NASCAR All-Star Race – Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards as Kasey Kahne, the fan favorite wins.

You know, last month I wrote a controversy article asking the question, should the NASCAR All-Star race be moved? My whole look at this was moving the All-Star race to a racetrack that either doesn’t already have a Cup Series date or only has one Cup Series date. At Least to me, the All-Star is a lot like a Cup date, it’s huge, it for the most part draws in record number of fans and even though I still believe that the All-Star race should be on a short-track like Iowa Speedway (but not that far away), I understand why the all-star race is so successful in Charlotte, it’s home. Over 90% of the teams are located in and around the Concord and Charlotte area, plus Humpy Wheeler does do a good job putting on a good show, now if they could only fix the fall charlotte Cup Series race, maybe that should go instead.

So with that said, what an emotional weekend, hats off to Matt Crafton as he picked up his first Truck Series victory in 178 starts, this is for everyone including the fans and the fans there was a special addition, oh yeah, a burnout and donut challenge called the Pennzoil Platinum Victory Challenge where five drivers competed in Petty Driving Experience prepared cars and in order to win you had to keep the rear tires spinning while starting with a burnout, then doing two donuts and ending in a box, well at least they tried. Poor Clint bowyer had to go out first, he didn’t know what to do, a tip of the hat goes to Jimmie Johnson, good job, but even though Greg Biffle won the challenge with the best time which includes $10,000 to the Greg Biffle Foundation, however Kevin Harvick (just like I predicted) won this challenge hands-down, once he completed his required burnout and donut, he put the car up against the other wall and “Burn it down baby, burn it down” and blow the rear tires up, now that’s a burn out, maybe next year, each driver will bring their own car, oh boy, that might not be a good idea, everything needs to be modified.

I would describe this night in general as a night of survival once the burn out and donut challenge was over and this was exactly what it was all about in the first couple of laps in the Sprint Showdown, let alone the segment two as A.J. Allmendinger (who took out Elliott Sadler in the first segment) won the Sprint Showdown over second place Sam Hornish Jr., however when it came to the fan vote, sorry Elliott Sadler as his teammate Kasey Kahne got voted in.

However that wouldn’t be the case once the All-Star Race came around, at least in the first three segments as first Kyle Busch would spank the field, but in the second segment, Busch blows up as Carl Edwards leads at the end of segment two. Once segment three started, the action began to pickup just a little bit more as the battle for the lead finally heated up between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth as Greg Biffle wins third segment. With three segments down, it’s as DW says “Its money time.”

It might have been money time, but there was no contest for the fan voted in driver Kasey Kahne as he wins the All-Star race. I’ve seen more action earlier this year at anyother race including the dominated race at Texas than tonight in the All-Star Race, as for what I think about the format, who knows, 100 laps is good, but 10 laps in final segment would work better.

Again, congrats to Kasey Kahne who won this the hard way, by first being voted in by the fans and then gambling at the end to win the all-Star race and $1 Million Dollars and to Dale Jarrett, great career. Thanks Dale Jarrett – A Champion, A legend, and now an ESPN broadcaster. Now I look forward to the Coca-Cola 600, What’s Next? Comments.

- Racedriven