Jared Turner: Final segment of all-star race shows potential of new car
Matt Kenseth (17), Kyle Busch (18) and Jeff Gordon (24) battle for position in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. // John Harrelson, Getty Images
COMMENTARY
The final segment of Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway showcased all that is still good about the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
And the decisive 10-lap dash for cash – a million bucks’ worth to be exact – provided a rare glimpse of the kind of heart-pounding action that has been sorely lacking since NASCAR’s current-model Cup car was fully phased in last season.
In those 10 unforgettable laps, the lead changed hands five times among four drivers. The segment featured crashes and collisions and outright chaos of the keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind.
For a few brief moments in time, the racing more closely resembled that seen at Talladega than Charlotte, as Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman battled three wide for the lead coming to the start/finish line with seven laps to go.
That was followed by a bold, race-winning pass by a driver – Tony Stewart - as hungry for victory as the most fearless rookie.
In sum, the final portion of the all-star event included everything that even the least forgiving fan could want in a race. Of course, the fantastic finish was made all the more obvious by the fact that the first 90 laps, broken into three segments, were about as thrilling as watching cows graze.
Prior to the race’s last stanza, there was only one caution besides the mandatory competition yellow flags that split up the segments. And 80 laps were in the books before there was even a green-flag pass for the lead.
So what happened to suddenly send the temperature soaring to rarely seen levels for the last segment?
Well, certainly the $1 million winner’s purse had a little something to do with it. So did the fact that this was an exhibition race with no points to be lost or gained. And the prestige that comes with winning an event made up mostly of NASCAR’s best drivers also offered extra incentive to let it all hang out.
“That's the all-star race,” said Gordon, who crashed his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the final segment while challenging for the lead. “Everyone is going for it. There's a lot at stake. There's a lot of pride and money, and we're putting on a heck of a show for these fans.”
But more important than why the intensity level was ratcheted up is what its ratcheting revealed about the possibilities for high-speed, hold-your-breath throwdowns - even at the mile-and-a-half tracks such as Charlotte where passing has proven particularly difficult since the introduction of the new Cup car.
So what can NASCAR do to inject more drama into the on-track proceedings going forward?
Not much.
Certainly, there’s no need for another all-star type race. Add more non-points-paying events to the schedule, and the all-star race – as well as February’s annual Budweiser Shootout exhibition at Daytona – would lose a lot of their luster. Breaking more races into segments and paying a boatload to win is also a losing proposition. Wonderful as it might be for one night, we don’t need more races with such convoluted formats.
It seems in all reality that there’s little, if anything, NASCAR can do to ramp up the excitement level and invoke more aggression, besides possibly adding more points for race victories.
Ultimately, it’s up to the drivers.
If they are willing to take more chances on the track and care more about winning than collecting points, the quality of the racing will improve – even with the current-model car at intermediate-sized tracks. But as long as drivers remain so points- conscious, we won’t see the kind of finishes we saw in the all-star race.
Saturday at least proved this much: When drivers believe the reward of winning outweighs the risk of wrecking, the racing can still be good - maybe even great.
