NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race doesn’t disappoint

By John Watson
Kannapolis Citizen
The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was a mixed bag of strategy as Kasey Kahne lead the way to victory on Saturday night.
For winner Kahne, it was his first win since the October 2006 race at the speedway. But this race was not for points, just a $1 million purse and bragging rights in one of the NASCAR’s top series’ crown jewel events.
Kahne was also the driver of the first Dodge to ever win the All-Star event and it was Kahne’s first-ever All-Star win in five tries. This was also Kahne’s first trip to Victory Lane since sweeping the 2006 points races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Kahne came into Saturday’s All-Star show tied for 13th in points with Ryan Newman, and only two points out of the crucial 12th spot, the last eligible points position for the “Race to the Chase.”
Kahne started the season off strong with a seventh place finish in the Daytona 500 and followed with a ninth place finish in the Auto Club 500 at Fontana. He finished sixth best in the UAW-Dodge 400 in Las Vegas, but momentum started to shift and a series of mishaps led Kahne to fall out of the top 10 in points.
Kahne was noticeably disappointed entering this weekend’s events when the car didn’t run well at any of the practice sessions for the All-Star Shoot-out, which is the qualifying race for those who don’t have any wins in the last 36 races or wins in 10 previous All-Star events. Kahne started the Showdown in the 15th spot and was only able to work himself up to the fifth position, where he finished. Only the top two drivers from the Showdown transfer to the All-Star race, and those two positions went to A.J. Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr.
The stars aligned and Kahne narrowly edged out Robby Gordon and teammate Elliot Sadler to win the fans’ vote and earn the right to start dead last in the All-Star Challenge.
“That’s awesome,” said Kahne. “I’d love to race my way in and get in that race by winning a race, but we have great fans and it’s pretty cool that they got us in the race. We need all the fan support we can have, and they stuck behind us. …
“I was gonna head home, drink a couple Budweisers and watch the All-Star Race, but thanks to the fans I get to race,” he added.
It was a tall order heading into the reformatted All-Star event, but Kahne didn’t disappoint. With four 25-lap segments and a mandatory pit-stop, Kahne would not only have to be fast, but count on strategy and pit performance to go in his favor — and it did.
Pole-sitter and early race leader Kyle Busch ran away from the field in the first segment, at one time holding an almost 2-second lead over Greg Biffle and nearly a 6-second lead on the rest of the field. Busch’s fortunes changed for the worst as an engine problem knocked him off the pace. Busch was able to keep his car in the race until the end of the second segment when they hoped to repair the issues, but after fighting to maintain a fifth-place position, Busch’s day was over.
Carl Edwards, wrongly predicted by H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler to be the overall race winner, passed Busch while experiencing the problems and went on to claim victory in the second segment. Kahne, who started last in the 24th position had worked his way inside the top 10 and went into the halftime break in eighth position.
The third segment was the most exciting as fans got to watch local favorite and Kannapolis-native Dale Earnhardt Jr. pull around Roush Racing rival Edwards and lead for 15 laps. Edwards was dominant after stealing the lead from Busch, but halftime pit adjustments didn’t work in his favor, opening the door for Earnhardt and others to follow. Edwards slipped to eighth position as teammate Biffle took the lead and held on to win the third segment. Kahne didn’t make much progress in the third segment, only moving up one spot to finish in seventh.
The final segment featured a mandatory pit stop and many different strategies came into play. Most drivers and pit crews elected to take fuel and two tires. Earnhardt gambled with good track position and took four tires. According to crew chief and cousin Tony Eury Jr., there were no other options.
“Our car was getting extremely loose right there at the end of every run,” said Eury. “So, we had to take tires; there were no ifs, ands, or buts. We learned a lot for next week and that’s the biggest thing we came over here for.”
Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus went the other direction in an attempt to gain track position and took fuel only. The risk was rewarded with the lead position coming out of the final break.
“It just seems for us the stickier tires at the end of the run,” said Johnson. “We start off too loose. Actually tonight, we stayed loose the whole time. The balance from the stickier tires to old tires has been the hard part for us, but we made a lot of gains on it tonight.”
Kahne was also in a gambling mood and decided against taking tires during the mandatory stop. Kahne started the final segment on the outside of Row 1 for the double file restart. The gamble paid off as Kahne seized the opportunity and moved to the front when Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was added to the list of cars with engine failures at lap 83.
Kahne took the lead and never looked back as he led the final 17 laps. Johnson would slip from first to fourth with Roush teammates Biffle and Matt Kenseth sandwiched in between for second and third, respectively. Tony Stewart, another Joe Gibbs Racing star, who started 21st due to an engine change, rounded out the top five.
Kahne was critical of himself and his team as he entered the race. Team momentum seemed to fizzle after a fast start at the beginning of the season and despite being voted in by the fans, they didn’t feel like they had a real chance of winning because of some issues with the handling of the car.
“I guess it wasn’t as far off as I thought,” he said with a smile after his win Saturday. “As a driver I was down. I was frustrated. I was upset after practice (Friday). This gives me a ton of confidence, both for the Nationwide race next week and the Cup race. As far as coming out and winning the 600, we have some work to do.”