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Written by:
Megan Englehart
05/08/2008 - 01:13 PM
Charlotte, N.C.
Kevin Harvick pits during last year's All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
NUANCES OF NASCAR SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE XXIV CALL FOR THE UNCONVENTIONAL
IT’S RISK vs. REWARD IN STAR-FILLED RACE, AIRING LIVE ON SPEED™
Barker: “You’re going for the money at the end and if you’ve got to make it 12-wide to try to get it, do so, and if you wreck, who cares”
Busch: “Like Jimmy Fennig, my old crew chief, used to say, 'Hey, either bring us back the winner's trophy or the steering wheel, it really doesn't matter to us'”
The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV (May 17 at 7 p.m. ET on SPEED) is unlike any other race all season so it’s only fitting that preparation for the star-studded event is anything but standard and routine.
With $1 million and no points on the line, some teams take the opportunity to be a bit more aggressive or unconventional with their setups in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV, live and exclusive on SPEED as part of nearly 90 hours of All-Star Week coverage.
“We’ve seen teams try different, off-the-wall things,” said Larry McReynolds, former crew chief and SPEED analyst. “In the mid to late ‘90s, Hendrick and the 24 team broke out that T-Rex chassis at the All-Star Race, which NASCAR said to never bring back again. This is a good opportunity to step outside the box with an engine combination, chassis combination or a different setup to see if it’s a little faster or better than what you’d normally run.”
While the theme throughout the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race is “going for broke,” crew chiefs say they are responsible for balancing the risk of taking themselves and their drivers out against the reward of winning a cool million.
“You have to measure risk versus reward,” said Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, who also lends his technical expertise to NASCAR Performance on SPEED. “If you’re second or third going for the lead, you will do whatever you can to win but if you’re fifth, it’s kind of foolish. As far as throwing caution to the wind, and putting ourselves and Jimmie in harm’s way, we’re not going to do that.”
“In last year's race, we were definitely going for it,” Busch said. “We were coming off a restart and I really felt like we needed to be out front and try to build a little buffer. I can't see anything that I could have changed if I had the same opportunity. Like I said, it's an all or nothing race and nobody ever remembers who finished second. Think quickly, can you tell me who finished second in the All-Star race last year?"
Watching your race car bound for the garage on a rollback is an all-too-familiar sight during the night.
“The All-Star Race falls right behind Daytona, Talladega and Bristol with a good likelihood of getting wrecked,” said McReynolds, who won the 1991 and ’92 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Races with driver Davey Allison. “So many things promote that. There are only double-file restarts and you just know they’re going to drive off into turn one side-by-side on every single restart. The different segments don’t allow the cars to get strung out as much. All those things can put you in a position where you could lose your race car.”
Since the possibility of totaling a race car is so strong, most teams prepare different ones for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the next week’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. If the All-Star car runs well and escapes mostly unscathed, teams may opt to run it in the 600-mile event.
“Our car from the All-Star Race was in one piece last year and it ran so well that we took it to the 600,” said Bootie Barker, crew chief of the No. 66 Chevrolet and an analyst for NASCAR Performance on SPEED. “But that’s not what we plan on ahead of time. You save your best piece for the 600 and something close to that for the All-Star Race.”
McReynolds won the 1992 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race with Davey Allison but lost the car when Allison and Kyle Petty wrecked coming to the checkered flag. With it, they destroyed the car McReynolds had planned to take to the Coca-Cola 600.
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