Joey Logano held off Kyle Larson to take home the million-dollar prize at NASCAR’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night, but confusion about new rules for the race dominated post-race discussion. At one point most of the field was a lap down.
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That wasn’t heard all that much in past All-Star Races, because rarely could two drivers get side-by-side to determine the effectiveness of the side forces.
Under the new format, there were two 50-lap segments and then a 13-lap segment. His proposals were shaped into three segments, the first of which required a pit stop under green. Larson took the lead from Keselowski with about five laps remaining in the second segment.
To make matters even more complicated, the combination of Kenseth staying out on the track too long and the drivers on pit road as the caution flew meant a scoring fiasco for NASCAR as it sorted out which cars were on the lead lap and which cars were a lap down to Kenseth and possibly the other cars who were on pit road at the time of the caution.
What resulted was that only 11 of the race’s 20 cars were on the lead lap with 63 laps left.
“We didn’t have a mechanism in our procedures to correct it”, said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president for competition.
“It’s something that we certainly, if we continue on with this format, we have to look at”, Miller said.
“You have to expect that certain circumstances are going to happen in this type of race”. And yes, there’s a chance the tire could wear out enough to make a difference.
Second-place finisher Brad Keselowski, who had been credited with the format, didn’t see a problem with it overall despite the confusion in the first two segments. I think our fans deserve a better format than that, and they got that today.
After winning last week at Dover, the 39-year-old Crafton was strong again leading 47 of 134 laps while adding to his series points lead. There were several passes for the lead.
“I was able to get to the front pretty quick there and be in the best position for that last restart”, Larson said.
“I didn’t know what way up and what way was right and left”, he said. “But everything before that …”
“Everything before that, I was out of my element. We’re the only people I know that drop their trousers around their own ankles and then try to run”. Whether it was the format or the race package, drivers with better cars could get past others, possibly with the flawless mix of having to work for it but also having the ability to get the job done. He criticized the format and blamed NASCAR officials for making a mess of the rules.
“I don’t know how you can get much more compelling racing than what we saw today, so they need to get unconfused and enjoy the racing”, he said.
What Kyle Larson is doing on the track is no fluke this year.
“If we were running the ’14 or ’15 package, the 42 [of Larson] could have went wherever the 22 [of Logano] was going and kept him about 10 auto lengths behind him the whole time”, Earnhardt said. He didn’t ever have to worry about it.
Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports) was the last driver to win the Sprint All-Star Race despite not automatically qualifying for it (and having to race in the preliminary event) heading into the weekend, accomplishing the feat in 2008. I’m glad it’s my last one. That’s something here at Charlotte at night that is very rare. “Off of (Turn) 2 they kind of fanned out a little bit, and I got a little run and saw a little hole”.
“I don’t really have any plans to race Xfinity”, Harvick said. “There was definitely a lot of fall-off, it felt like, from inside the vehicle and that’s what we want to see”.
Mind you, Stewart – who missed the first part of the season because of a back injury – was the race’s grand marshal and gave the command for drivers to start their engines. After the morning session, which included the two Sprint Showdown races and the Truck Series race, the stands were emptied. But instead of a bunch, there were only two – Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.
“Hope nobody had dinner reservations”, crew chief Brian Pattie said over the radio after Biffle qualified for the night race.
(9) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 113. Matt Kenseth just started laughing.
Tony Stewart was more direct. Among those was the eventual race victor.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 43 Mins, 40 Secs. He’s going for his second consecutive victory.
Caution Flags: 4 for 18 laps. The significance of that rule change will be determined next week – when teams will be back to normal with rear skew – by whether drivers can still use the top to pass.
Harvick and Busch led most of the first segment, with Harvick running up front for 21 laps and Busch 13.
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The idea behind the draw was to prevent drivers from racing for a specific position in the middle of the field to not have to pit and to create a thrilling finish by forcing the best cars with the freshest tires to pass a lot of cars in a limited number of laps.
