Pull Those Belts Tight! NASCAR Sprint All-Star Edition
Friday, May 16th, 2008 by Jim Mc Coy
What’s Next: NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Saturday May 17, 2008, Lowes’ Motor Speedway, Charlotte, North Carolina. NASCAR Sprint Showdown (”Race In” Race)- 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific. All-Star Race starts 9 pm EDT, 6 PM PDT. Broadcast: Television- SPEED Channel, Radio- MRN, Sirius Satellite Radio.
Track Facts: Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile oval track with 24-degree banking in the turns, and 5-degrees in the straightaways.
This is the best All-Star Event in Professional Sports. Keep in mind this is from the perspective of an 18 year sports media member who’s covered numerous “stick and ball” events and also has a 30 year history as a sports fan. No other sport’s all-star event even comes close.
NASCAR’s All-Star Challenge has given us many GREAT moments: Think about this- this race has given us Dale Earnhardt’s “pass in the grass” in 1987, Mark Martin’s 1998 victory after leader Jeff Gordon ran out of gas, Gordon’s 2001 win in a back-up car, and Darrell Waltrip’s win in a somewhat mysterious car whose engine blew after crossing the finish line.
The other sports can’t compete. Baseball’s All-Star game comes close, but there’s that goofy rule that all teams must be represented and deserving players get left out. The game also has the same problem any other baseball game has- it’s kind of slow. (I still love baseball though). The NBA All-Star game is a little fake. The players act like matadors on defense to make the game more thrilling, but I think that just lacks the integrity of the way a real basketball game is played. The Pro Bowl? The problem with the NFL’s post-season all-star event is the fact many good players are terribly beat up and often choose to sit out, and thus we miss seeing all of the best players.
NASCAR’s All-Star race offers all the thrills and spills of a regular NASCAR event, plus the incentive of a million dollar winner’s purse. No “mailing it in” here!
The lead for all-time wins is a tie between two legends- Dale Earnhardt (who won in 1987, 1990, and 1993) and Jeff Gordon (who won in 1995, 1997 and 2001) have won 3 all star races. Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Davey Allison and Terry Labonte have two wins apiece.
The field is already comprised of 21 drivers- 17 who won races in 2007 & 2008, 2 (Martin and Junior) who won previous all-star championships, 2 (Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte) are in the field because they are past Cup champions.
Three more will get in the field by the green flag tomorrow night. The top two finishers in the “All-Star Showdown” will also get in, as well as the driver who gets the most votes in fan balloting.
No for the burning question- Will somebody put Kyle Busch in the wall? People are still talking about “Shrub’s” bad boy rep, and the fact that he keeps running up wins. People must also remember that the younger Busch wrecked out his older brother in last year’s event won by Kevin Harvick. My question is will Kurt retaliate? Hmmm.
It’s gonna be a great race. There’s no doubt the racing will be hard and it will be fun.
Don’t miss it!
Stop by tomorrow, because I will make a “Fearless Forecast” on who the winner might be!
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2 Responses to “Pull Those Belts Tight! NASCAR Sprint All-Star Edition”
[...] tom petty wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptNASCAR Sprint Showdown (”Race In” Race)- 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific. All-Star Race starts 9 pm EDT, 6 PM PDT. Broadcast: Television- SPEED Channel, Radio- MRN, Sirius Satellite Radio. Track Facts: Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile … [...]
Linda
The burning question I have :
Who will get to Kyle *first* to put him in the wall….
his brother Kurt or…………maybe Dale Jr ? hummm?
Neither would loose any points…..but then……..
Maybe Kyle will put one of them out first. Afterall….
seems to be bad blood between him and both of them.
Should be an exciting evening under the lights !!
Once again…GR88T job JimmyMac !!
Linda