Racing Into The All-Star Race New Territory For Earnhardt Jr.

In a few days, two weeks of racing will begin at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. NASCAR’s Cup teams will be returning to racing at their home track (home track for most, at least) for both the Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 the following weekend.

The All-Star race at Charlotte has been an event marked by wild passes, hard wrecks, and aggressive racing for 26 years and this Saturday will be held once again. It began in 1985 as “The Winston”, named for the series sponsor at the time, and quickly became a hit with NASCAR fans and drivers alike. The short length and aggressive racing being much like the feature races at local tracks, the all-star event was soon a staple in the NASCAR Cup Series season.

The storied race has had many winners, beginning with Darrell Waltrip in 1985. There was much history for the initial race, which was not preceded that year by a qualifying race for those who did not automatically qualify, like there will be this week. The pole sitter for the Winston was Terry Labonte and the race was called by Mike Joy, and the color commentator was Neil Bonnett. The race this week will be called by Mike Joy and one of the color commentators will be Darrell Waltrip. Familiar territory for both, I am sure.

One thing that will not be familiar, since 2000 at least, is that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not be automatically in the All-Star Race. In 2000, his rookie year, he posted his first Sprint Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway, five races before the All-Star event, and then won again at Richmond, one race before. He then became the first rookie, and one of two total (Ryan Newman 2002), to win the event. Now, since he has not won in over 103 races and his automatic bid due to winning the All Star race has expired, Earnhardt Jr. will have to gain entry by either winning the Sprint Showdown, or, very likely, receiving enough fan votes.

One positive for having to race in the showdown before the main event is that Earnhardt and Letarte will have extra laps to dial the car in before racing with the best of the series. That has been a benefit for some drivers in past races, but rarely translates into wins.

An obvious negative is that he has much more possibility of wrecking out before reaching the end of the All-Star race. Due to the nature of the events with no championship points applied, there are always big wrecks and a good bit of beating and banging.

Either way, whether Junior reaches the end of the Saturday night thriller or not, fans can bank on the race being eventful and fun to watch as it always is!


Follow Joseph Davis on Twitter @the_Bumpdrafter

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