NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Recap: Late Charge Gives Stewart All-Star Win

(Photo credit: CIA Stock Photo)
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

CONCORD, N.C. — The celebration everyone knew was coming arrived Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway against a background of exploding fireworks.

The real pyrotechnics, however, were reserved for the racetrack.

Tony Stewart passed Matt Kenseth through Turn 2 on Lap 99 of 100 to win the Sprint All-Star Race, his first victory in the annual non-points event and his first as an owner/driver.

Continue reading “Tony Stewart wins All Star Race as Driver/Owner”

ALL STAR RACE

Segment 1 – Kyle Busch slid through his pits costing him 2 spots on the race track

Carl Edwards had suspension problems, and a loose lugnut

Jimmie Johnson led the entire way

Johnson helped Ryan Newman stay only 1 lap down but almost gave the segment away to Kurt Busch.  Newman got the Lucky Dog

Segment 2 – Kyle Busch takes the lead after the pit stops with 2 tires instead of 4

Kyle Busch wins this segment over Matt Kenseth leading all 20 laps

Segment 3 – Leaders stayed out instead of pitting, except for the 48 of Jimmie Johnson who restarts way back in the pack

Jimmie Johnson clipped the wall

Caution came out with Sam Hornish getting loose and wrecks Greg Biffle

Jeff Gordon wins the third segment over Matt Kenseth, and Kurt Busch

Segment 4, Ten laps

Jimmie Johnson spins on the first lap but doesn’t hit anything

Jeff Gordon wrecks going 3 wide with Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman

Ryan Newman leads after being almost 2 laps down earlier in the event

Tony Stewart made the pass on the bottom of the race track with Matt Kenseth on the high side to grab the $1 million dollar prize.

ALL STAR RACE SHOWDOWN

Segment 1 – Tony Raines spins

Joey Logano got into the 83 of Brian Vickers and a few laps later Vickers tire blew ending his chances.

The Penske drivers led the first segment after 20 laps with David Stremme P1 and Sam Hornish Jr. P2

Segment 2 – A Penske-Penske battle for the first 5 laps in this Seg

Scott Riggs cut a tire down

Elliott Sadler hit the wall with 15 to go

Sam Hornish Jr. wins the All Star Race Showdown to advance to the big show.  Second place was Jamie McMurray who also advances.

FAN VOTE

According to @joegibbsracing on Twitter, Joey Logano has advanced as the fan voted in driver.

“No 18 guys say it’s confirmed, Joey’s in the All Star. Thanks for your votes fans, either way.”

A WORD FROM GENNA:

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that our recent race winners aren’t the ones you’d normally expect to see running up front and winning? Sure, we expect to see Jimmie Johnson challenging for the lead at Darlington but did we really expect to see him challenging Mark Martin for the lead? I know I really didn’t expect that!

I think its pretty refreshing, actually, to see guys like Newman and Martin up there. Here are two guys that no one expected to be running so well in their first year at a new team. Then you have your surprising Daytona 500 champion, Matt Kenseth.

It’s also been fun to watch the rookies this year. Brad Keselowski won his first race in only five starts in Sprint Cup. That maybe be our biggest surprise yet but then again, maybe his talent was grossly underestimated. He had a fantastic 7th place finish at Darlington, a track not well known for being kind to rookies. Joey Logano finished 9th at both Talladega and Darlington.

How about Kurt Busch? I don’t think he’s run this well in years and now he’s sitting behind Tony Stewart and points leader Jeff Gordon in third place.

I honestly expected this to be another season where I’d sit back and expect one of three winners to be in Victory Lane but so far, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have only won a combined total of 4 races out of the 11 we’ve run this season.

This is how NASCAR should be! This is fun and exciting and its become less of the Kyle/Jimmie/Carl show this year. There are cars and drivers out there that a year ago weren’t competitive at all and you see them now running top ten, top five, and really contending for wins.

So here’s to an exciting 2009 season and hopefully victories for some other “little guys”.

@NASCARGirl14

The opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and not this website.