JENSEN: All-Star Time

Sprint Cup

JENSEN: All-Star Time

The party is about to start rocking at Charlotte Motor Speedway...

Tom Jensen | Posted May 16, 2011 Charlotte, NC

SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)

Let the fireworks begin.

This is the start of one of the very best weekends in NASCAR, in my humble opinion.

Saturday night is the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race, which will be on SPEED for the fifth consecutive year. And while I rarely use this space to promote my employer, we at SPEED and SPEED.com take a lot of pride in bringing the race to you.

We will have more than 70 hours of live programming related to the All-Star race and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which will induct its second class one week from today, May 23rd. For a full list of activities and SPEED coverage, see http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-speed-revs-up-for-nascar-sprint-all-star-race-coverage/. And SPEED.com’s collection of stories around the All-Star race can be found here at: http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/nascar-sprint-cup-series-all-star-watch-speed-may-21-2011/.

It ought to be a fascinating week.

On Thursday, there’s the NASCAR Sprint Cup Pit Crew Challenge, a huge event for the teams, most of which are based in the Charlotte area. Friday night is the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, where two-time Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen will make his series debut.

And then there’s the Sprint All-Star Race itself, which is always exciting and usually unpredictable. With no points at stake and a $1 million first prize on the line, there’s a reason they call it “checkers or wreckers.” Or as Richard Childress used to tell the late Dale Earnhardt, “Bring me home the trophy or bring me the steering wheel.”

You can expect the boys will be having at it under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway with some renewed energy on Saturday night. It’s certainly one of the most entertaining nights of the year.

On May 23, the NASCAR Hall of Fame will induct its second class of five NASCAR legends: David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Allison, Bud Moore and the late Lee Petty. Fierce racers, each epitomized what NASCAR competition was all about.

All told, we’re in for a fun and spectacular week. Hope you can join us for the fun at SPEED and SPEED.com this week.

And now, some final thoughts from Dover:

While the beating and banging that drivers engage in is always fun, especially when they argue about it afterwards, there’s also a strong case to be made for clean racing. Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards put on a clinic yesterday in how to race hard without wrecking each other. It’s a treat to see two championship-caliber drivers going flat out, lap after lap after lap. Great stuff.

Honestly, it was surprising to see the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks decided by pit strategy, but the fastest car doesn’t always win. So kudos to Matt Kenseth and crew chief Jimmy Fennig for making the winning call. Runner-up Mark Martin and Lance McGrew made a great decision, too, nearly stealing the race by not pitting at all.

Matt Kenseth does a victory burn-out after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Fed Ex 400 at Dover International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The Richard Petty Motorsports squad showed tremendous speed all weekend long, with Marcos Ambrose finishing third and AJ Allmendinger running up front before his car broke. Given that this team nearly folded last year, RPM has done a stellar job so far in 2011.

Last, but certainly not least, thanks to everyone at FedEx, NASCAR, Joe Gibbs Racing and Dover International Speedway for their support of autism awareness. As the parent of a son with autism, that means a lot to me. Great job, all.

And now, let the insanity begin. See you at Charlotte Motor Speedway this week!

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

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