Burned Out on All-Star Race
This week's anouncement that Lowe's Motor Speedway has added a burnout and celebration competition to this year's Sprint All-Star Race has just about sealed my opinion of the whole event.

It's a waste of time.

I've never been a fan of the race, although was slightly intrigued back in the day when the idea first came up.

But since its inception, the event has evolved into a gigantic carnival that usually ends way past midnight after all the starts and stops and pageantry.

I can't imagine the amount of money teams spend preparing for this event, which is usually doubled in repair bills and body work by the time it's over.

It's also tough to explain what the heck this race really is. Other sport's "all-star" events are actual games. They don't give each side 5 outs and 14 players on the field in baseball's mid-summer classic or count a halfcourt shot for 10 points in the NBA mid-season affair. Why NASCAR and Lowe's Motor Speedway feel the need to jack up this event is beyond me.

If NASCAR really wants to showcase its sport as an all-star event, which really every week on the regular season schedule is, why not just add a 37th race to the slate and rotate the date around the country every year?

Make it a real race though, not the convuluted made-for-TV affair we have now (how SPEED can dedicate over 70 hours to this event is beyond me, although anytime we have less PINKS is fine), and bring the sport to places on a rotating random basis.

Who wouldn't like to see a Cup race once every four or five years at Rockingham, Gateway, the Milwaukee Mile, Nashville Superspeedway or the best of them all, Iowa Speedway?

To me that would be a great way to shine the spotlight on the series in a much better way than the "wreckers or checkers" event (over/under on Mike Joy using that phrase in the FOX telecast is about 44) in Charlotte we must endure every year.

And watching a driver do a real victory celebration or burnout at such an event would be much more satisfying than what we'll witness during the LMS contest this year.
Posted: 4/24/2008 11:29:29 AM
Comments:
do away with the allstar race and add a dirt track to the schedule
Posted On: 5/3/2008 7:35:38 PM
Pete,

I totally agree with your comments. The All-Star-Race has lost its luster. Although Tony Stewart is the backbone of a "new" type of IROC racing, maybe the old IROC format can be grown into something to use as the All-Star-Race. Instead of the purse going directly to the winning team and driver, maybe a portion of the winnings could go to the teams/drivers favorite charity. Instead of the field being set by invitation, as in IROC, it is set by a three qualifying races that would include; one for Cup, one for Nationwide, and one for the Truck series, followed by the ultimate event for each series. With the imagination of Humpy, he could come up with something. Granted, NASCAR would have to make major changes to the schedules of the series, but it would generate new interest with all three series racing at one "All-Star-Event." With that said, Pete you are totally right, it is time for a change.
Posted On: 4/25/2008 8:06:54 AM

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