Once again it is that time of year when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads home for two consecutive weekends of big time racing and events.
It all starts of with the Camping World Truck Series’ North Carolina Education 250 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night which will see the debut of 2007 Formula One champion, Kimi Raikonen. Not to take anything away from this race, but it’s just not the main ticket this weekend.
The Sprint All Star race has been a smash hit since its inception in 1985. The event went to a whole other level in 1992 when it went under the lights for the first time and ended with the race winner, Davey Allison, in the hospital. So much history has occurred in this race including; Jeff Gordon’s “T-REX” car in 1997, Gordon winning the race in 2001 after going to a backup car after a turn one pile up caused by a rain shower, the Busch brothers wreck in 2007, Kasey Kahne becoming the first Sprint Fan Vote winner to win the All Star in 2008 and Kurt Busch sweeping the May Cup events at CMS just last year.
When you come to the All-Star race, you are always in for a show. The reason for that is that there aren’t any points on the line. It’s all about winning and the million dollar pay day. Drivers will do anything to win this race as it is now considered one of the crown jewels of NASCAR racing. Sometimes this race is just what a driver needs to turn around their season or even their career. Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Darrell Waltrip, Ryan Newman, Terry Labonte and Kasey Kahne have all had season or career defining moments in this race.
Over the years, there have also been many changes to the format of the race. For a while, drivers were being eliminated segment by segment. Fans did not like this because some crazy occurrence on pit road could cost a driver with a legitimate shot at winning the race. Also, the multi-million dollar companies places their logos all over the cars didn’t like their company being forced to park. These were not the reasons this format was changed thought. It is changed regularly so even the format you will see Saturday night may be gone in a few years. All the new and sometimes strange formats really provide exciting racing because no one really knows how they will work in this different style of race.
This year’s All Star race will be one for the history books. The reason I say this is because this has been one of the best starts to a season that NASCAR has had in long time both in the racing and ratings respectively. The “Boys have at it” policy is still providing exciting moments and shouldn’t be any different Saturday night.
Predictions
Pit Crew Challenge Winning Team- #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Sprint Showdown Winner- David Ragan
Sprint Showdown Runner Up- Marcos Ambrose
Sprint Fan Vote Winner- Dale Earnhardt Jr
Sprint All Star Race Winner- Kasey Kahne
