The Sprint All-Star race was anything but exciting for a race that was given so much hype up until the green flag. It all started with the Sprint Showdown and the favorite to win it all was David Ragan while the fan favorite was Dale Earnhardt Jr.
After the first 20 lap segment had been completed, it became pretty obvious to me that the fans would have to vote Dale Jr. in because his car was just way too out of shape to make any progress toward the front. David Ragan ended up winning the first segment with Paul Menard in close pursuit.
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[/media-credit]The second segment of the showdown saw the first actually exciting move and it came on the restart as Brad Keselowski made a daring move into Turn 1 to take the lead. You can always count on Brad to make the race more exciting. The next restart was just a mess. Jeff Burton got into the back of Martin Truex Jr, which caused Truex to get in the back of Paul Menard and it sandwiched Joey Logano in the middle. Logano, who wasn’t willing to give up the spot, tried to force his way through and continuously kept hitting Paul Menard until he sent Menard into the wall and it resulted in a chain reaction as Brian Vickers spun his 83 around.
David Ragan passed Brad Keselowski and collected the $711,000 and a trip to the big show along with Brad. Now, the Sprint All-Star Fan Vote is just redundant to me. Miss Sprint Cup stood there just chatting away for a little and then, “The 22nd driver to enter the Sprint All-Star Race is DALE EARNHARDT JRRRRR!!!!!” And in my mind I just wanted to say, “WHAT A SURPRISE!!!!” If I were NASCAR, I would have just gotten Ben Stein to say that, it would be much more exciting. Why would you give out a trophy for the fan vote winner? I would be insulted! I wasn’t good enough to win the Sprint Showdown and you give me a trophy to make me feel better about myself? Eh. I wouldn’t have gone along with it.
Anyway, now it’s time for the All-Star Race. Kyle Busch led for a couple laps, Greg Biffle took the lead and won the first segment. It was not exciting. The mandatory pit stop saw some guys take 2 and some guys take 4 and Carl Edwards beat them all out of the pits. The race restarted and Greg Biffle wrecked Kasey Kahne on Lap 59 for the first yellow of the day. Greg Biffle really started to lose the handle on his race car and Edwards ended up winning the rest of the segments for $1,203,300 the biggest payday ever in an All-Star event.
A majority of race fans disliked that race this past Saturday, so would it be better if we went back to the old elimination style format? Having only the Top 10 advance for the final dash along with an inverted field? I loved that! NASCAR needs to consider doing so to bring some excitement back. Any comments?
boring IS NOT THE BEST WORD FOR THAT RACE. WORSE I HAVE EVER SEEN.BRING BACK THE ALL STAR RACE LIKE IT WAS. THE [OLD POOPS] ARE NOTHING BUT [WINDBAGS.]
Race was boring indeed. I agree with you.