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?
