Joe Soriano
O.J. LewisNascar Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race Results
May 18th 2008 10:49
Kasey Kahne, winner of the Nascar Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race
The festivities surrounding Nascar's all star weekend kicked off earlier in the week when Brian Vickers's crew won the Pit Crew Challenge. Then there was the Pennzoil Platinum Victory Challenge. This competition consisted of five drivers doing burnout celebrations in a car. Drivers started in a coned off area, had to do two donuts, then end up in a second coned area which represented victory lane. The cars tires could not stop spinning, you needed to stay off of the grass, and you could not hit the cones. The five drivers competing were Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch. Jimmie Johnson took out a few cones in his attempt and had a total of 20 seconds in penalty making his final time 69.017 seconds, the worst time of them all. The winner was Greg Biffle with a time of 25.406 seconds. He won $10,000 for his charity, The Greg Biffle Foundation, which gives money to and helps build animal shelters around the country.
Next up was the "Shootout" to allow two more drivers to make the all star race starting field. A.J. Allmendinger and Sam Hornish, Jr. finished one, two and advanced into the field for the all star race. A little while later the pre-race started. All the drivers were announced one by one and followed out by their crews whose names were all shown on the screen as they came out. The next to last driver to be announced was the one voted into the starting field by the fans, Kasey Kahne. The final driver to be announced was 52 year old Dale Jarrett who was getting behind the wheel for his final Nascar race ever. He came out to a loud round of cheers. Soon after being announced Jarrett got to drive a pace lap in the UPS truck in full race paint. To make it just a little more special they allowed Dale's father Ned Jarrett to give the invocation.
Now for the actual race. The format of the all star race is much different than all the other races. There would be four segments of 25 laps each. There would be a caution flag after segment one where cars could pit if they wanted. After segment two the race would be stopped for a break when teams can work on cars. Segment three was followed by a caution flag in which all cars had to pit, but could choose to do anything they wanted (gas and go, get tires). The winner of each segment would win a small amount of money, and the winner of the fourth segment wins $1 million.
Note on the starting grid, Tony Stewart had to go to the back of the field after his engine blew up on Friday. Allmendinger, Hornish, and Kahne would also all start at the back of the field after transferring into the race from the shootout and fan vote.
Kyle Busch led lap one, followed by his brother Kurt in second place. Kyle Busch ended up leading the entire first segment. When segment two started it was Kyle followed by Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, and Kurt Busch. Kyle pulled away from the field again, but was caught on the 13th lap of the segment by Carl Edwards. Busch was on his radio saying that something was wrong with the car. Segment two would end with Edwards still leading. During the break they check Kyle's car and finally decided he could not go on, his night was over.
Segment three started with Edwards leading the field out, with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, and Greg Biffle rounding out the top five. Four laps into this segment Earnhardt, Jr. took the lead from Edwards. Junior would only hold the lead for ten laps. On lap 14 of segment three Greg Biffle would take the front spot. At the end of the segment Biffle was still out in front followed by Junior, Kasey Kahne, and Denny Hamlin.
All cars had to pit under this caution flag. Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, and Denny Hamlin took gas only and won the race off pit road. They were followed by Biffle, Kenseth, and Newman who all took tires. In a wild restart Hamlin was able to move ahead of Johnson to lead the first lap of segment four. Johnson fought back and retook the lead on lap three, however, just a coupld of laps later Hamlin moved to the front again. Now Hamlin was trying to hold off fan favorite Kasey Kahne. While trying to do so Hamlin's engine blew up on him with 17 laps to go. Kahne was now in the lead, after starting the race at the back of the field. With ten laps to go Greg Biffle was running second and trying to catch Kahne when he started complaining of the same "loose wheel" condition he had trouble with last week at Darlington.
Kasey Kahne drove home with the victory. It was the first time ever that the driver voted in by the fans had actually won the race. Kahne is now assured to be in the starting field of Nascar's All-Star Race for the next ten years, and takes home the $1 million prize.
| Final Results | |||||
| Pos | Driver | Car # | Make | Started | Led |
| 1 | Kasey Kahne | 9 | Dodge | 24 | 17 |
| 2 | Greg Biffle | 16 | Ford | 5 | 11 |
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | 17 | Ford | 14 | 0 |
| 4 | Jimmie Johnson | 48 | Chevrolet | 21 | 1 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | 20 | Toyota | 12 | 0 |
| 6 | Ryan Newman | 12 | Dodge | 8 | 0 |
| 7 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 77 | Dodge | 23 | 0 |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 88 | Chevrolet | 11 | 14 |
| 9 | Mark Martin | 8 | Chevrolet | 13 | 0 |
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 99 | Ford | 19 | 12 |
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 29 | Chevrolet | 16 | 0 |
| 12 | Bobby Labonte | 43 | Dodge | 10 | 0 |
| 13 | Casey Mears | 5 | Chevrolet | 17 | 0 |
| 14 | Juan Pablo Montoy | 42 | Dodge | 15 | 0 |
| 15 | Jeff Gordon | 24 | Chevrolet | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | Chevrolet | 4 | 0 |
| 17 | AJ Allmendinger | 84 | Toyota | 22 | 0 |
| 18 | Clint Bowyer | 7 | Chevrolet | 9 | 0 |
| 19 | Jamie McMurray | 26 | Ford | 6 | 0 |
| 20 | Jeff Burton | 31 | Chevrolet | 7 | 0 |
| 21 | Dale Jarrett | 44 | Toyota | 18 | 0 |
| 22 | Kurt Busch | 2 | Dodge | 3 | 0 |
| 23 | Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota | 20 | 7 |
| 24 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 1 | 38 |
| 89 |
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