A Boring All Star Race? A Recap of the 2011 All Star Night at Charlotte
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[/media-credit]It is no secret that the 2011 edition of the Sprint All Star Race was anything but exciting. When you come to the annual All Star Race, you are right to expect one of the most exciting and intense races of the season. There are usually sparks flying, cars torn up and feelings hurt. Tonight was anything but that. We saw racing that we would normally expect in the Coke 600. Cars were strung out all over the race track and the only real battles for the lead or lead changes where under pit stops. For the first time maybe ever, the Sprint Showdown race was the one to watch if you were to only tune into one of the two races.
The Sprint Showdown showcased many drivers that have never won a Sprint Cup Series race, are on a long winless streak or have never won a NASCAR race of any kind. The first was the case for one David Ragan as he took his Doug Yates powered Roush Fenway UPS Ford into victory lane. But his win wasn’t without competition. Ragan had to get around Brad Keselowski who was absolutely killer on restarts to claim his first win in the Cup series. The signature moment of the race however was the massive crash early on in the race. Landon Cassil blew a tire, spun and came back up the track and the hopeless Derrike Cope happened be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Cope, with nowhere to go, T-boned the Cassil machine and caused one of the scariest impacts in recent NASCAR memory. Both drivers were okay which says a lot about the safety of these race cars. Dale Earnhardt Jr to no surprise won the Sprint Fan vote ensuring that NASCAR’s most popular driver would be in the All Star field.
The race was kicked off with the All Star style driver introductions that showcase not only the drivers, but the the crew as well. The race went green and right away you could tell that the Roush cars of Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were the ones to beat. Greg Biffle stepped out to a lead and held on to win the first fifty lap segment. That then lead to the twenty-five lap segment number two. That segment saw the late race battle between the 5 car of Jimmie Johnson and the 99 of Carl Edwards. Edwards passed Johnson with two to go and went on the claim segment two. Segment three looked a lot like a Nationwide Series race as Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards were the front runners but unlike Nationwide races, Carl Edwards won and Kyle Busch was second. Then came the ten lap shootout to decide the winner of the million dollar race. Carl Edwards won the battle off pit road from the required four-tire stop and never looked back. Kyle Busch tried to make a late race run by switching up racing lines but it was too little too late for Rowdy. Mr. Edwards then proceeded to attempt a “Matt Kenseth style” celebration and then wrecked his race car in the process.
The 2011 edition of the All Star Race wasn’t what people were expecting. They all expect an all out brawl on the race track with lots of cautions and tempers flaring like fourth of July fireworks. Instead we saw strategy and actual racing on the track like we will see next week in the 600. Now, for an All Star race, this was a bad race. If it was the Coke 600, this would be considered an exciting race for the most part. You win some, you lose some. Hopefully next year when All Star time comes, we will see a “traditional” race.
RUSTY WALLACE RACING ANNOUNCES COMPETITION CHANGES
–Addition of Rick Viers Headlines Changes to No. 62 and No. 64 Teams–
MOORESVILLE, NC (May 23, 2011)–In an effort to improve on-track performance, Rusty Wallace Racing announced today several changes within its competition department.
Headlining them is the addition of veteran Rick Viers as Crew Chief for the No. 62 Toyota, currently piloted by Michael Annett. An eight-time Nationwide Series winner, Viers comes to RWR after serving as Crew Chief for Roush-Fenway Racing’s No. 16 entry last season. Prior to his stint with Roush, Viers led the No. 27 Baker Curb team and driver Greg Biffle.
The Pylersville, MD native also held the reins of Red Bull Racing’s No. 84 Sprint Cup Series team in 2007 and 2008. Prior to that, he served as Crew Chief for Richard Childress Racing’s Nationwide Series operation, with drivers Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.
In line with the addition of Viers, former No. 62 Crew Chief, Jason Overstreet, will now assume the role of Car Chief for RWR’s No. 64 Toyota, piloted by David Reutimann and Jason Bowles. Overstreet will provide strong leadership and stability to the part-time effort.
Both changes will go into effect immediately.
Noted Rusty Wallace, “Rick Viers’s ability to lead and be successful in the Nationwide Series is well documented. We’re looking forward to adding his knowledge and experience to our toolbox at Rusty Wallace Racing. I look forward to good things from that team.
“As for the No. 64 team, we started it to improve our whole organization and Jason Overstreet is a big part of our team. We’ve been staffing the No. 64 car with a variety of team members, so having someone with Jason’s ability to oversee that car will definitely help our effort.”
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About Rusty Wallace Racing, LLC
North Carolina-based Rusty Wallace Racing (RWR) is a professional auto racing team steeped in the legendary racing history of its founder, Rusty Wallace. The team currently campaigns the No. 66 and No. 62 Toyota Camrys-driven by Steve Wallace and Michael Annett, respectively-in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. RWR will also campaign the No. 64 Camry in select 2011 events. RWR entries have finished among the top-ten in the Nationwide Series driver or owner standings in each of the last three seasons. For more on Rusty Wallace Racing, please visit the award-winning rustywallace.com.
All-Star Race A Sleeper; Back to Old Format?
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?
HOORAHS AND WAZZUPS: WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW THE CAT IN THE HAT SMILE THAT MUCH?
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[/media-credit]HOORAH to Jack “The Cat In The Hat” Roush. We have never seen the usually stoic team owner of Roush Fenway Racing smile that much. However, last weekend was a major exception. Roush celebrated in victory lane twice Saturday night at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The first time was for winning the Sprint Showdown race, the second time was for winning the Sprint All Star race where all four of his teams finished in the top eight. Then, on Sunday morning, he flew to Iowa where he celebrated in victory lane with his NASCAR Nationwide Series teams who finished one-two at the Iowa Speedway. By the way the total prize money for this 24 hours of superior performance came to a whopping $1,684,918. That’s enough to make anyone smile for a week.
HOORAH to Carl Edwards for winning the 2011 NASCAR Sprint All Star Race Saturday night and the one million paycheck that came with it. Edwards led a total of 29 laps in the event including the final 14 and that big white duck on the hood of his Ford screamed “AFLAC” all the way to the checkers.
On the topic of ducks, WAZZUP with this annual no holds barred race turning into a lame duck race? While there were some moments of hard racing during this event, it did not even come close to living up to its annual no holds barred, “have at it boys”, reputation. In fact, there was more action from the video highlights of past races presented during the pre race show. There are of course times when a major sporting event doesn’t quite live up to the advertising hype, but the Sprint All Star Race didn’t even come close.
Driver Tony Stewart, who gave himself a 40th birthday present with his fourth place finish, probably put it best when he diplomatically said “it was a pretty tame night in terms of the All Star Race perspective.”
HOORAH to Carl Edwards for bump drafting on the rear of the official pace car prior to restarts. There were moments when this was pretty much the only car contact that we expected to see during this race.
WAZZUP with Carl Edwards wrecking his race car after winning the race? When Edwards decided to do some victory donuts in the infield grass he hit a manhole cover and, for a moment there, it appeared that the car was going to roll over. The end result was massive damage to the front end of the car. A surprised, and somewhat sheepish, Edwards soldiered on with the celebration and did his traditional back flip from the wadded up race car. That was followed by a wrecker towing the car to victory lane.
However Edwards deserves another HOORAH for his sense of humor regarding the post race embarrassment. In the process of thanking his sponsors, he said he was pretty sure he could get some grass seed from Scotts to repair the damage on the speedway infield.
Another HOORAH goes to Jack Roush and his sense of humor. When asked about the post race damage to his car, he replied “we didn’t have the splitter adjusted for the grass.” He also told Edwards to consider himself invited to drop by the shop next week to help fix the car.
HOORAH to Dale Earnhardt Jr for winning the annual Sprint fan vote competition which placed him in the line up for the All Star Race where he finished 14th. NASCAR’s most popular driver received the lion’s share of the record setting 2.4 million plus votes cast.
WAZZUP with any NASCAR fan who actually considered that any other Sprint Cup driver could have possibility won this contest?
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HOORAH to Roush Fenway Racing driver David Ragan for winning the Sprint Showdown event Saturday night. The win allowed him to join the Sprint All Star Race line up at the rear of the field. Ragan drove hard in his second event of the night and worked his way to a very credible eighth place finish.
WAZZUP with a select few who have already pointed a critical finger at Ragan by suggesting that he only won a 40 lap B main that sent two transfers to the big money race? That’s not fair. The fact remains that Ragan won his first ever race while driving a NASCAR Sprint Cup car and he did a fine job doing it. When the series returns to the Charlotte Motor Speedway next Sunday, for the Coca Cola 600, this young driver is going to be loaded with self confidence and momentum because of this win last Saturday night.
HOORAH for the mandated safety equipment in NASCAR’s modern day race cars. During the opening laps of the Sprint Showdown, Landon Cassill spun his Chevrolet directly in the path of Derrike Cope’s Ford. The result was a savage hit into the driver’s door of the Cassill car. Bear in mind that it wasn’t that many years ago when this would have been a very serious accident. But the modern day mandated safety equipment, especially those energy absorbing foam pads in the driver door, prevented the possibility of serious injury.
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HOORAH to Roush Fenway Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr for scoring his first ever NASCAR Nationwide Series win last Sunday at the Iowa Speedway. The occasion marked the first time a Nationwide Series only driver won a series race since March of last year. To many series observers that fact alone might actually be a WAZZUP.
This first series win is quite a step forward for the 23 year old driver when you recall what happened this time last year at Iowa. That was when Stenhouse crashed his primary car in practice, crashed the back up car during qualifying and then crashed a third car during the race.
HOORAH to Carl Edwards for finishing second in the Iowa race to give Roush Fenway Racing the one-two finish after winning the Sprint Cup All Star Race the night before, Edwards was in Iowa on Saturday morning for qualifying earning the fourth starting berth. He flew back to North Carolina for the All Star race and returned to Iowa Sunday morning, with Jack Roush, for the Nationwide event These elaborate travel arrangements were courtesy of Roush Air, the fleet of planes owned by Jack Roush.
HOORAH to driver Kenny Wallace for making his official 500th Nationwide series start in the Iowa race. HOORAH to NASCAR for commemorating this special occasion with a plaque presented by NASCAR President Mike Helton.
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HOORAH to Kyle Busch for winning Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Series race at Charlotte while, at the same time, enhancing his NASCAR national stats. The win was Busch’s fourth of the year and 28th overall which now ties him for second on the series win list with Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague. It was also Busch’s 97th win in a NASCAR National Series which ties him for third on that win list with Dale Earnhardt Sr and Darrell Waltrip.
HOORAH to Kimi Rakkonen’s official NASCAR debut during the Charlotte truck race. Driving a team Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Rakkonen made quick work of addressing the NASCAR learning curve. The 2007 Formula One champion impressed a lot of observers with his 15th place finish.
HOORAH to Red Bull Racing driver Cole Whitt whose third place finish allowed him to leave Charlotte as the new series points leader. He’s now the first ever series rookie, as well as the youngest driver, to lead the championship standings.
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HOORAH to Kasey Kahne for winning last Saturday’s annual Penzoil Ultra Victory Challenge burn out contest last Saturday. Kahne received the first place prize of a $10,000 donation to his favorite charity and, in turn, announced the money would be donated to his very own Kasey Kahne Foundation.
HOORAH to Denny Hamlin’s Fed Ex crew, from Joe Gibbs Racing, for winning Thursday night’s NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge for the second, consecutive, year. The #11 crew edged Jimmie Johnson’s team by a narrow margin for the win after changing four tires, putting gas in the car and then pushing it 40 yards across the finish line in 22.298 seconds. The team earned $70, 675 for their effort.
HOORAH to NASCAR for sponsoring this annual competition. These guys train and work hard and their efforts are often the major contributor to their team winning a race. Giving them an opportunity to shine in the NASCAR spotlight is a great idea.
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In some final thoughts, the number on Jimmie Johnson’s car was changed from its traditional #48 to #5 for the All Star Race. This move was a tie in with a promotion from team sponsor Lowes who was offering its customers a 5% discount for purchases paid with a Lowes’ credit card. That leads to a HOORAH to ESPN/ABC Sports’ broadcaster Mike Joy who quipped “they changed the car number to 5 because Lowes couldn’t afford to give customers 48% off.”
HOORAH to the “Day Of The Rapture” for failing to materialize last Saturday to disrupt the race and literally everything else you could name. Predicted and heavily promoted by an 89 year old Oakland-California based minister, the May 21st end of the world deadline passed quietly while we all moved along taking care of our business.
What’s this got to do with NASCAR racing? Prior to the start of the All Star evening, someone in the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s sound booth thought it would be both clever and funny to play the song “It’s The End Of The World” by the 1980’s rock band REM. They were right, it was clever and funny.
The same sound booth personnel gets another HOORAH for playing the theme song from the 1960’s era television show “Flipper” after the All Star Race. Those of us who are old school fans, age 50 plus, will easily recall the popular television series about the famed dolphin and his adopted human family. The younger race fans probably have no idea what I’m talking about.
What’s this got to do with NASCAR racing? The song was played just prior to race winner Carl Edwards’ famous victory back flip and was perfectly timed. Edwards launched his signature move just as the crowd heard “they call him flipper, flipper, flipper.” These sound booth people were clearly having a lot of fun last Saturday.
