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ALL-STAR: Ragan, Keselowski Advance To Feature
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins fan vote and also will race in All-Star…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted May 21, 2011   Concord, NC
David Ragan enjoyed a good Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
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David Ragan passed Brad Keselowski on the white-flag lap and held on to win Saturday night’s Sprint Showdown, the preliminary to the Sprint All-Star race, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The event wasn’t a negative for the second-place Keselowski, however. Both he and Ragan will advance to the All-Star race as the top finishers in the Showdown.

The night’s feature event will be covered by SPEED.

Ragan had the preliminary event’s strongest car, but Keselowski muscled his way to the lead near the halfway point with an impressive move on a restart.

Keselowski went three wide with Ragan and Paul Menard just beyond the start-finish line. Keselowski charged past Ragan on the inside, barely squeezing between the No. 6 card and the grassy apron adjacent to the racing surface.

But Ragan charged back late in the race.

“David was really, really strong,” Keselowski said. “I think he has the car to beat tonight.”

Ragan said his car “was good on the long run. Once Brad and I got out ahead, I knew I had probably a little better car than he did. I would have been happy with second, but I thought, ‘Let’s go for this thing.’ ”

Marcos Ambrose finished third, the first driver to miss qualifying for the All-Star race. AJ Allmendinger was fourth and Joey Logano, who had a tense exchange on his team radio after the race, was fifth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggled throughout the race and finished sixth, but he led the All-Star fan voting and will participate in the feature event.

The race’s third caution flag flew on lap 28 as David Stremme’s car slapped the fourth-turn wall.
David Ragan wins the Sprint All-Star Showdown. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

At the halfway point of the 40-lap race, Ragan held the lead over Paul Menard and Allmendinger. Most of the field dropped onto pit road at the scheduled halfway caution flag, but Ragan, Menard, Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears stayed on the track.

The Showdown was slowed on lap three when Landon Cassill’s car slid in turn two and was nailed near the driver door by Derrike Cope. Their cars were mangled, but neither driver was injured despite the violent nature of the crash.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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