Saturday Night Dash For Cash:
Every year NASCAR brings out its stars under the stars at Lowes Motor Speedway for the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge.
It's a dash for cash running in prime time on a Saturday night. This is where NASCAR started. It's a Saturday night shootout
where there is no tomorrow to worry about because there are no points on the line. This year the race pays the winner a cool
Million.
The Track:
Lowes Motor Speedway is a mile and a half tri-oval with 24 degrees of banking in the turns. The track is fast and even though
there is a preferred groove there is still enough room for a faster car to get by.
Lowes Motor Speedway is the home track
for NASCAR. The majority of the teams are based within 30 miles of the speedway and everybody brings their best stuff to
Lowes because everybody wants the bragging rights of winning their home race.
The Big Picture:
No points on the line this week so the only big picture implications would be if somebody gets hurt.
The current points top ten are: 1. Jimmie Johnson 1,562. 2. Greg Biffle 1,521. 3. Jeff Gordon 1,438. 4. Elliott Sadler 1,413.
5. Kurt Busch 1,407. 6. Tony Stewart 1,397. 7. Ryan Newman 1,370. 8. Kevin Harvick 1,364. 9. Jamie McMurray 1,351. 10. Mark
Martin 1,344.
Storylines:
This is a made-for-TV event where what the fans want to see in a race has been taken into account. Everything from the
double-file restarts to the invert of the finishing order are designed solely to make the race more exciting for the fans.
The story is the $1,000,000 prize and the fact that a DNF is disappointing but doesn't hurt your points standings. Drivers
will leave it all on the track for this race where during the rest of the season they need to be more conservative.
Media Coverage:
TV: FX Saturday, May 21, 7:00PM Eastern.
Radio: MRN and XM Satellite
Actual Race: 7:35PM Eastern
Last Year:
In 2004 Ryan Newman was fast and took the first segment. Tony Stewart claimed the second segment. Some
drivers pitted after the second segment and some didn't. Ryan Newman stayed out and tried to run away with the third segment
but Matt Kenseth caught him with his fresh tires and went on to claim the win.
Predictions:
For the second year in a row Humpy Wheeler, the president of Lowes Motor Speedway, has picked Jeff Gordon to
win it. Normally, he's pretty accurate but I think he missed the boat this time. I'm going to pick Jeff's teammate Jimmie
Johnson to win the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. For my backup this week I'll go with Ryan Newman to avenge his near-win last
year.
