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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: 10 Laps, $1 Million
Anything can happen in the Sprint All-Star Race...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted May 22, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Denny Hamlin helps with motor change which will send him to the back of the pack for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The Sprint All-Star Race is full of pomp and circumstance, with concerts, flyovers, fireworks, spectacular crew introductions and special paint schemes galore. But at the end of the night, it comes to that most elemental of equations: 10 laps = $1 million.

While it’s true that the All-Star Race is 100 laps long, it is broken into four segments. And the one that pays the $1 million to the winner is the final, desperate 10-lap shootout, which means the 21 drivers in the All-Star field will be spending all of the first three segments trying to get themselves in position to win at the end.

At the conclusion of the third segment, all the drivers will make a mandatory four-tire pit stop. From there on, it’s 10 laps of all-out hell, with only green-flag laps counting. Most of the drivers in the field agree that you want to start as far forward as possible in the final segment.

“We don’t see in many 10-lap races where a guy that started much further back than fifth, sixth, seventh — unless there is a pretty cool wreck, they really don’t have much of a shot,” said Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

“The biggest thing is you want to try and be out front once everybody gets single file as soon as you can to try and take advantage of the aero side of it,” said Kevin Harvick, who won the 2007 Sprint All-Star Race. “The year we won, we won from fourth on the restart and passed everybody going through the middle of one and two on the restart. I think with 10 laps (to go) with as fast as everybody’s cars are going to be and as much grip as you are going to have, I think you are going to want to be leading.”

Jimmie Johnson, a two-time All-Star winner, said that he will try to use the first three segments of the race to move up from his starting position of seventh. “Track position is so important and the fact that the cars are so equal, you want to start up front,” Johnson said of the final 10-lap segment. “I'm not sure if you want to be on the inside lane or the outside lane, but starting up front is everything. We'll be working as hard as we can all night long to get track position and to maintain it.”

One interesting twist this time will be pit selection: Denny Hamlin got the highly advantageous No. 1 pit stall by virtue of his Joe Gibbs Racing crew winning the Sprint All-Star Pit Crew Challenge on Wednesday night. Ordinarily, that would be a huge advantage, because the car in the front pit stall usually wins the race off pit road with even an average pit stop.

But Hamlin lost an engine just 2 laps into practice on Friday, which means his No. 11 FedEx Toyota got very little track time and likely won’t be one of the fastest cars on the track, at least not at the start.

“Denny will benefit by having that first pit box as the race progresses,” said Kurt Busch. “... When you have that first pit box, all you have to do is limp over the line where the camera is. That can mean the difference in a million dollars or not when you beat a guy just by inches.”

Hamlin, who will start at the back of the field because of his engine change, was uncertain.
Denny Hamlin stands in the garage as crew members change the motor during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

“We’re trying some different stuff with our setups. That’s going to set us back,” he said. “We’re just going to have to rely on the other guys, but we typically don’t run very similar setups to what the 18 (Kyle Busch) and 20 (Joey Logano) do. We’re just going to have to play it by ear. Just go off of notes from the past. Even though we know the tire is different — everything’s different — we’re just going to have to take a wild guess at it, basically.”

And wild guess is probably what the end of the race will come down to, at least in terms of predicting the outcome of the race.

“There are all different scenarios that puts you in position to win that thing, like if you are running third and second place gets into first place and they slip up the race track,” said two-time All-Star winner Mark Martin. “There are just a million different scenarios. Restarts, double-file … who knows what will happen?

“We’ve been in different situations at the end of the race and that is what makes it great for the fans, I would like to have the fastest car and be out front. But even if you have that, then you will have a restart and it is double-file and sparks will fly. Who knows how it turns out?”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Week • The Stars Come Out. The Gloves Come Off. • Saturday, May 22nd at 7 pm ET
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