the first ten laps? Go ahead and do that tonight, too, if you don't mind."
David: "I don't mind!"
Shawn: "It's only forty laps, brother, you got nothing to lose!"
ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
8. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
16. Martin
21. DJ
22. Kurt
Kyle Busch was dominant until his engine failed as a result of a very foolish JGR motor experiment that also took out Denny Hamlin. Only after he was having trouble and finally was out of the race did the other drivers have a chance. Junior led some laps but like I'd feared faded when it counted; Kurt was running very well for a while but dropped like a stone at the end. Casey and Martin were never a threat and despite a moving tribute to Dale Jarrett during prerace ceremonies (he drove the truck!) he struggled all night.
Kasey Kahne became the first fan vote winner to win the All-Star race. Fans all over were using programs to vote - I was one of them, I'll admit. The vote totals look strange because macros can vote tens of thousands of times a day, so non-Kahne fans are screaming conspiracy, of course. I'm not so sure about that. First of all, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Kahne was the driver to beat for the fan vote. Secondly, I believe voting programs can only do so much, and I doubt that every vote, even manual votes, were counted because very likely the programs and some manual voters can go faster than the votes actually register. But whatever...there's always next year and at least no one has to compete against Kahne anymore! I'm not going to be a sore loser because Michael didn't get voted in, especially since he probably wouldn't have run well anyway.
Other than that this race was boring. I was very disappointed because it looked very hard to pass and even then it seemed like nobody wanted to try. I hope the 600 isn't like the All-Star race - the Showdown was more exciting! That's not saying wrecks are cool...it wasn't that the All-Star race was caution-free...it was that it was more of a parade than a race.
1. AJ Allmendinger (transferred to All-Star race)
2. Sam Hornish (transferred to All-Star race)
* Fan Vote: Kasey Kahne (transferred to All-Star race)
4. Brian
6. David
20. Michael
Charlotte has never been the same since it was resurfaced but the Showdown and the desperation that goes along with it gave the fans some good racing - and the best racing of the night.
Brian immediately took the lead from polesitter Elliott Sadler, which was awesome! He had a great car and pulled away. It was doubly cool because AJ was performing just as well, causing visions of the pair of Red Bull cars making the All-Star race together.
Poor Pat Carpentier wrecked within four laps.
He didn't get lucky like he did in qualifying and killed the car...I felt pretty bad for him.AJ's evening became a little more stressful when during a restart he was tucked behind Brian with Sadler to the #84's outside. Brian appeared to get a little squirrelly and in response AJ let off to give him some room. When he did this the #84 jumped a little bit and made contact with the #19. Sadler crashed. I felt bad. AJ felt bad. But it was racing, hard racing to make one of the biggest events of the year.
I stopped feeling bad once Sadler opened his mouth afterwards. "There’s a reason why he gets taken out of that race car it seems like every other week," he said (referring to AJ - he called him "whatever his name is" and Matt Yocum quickly corrected him). "It’s a shame. We had fast race car and he got into us and just took us out."
You know what? Shut up, you idiot.
How soon he forgot the move he pulled the weekend before at Darlington. The one where he dove it in like a lunatic under Tony Stewart and crashed him. On Lap 2 of a five hundred mile points race! I used to like Sadler but after hearing (and hearing about) some of the things he's said and done I'm not a big fan anymore.David had a great car, especially in the second segment. I feel he really could have contended for the transfer spots if he had had a little more time. Hopefully their awesome setup will work just as well for the Coke 600!
On the other hand, Michael did not have a good car. In fact, in was horrible. On TWiN he made me cringe because he said it was a good car after practice but he made them change stuff to make it "better"!
I hate when he does this! He's done it so many times and he knows he does it since I've heard him say similar things before. Michael can still run well and he can be the driver he was when he was with Tony Jr. He's just got to have more trust in Bobby Kennedy.Brian led during the second segment but AJ took his place on Lap 20 and would hold that position to win his first NASCAR race!
I was very, very proud of him! I might have to slap myself for this but I'm going to say it anyway because I give credit where it's due: Sam Hornish did a wonderful job. He was fast and as far as I know didn't ruffle any feathers on his way to a 2nd-place finish. His car, however, looked ridiculous! "Crab-walking", they're calling it - apparently it makes these new cars turn better. It's also making it hard for the cars to fit on the inspection scales, so NASCAR is nipping this funky modification in the bud.#00 (yes, the last hurrah for the Reutimann number) Quotes of the Race
(Shawn's encouragement before the green flag)
Shawn: "Remember last week when they dropped the green in the Busch race and you passed twelve cars in the first ten laps? Go ahead and do that tonight, too, if you don't mind."
David: "I don't mind!"
Shawn: "It's only forty laps, brother, you got nothing to lose!"
ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
8. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
16. Martin
21. DJ
22. Kurt
Kyle Busch was dominant until his engine failed as a result of a very foolish JGR motor experiment that also took out Denny Hamlin. Only after he was having trouble and finally was out of the race did the other drivers have a chance. Junior led some laps but like I'd feared faded when it counted; Kurt was running very well for a while but dropped like a stone at the end. Casey and Martin were never a threat and despite a moving tribute to Dale Jarrett during prerace ceremonies (he drove the truck!) he struggled all night.
Kasey Kahne became the first fan vote winner to win the All-Star race. Fans all over were using programs to vote - I was one of them, I'll admit. The vote totals look strange because macros can vote tens of thousands of times a day, so non-Kahne fans are screaming conspiracy, of course. I'm not so sure about that. First of all, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Kahne was the driver to beat for the fan vote. Secondly, I believe voting programs can only do so much, and I doubt that every vote, even manual votes, were counted because very likely the programs and some manual voters can go faster than the votes actually register. But whatever...there's always next year and at least no one has to compete against Kahne anymore! I'm not going to be a sore loser because Michael didn't get voted in, especially since he probably wouldn't have run well anyway.
Other than that this race was boring. I was very disappointed because it looked very hard to pass and even then it seemed like nobody wanted to try. I hope the 600 isn't like the All-Star race - the Showdown was more exciting! That's not saying wrecks are cool...it wasn't that the All-Star race was caution-free...it was that it was more of a parade than a race.
