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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Ten-Lap Shootout Ideal
The 2010 Sprint All-Star Race will consist of four segments...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted May 20, 2010   Charlotte, NC
The Sprint All-Star Race is set for Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Is there a perfect format for the Sprint All-Star Race?

The short answer is, “No.”

Organizers have fiddled with the format so many times they could qualify for the Opry stage.

The idea is to guarantee strong, meaningful racing throughout the evening and a finish that will send fans home electrified and encourage TV viewers to jump through their wide-screens.

That’s a tall order.

In the early years, organizers took a hands-off approach. It was assumed that the special nature of the race – for winners only (more or less) – and the big purse would produce dynamite racing and tight finishes.
NASCAR Team owner and future Hall of Fame inductee Junior Johnson (Left) celebrates winning the first NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in 1985 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with driver Darrell Waltrip. (Photo: Charlotte Motor Speedway Archives)

In the first two races – 1985 and 1986, the event was not run in segments. The first race, won by Darrell Waltrip, was 70 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The second, held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1986 (the only All-Star event not held at CMS), was extended to 83 laps and was dominated by Bill Elliott, who led every lap but one.

The first big move designed to create better competition came in 1987 as the race was sliced into three segments. The 135-lap race produced Dale Earnhardt’s famous “pass in the grass,” and he went on to win, giving the event – then called The Winston – a major boost in stature.

Cutting the race into segments has proven to be the best approach to boosting competition. Teams can improve their cars between segments, and tension builds toward the final 10-lap shootout.

The tinkering wasn’t done, however. Officials toyed with inverting the field between segments with the idea of forcing faster cars to the rear to generate excitement as they – at least in theory – ran toward the front. Fans were encouraged to vote on the number of cars that would be inverted, a mostly ridiculous exercise because the voting trends ran toward the biggest numbers.

Mandatory pit stops were added to make the crews a more significant part of the evening.

In the final analysis, there is no perfect format. Drivers and teams are always going to find the best way to challenge the rules, and occasionally one team will hit on a setup that will spark a runaway no matter how confining the rules package might be.

Clearly, however, the concept of the 10-lap, end-of-race shootout has been the biggest plus. Much of the rest of the evening is forgotten as drivers line up for a 15-mile chase for a million-dollar prize. It’s over in a few minutes, but that short period of time often is crammed with fender banging, tortured tempers and a wild finish.

The relatively short final segment also throws the race into the hands of the drivers.

“Having 10 laps at the end is good,” said Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Mark Martin, twice an All-Star winner. “You can drive the cars for 10 laps and hide possible imperfections and still do well. Over 20 or 25 laps, you can’t do that. They’ll catch up with you.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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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