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ALL-STAR: Burton Among Big Names Without A Berth
Jeff Burton and several other formidable contenders need to race their way into the Sprint All-Star Race...
Jim Pedley  | http://www.RacinToday.com  |  Posted May 19, 2011   Kansas City, KS
Jeff Burton (Right) talks with crew chief Todd Berrier (Left) earlier this season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
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When sports fans talk about “favorites," they can be talking about two things. They can be talking about a person or team they want to win. And, they can be talking about person or team whom they think will win.

For many NASCAR fans talking about their “favorite” in Saturday night’s Sprint Showdown, the same driver fills both roles. That driver is Jeff Burton.

Unfortunately.

Burton, today, has no skin in the game as the 2011 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race approaches. He simply has not done enough to qualify.

So, his options for getting in are two. He can win the fan vote, which, even as popular as he is with fans, would be tough because Dale Earnhardt Jr. is also a non-All-Star qualifier today and would have to be considered to have the best shot at winning the fan vote.

Or, Burton can place first or second in the Showdown, which is the two 20-lap-segment qualifying race that precedes the All-Star Race on Saturday.

And as good as Burton is as a driver, as good as his Richard Childress Racing team is, getting in through the Showdown is a task and a half. It features a large field of wild men doing anything they can within the bounds of “Have at it” to get into an All-Star Race that pays well over a million bucks.

Brad Keselowski, who also has no All-Star berth today, said, “The All-Star races are very aggressive, as you would expect. There is a lot of money on the line. More often than not, the Showdown can be just as exciting as the All-Star Race. The Showdown is what the 150s were down in Daytona before the top 35 were locked in. There are 28 drivers battling for two spots.”

Burton is being forced into battle.

Again, unfortunately.

“It’s disappointing not to be in it (the All-Star Race),” he said. “It’s embarrassing not to be in it, you know? To have won over 20 races and especially the first half of the year we had last year to not win races and running as well as we were, has had a lot of different consequences, and that’s one of them. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.

“We go over there and we try to have fun. That’s a weekend to go have fun and not have a lot of pressure. At the same token, it’s no fun if you’re not in that big race. It’s no fun practicing and preparing to run the non-qualifier race. It’s no fun. Nothing against anybody in that race, but we’ve won a lot of races and done a lot of things and it’s embarrassing not to be in it.”

Not nearly as embarrassed are the two drivers from Richard Petty Motorsports. Neither have they qualified, but, their expectation level was not as high as Burton’s.

Not that A.J. Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose have not driven well enough to pick up race victories, especially this season. Both have to be considered strong contenders in the Showdown.

Allmendinger is 16th in points, just 33 out of the top 10. He has a couple of top-10 finishes. In 2008, he won the Showdown.

His crew chief, Mike Shiplett, talked about the challenges this year.

AJ Allmendinger is focused on taking one of the two transfer spots from the Sprint Showdown. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
“The Showdown consist of two 20-lap segments and one thing that is different this year is that the cars are impounded by NASCAR after qualifying,” Shiplett said. “So once we have our car good in race trim, it’s hard to tighten the car up with the adjustments we are allowed to make for qualifying. Qualifying is going to be pretty interesting for this race. If we qualify really well, we’ll probably be on the tight side during the race, so we are going to have to find the right balance between qualifying and race trim.”

Ambrose is 20th in points but has two top-fives. Last weekend in Dover, he finished third.

“The Showdown is exciting, but it’s a bit of a crap shoot,” Ambrose said. “We are going to throw an aggressive setup at the Dewalt Ford to give us a chance to get in the All-Star Race on speed. If we can do that then we’ll enjoy the big show. If we can’t do that then we’ll just use it as practice and a test for the Coca-Cola 600 the following week.”

Other top drivers who will need to place first or second in the Showdown to get into the main event Saturday are Joey Logano of Joe Gibbs Racing, David Ragan of Roush Fenway Racing, Paul Menard of Richard Childress Racing and Brian Vickers of Red Bull Racing.

The Showdown is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on SPEED.

Jim Pedley is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist who has worked at, among other places, the Boston Globe, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star. Pedley can be reached at jpedley@racintoday.com

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