Both events were rescheduled for early Saturday, with the $1 million All-Star Race still scheduled to go off in the evening.
Advertisement
The scene in Victory Lane was nearly as chaotic as the racing itself was during Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star Race.
The problem came with the format, which backfired so badly that there’s not really a metaphor for it. I was planning on pitting on that first lap after we got back going and it was just chaotic and if it was my fault and I didn’t do a good enough job getting out of the way, I’ll take the blame. An additional two drivers will get into the All-Star race on a fan vote.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet finished third, also had criticism for the race. There were several passes for the lead.
Crafton beat Kyle Busch by a convincing margin at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, setting him up for a huge season. “I remember this race previous year, and I’d get trapped because all you can do is run the bottom”. He added that he knew what he had in store-a battle to the finish. “That was probably part of it”. “It’s the most screwed-up All-Star Race I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m glad this is the last one”.
“I’m as baffled as everybody”, Stewart told FOX Sports of the format. “I knew I wouldn’t be in had I not done that, so I just had to drive hard”.
Those scenarios Junior mentioned happened in the first segment of the race.
Prior to the All-Star Race, NASCAR made more tweaks to its lower downforce rules package – and they seemed to be a success.
Stewart, who missed the first eight races of this season with a back injury and also crashed hard last weekend at Dover, seemed fine as he climbed from his smoking auto.
The strategy bit Kenseth, as he waited a little too long to make his first mandatory stop.
Because he failed to stop, Kenseth was penalized one lap, which then created a scoring snafu with some drivers unexpectedly a lap down but still permitted to pit with those on the lead lap during the break between Segment 1 and 2. “I’ve never been this confused in a race auto in my entire life”.
Neither was Kenseth, who played the gamble and then got caught by the caution that ended his shot to make the required green-flag pit stop. “We ran into a situation where our race procedure didn’t give us the opportunity for a wave-around and it created a lot of confusion”. But we’ve had a lot to work on right now. In previous years, the top-two finishers from the Showdown advanced to the All-Star Race, along with one fan vote victor.
For the non-racing initiated (those such as Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, who declared during the television coverage “You guys are punting on second down”) please understand that NASCAR making changes to the All-Star Race format is nothing new. Before making the choice of envelopes, Olsen himself admitted that he didn’t know what was going on either. Unfortunately for fans, NASCAR’s next idea for The All-star race could be even worse than the one they witnessed tonight.
With no shot at getting to the front in the second segment, it became a battle for which driver could be 12th – the first vehicle guaranteed not to be inverted.
It’s not that he was happy about the development, but at least the former crew chief didn’t try to deflect the blame. A trip to the pits dropped Logano out of first place, which led to Edwards crossing the finish line to conclude the first segment, per Chicagoland Speedway:Raise your hand if you’re the #SprintAllStar Segment 1 victor.
Despite the nuttiness – which snowballed when Kenseth’s penalty got combined with abnormal officiating – the format itself wasn’t a disaster.
All of the drivers did that except for Matt Kenseth, who was still on the track as the race leader when Jamie McMurray suddenly spun out and caused a caution with a few laps left in the segment.
Advertisement
That pass just didn’t happened the way we all envisioned it would. The sport where the wackiest and most freakish scenarios nearly always seem to come true.
