The Open
The Open is the last chance qualifier for those drivers that have not won a race in the last year or are not qualified through one of the exemptions. One winner moves into the All-Star Challenge to race for one million dollars and everyone else goes home. Second place isn't worth a thing.
The race itself wasn't terribly interesting until the very last lap. Mike Bliss had the lead when they came off of turn four headed towards the checkered flag. Brian Vickers was hot on his bumper. The two got together, Bliss crossed the finish line sideways with smoke billowing off his tires, but Vickers got there first for the win.
This sure looked like a pretty blatant punt to me. Vickers was pushing him hard but had no call to spin him out like that. In turns 3 and 4 clearly he was up under him trying to get him loose, I'm ok with that as that's just good hard racing. However, when you're a hundred yards from the finish line on the front dogleg there's no reason not to give him the extra 2 inches of room that he needs. You're not going to make an honest pass in 100 yards.
This was an ugly win for Vickers and Mike Bliss has every right to be mad.
Segment One
With the All-Star race inverting the finishers of segment one and since segment one only pays $75,000 to win it is interesting to see the guys actually race for 6th place so as to try to take advantage of the invert.
The first segment was not without controversy though. With just five laps to go in the segment it looked like Talladega on the front stretch as there was a massive ten car pile-up. It all started when Tony Stewart go into the back of Joe Nemechek and turned his car into Kevin Harvick's car. They both hit the wall and then there was mayhem behind them as just about everyone else wrecked.
After the wreck Harvick was mad at Nemechek and the two exchanged angry words and lots of finger pointing. Clearly Harvick just wasn't aware what had caused the wreck. This would be OK except that even after he DID know what happened he still found a way to be mad at Joe. This is just silly and really makes Harvick look bad. Joe was just as much of a victim as he was and for Harvick to do anything but apologize to Joe for the misunderstanding is extremely immature.
Harvick needs to calm down and find a way to admit when he makes a mistake. Even though he inherited Dale Earnhardt Sr's old team and cars he is not, and will never be, Dale Earnhardt Sr.
After the carnage had been cleared Mark Martin won the first segment comfortably
Segment Two
Through an overly-complex and anti-climactic process it was decided that the first six cars would be inverted. This moved Mark Martin back to sixth and put Brian Vickers into the lead to start the second segment.
Ryan Newman passed Vickers one lap into the segment and lead it all the way.
The Final Segment
Everybody pitted during the break to get ready for the final twenty-lap shootout for one million dollars. Elliott Sadler and Jeff Gordon each took two tires and came out one-two. Mark Martin was the first driver out who took four.
Sadler jumped into the lead on the restart as Jeff Gordon just didn't get going. Martin was second. Then Ryan Newman spun by himself and collected his teammate Rusty Wallace. Both cars hit the wall and were done for the night.
Mark Martin got a good jump on the restart and with four fresh tires instead of Sadler's two easily drove away. There were no more cautions and nobody else on the track could catch Mark as he coasted it home for a million dollar payday.
Top Five
- Mark Martin
- Elliott Sadler
- Brian Vickers
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
Next Week
The NEXTEL Cup drivers race again at Lowes Motor Speedway this weekend as the Coca-Cola 600 will run under the lights on Sunday night. Mark Martin was fast on long runs Saturday and that's a good sign for him but Hendrick Motorsports fans have a lot to get excited about too since three of the top five finishers in the All-Star Challenge were Hendrick Drivers Vickers, Gordon and Johnson.
