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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Gotta’ Be In To Win - Making The Race
A number of top drivers don't have a guaranteed spot in the 2010 Sprint All-Star Race...
Jared Turner  |  Posted May 11, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Jeff Burton hasn't won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race since Oct. 2008. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Jeff Burton considers it “embarrassing” not to have an automatic berth in this year’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Martin Truex Jr. counts missing the 2009 edition of the prestigious exhibition event as “heartbreaking.”

Both Burton and Truex will be on the sidelines once again this year unless good fortune intervenes in the next two weeks. If it’s any consolation to the two former Cup winners, they’ll be in good company.

Joining them on the outside looking in are other formidable competitors such as Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle and Burton's Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer – all previous winners aligned with top-tier organizations.

But unlike the 18 drivers whose All-Star tickets are punched, none of the hopefuls currently meet the criteria for entry into the popular non-points-paying affair that is held in the backyard of the mostly Charlotte-based Cup teams.

The drivers with automatic entry have all won a points-paying Cup race since the beginning of 2009, scored an All-Star Race victory in the last 10 years or earned a Cup championship in the last 10 years.

Unless a currently ineligible driver wins this Sunday’s Sprint Cup race in Dover, Del., only three more drivers will be added to the All-Star grid.

Two will be the first- and second-place finishers in the preliminary Sprint Showdown held just prior to the All-Star Race on May 22. The other vacancy will be filled by the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote, a relatively young process by which fans place one otherwise ineligible driver into the race.
Greg Biffle looks to break the Ford drought at Chicagoland. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

So is it fair that drivers with the clout and credentials of Edwards and Biffle - who as recently as 2008 combined for 11 wins and finished second and third in the standings, respectively - be shut out of the All-Star Race? Is it acceptable that, meanwhile, a driver with nary a win on his resume can get voted into the show?

Maybe not - but, guys on both sides of the fence – in the All-Star Race and still looking to get in – seem to accept the current entry system.


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