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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Showdown Win Matters
Some of NASCAR's biggest names have used a win in the Sprint Showdown as a springboard to greater success...
Jared Turner  |  Posted May 18, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart has fond recollections of his Sprint Showdown win in 1999. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
When Ricky Craven reflects back on his 1997 Sprint Showdown win, the retired Sprint Cup Series driver and current ESPN analyst doesn’t view the victory as one of his major accomplishments.

It's not that Craven doesn't relish the win - he does - but it pales in comparison to his two later wins in points-paying events with full 43-car fields.

So is a win in the Sprint Showdown insignificant?

Hardly.

Both then and now it’s important for reasons beyond just gaining entry into the prestigious All-Star Race held later that night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

That was certainly true for Craven, who at the time was in his third Cup season but first with Hendrick Motorsports.

“It meant a tremendous amount,” said Craven, who didn’t capture his first points win until Martinsville in 2001. “It did provide a little bit of a boost and it did provide a little bit of momentum and there’s just no substitute for winning – period. I can’t necessarily look at it that way today, 13 years later, but I can say that there’s an absolute carry-over for the guys who have won. It carries over to the next race that night and it carries over to the next week and it often can carry over and affect your season.”

Drivers who have won the Showdown – now a 40-lap affair out of which only the top two finishers advance to the All-Star Race – have indeed gone on to do big things.
Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish Jr. won the 2009 Sprint Showdown. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Look no further than Tony Stewart, who won the Showdown as a rookie in 1999 and ran second to Terry Labonte in the All-Star Race later that night. Stewart has since earned two Cup titles and 37 points-paying wins, in addition to his triumph in the 2009 All-Star Race.

Through all his success, the Showdown win has remained memorable.

“It was awesome,” said the Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner/driver. “To do what we did, even though it wasn’t with a full field…I mean just to win a race. Winning is winning to me. I was real appreciative of it and just excited that we got to victory lane once.”

Other past Showdown winners who have enjoyed solid if not stellar careers include Sterling Marlin (1988, 1989 and 1993), Jeff Gordon (1994) Jeff Burton (2003), Brian Vickers (2005) and Martin Truex Jr. (2007).


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