CONCORD, N.C. – Between the forces of Mother Nature, a new format and close racing, Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race proved to be a wild ride for all involved.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the Hendrick Motorsports charge, bringing home a third-place finish. Chase Elliott, who advanced to the All-Star Race by fan voting, followed his teammate to the checkered flag just outside the top five in sixth.
Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne rounded out the team effort with 12th- and 19th-place finishes, respectively.
The drivers and teams learned a lot Saturday night that they can use this coming week at Charlotte for the 600.
TOP-THREE FINISH
After taking home the win in his very first All-Star start in 2001, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s best finish in the exhibition race was in 2002 when he finished in the runner-up position.
The driver logged his second-best finish since 2002 in Saturday’s 113-lap All-Star event after taking the green flag in 10th.
“For our team it's a good step in the right direction to get more competitive,” Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt hung right around the top 10 most of the night but toward the end of the second segment, found himself inside the top five, which he credited to his crew chief.
“It was pretty good strategy by (No. 88 team crew chief) Greg (Ives),” Earnhardt said. “I don’t even remember what he did, but somehow or another we ended up in the top five. Once I got toward the front, the car started obviously driving better in the cleaner air.”
That clean air allowed the driver of the No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS to make some gains before taking the checkered flag in third.
“Right before the last segment, right at the end of the second segment, I thought we had a great car,” the driver said. “Not as good as the No. 42 and the No. 75 but I thought we had a really good car, much better than we did the last segment.”
CHALLENGING FORMAT
The All-Star format implemented this year was new, featuring two 50-lap segments with mandatory green-flag pit stops followed by a 13-lap dash to the checkered flag.
The new format proved to be challenging as the drivers and teams looked to apply strategy to the race.
Earnhardt admitted he was a bit out of his element as he worked to understand the rules.
“NASCAR did a good job of sorting the lineups out,” he said. “Everybody was where they were supposed to be when we went back to green so you can’t complain. They were doing it unlike any other way they were doing it before. I’m sure they ran into some scenarios they weren’t really anticipating.”
Chase Elliott said the No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS team was trying to play the pit road game.
“You want to spend the least amount of time you can on pit road and that’s what everybody was doing,” the rookie said.
TUNING IN FOR THE 600
Elliott and the No. 24 team put in extra work Saturday after competing in the Sprint Showdown before the All-Star Race. In the Showdown, the rookie made contact with another car that required repairs on the No. 24 3M Chevy.
“I was really proud of our effort,” Elliott said. “It was such a long day and my guys did such a good job fixing our car, not once, but twice today. I thought we had a good car from the start of the race until we got our damage and I think that’s encouraging for next week.”
Earnhardt said the fact that inclement weather affected practice time on the track proved to be a challenge.
“This week was a great opportunity for us to learn, and I think we did,” the driver said. “We had about 80 percent of the setup on the car was new stuff, some stuff we hadn't really ran in a lot of different directions that are outside the box for us and what we were competitive with earlier in the year. So I hope Greg learned a lot tonight.”
Looking forward to this Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Earnhardt said he feels he has the team behind him to make the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS a competitive force.
“I think we can do it,” he said. “We’ll actually get to practice some and make some changes and see if we can’t get our car better for the 600.”