Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
A new format for the Sprint All-Star race, and there’s confusion all the way around as many were left scratching their heads after Saturday night.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, is the creator of the new format. He thought it made the All Star Race more interesting to watch as a spectator.
“There was a next-to-last lap pass for the lead,” Keselowski said. “There were several passes for the lead. The last four races there hasn’t been a pass for the lead in the last 20 or 30 laps. I think our fans deserve a better format than that and they got that today. I don’t know how you can get much more compelling racing than what we saw today, so they need to get unconfused and enjoy the racing.”
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 19 Arris Toyota finished the race in fourth place. Edwards missed pit road but once he got into the box his crew had the fastest stop possible. That was how he was able to get his position. He noted the race was crazy.
“I think there were some unforeseen things,” Edwards said. “With all those guys going a lap down, I didn’t expect that. That wasn’t in our game plan. We didn’t know that could happen and also didn’t know that a guy could get stuck like Matt (Kenseth) did at the beginning. I didn’t know that was a possibility so in a way, there were some things that happened and circumstances that maybe nobody fore saw.”
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota, finished ninth. Hamlin disapproved of the format and the confusion it caused not just drivers but fans at the race as well as those watching at home.
“I think when you start to set rules on you can pit at this time, but you have to do it before this or that and then the caution comes that you don’t expect like we saw then it puts cars laps down.” Hamlin said. ” I don’t know. How do you keep up at home to be honest with you? I knew when it took about 10 minutes to explain the rules in the driver’s meeting that it was going to be a complicated night. All this is to give the fans a great finish and we’re trying to fabricate something for them to look at this All-Star race and say that it’s exciting. You want to create a last lap pass every race you can, but you also don’t want to get too goofy trying to create it.”
Hamlin was confused on how the starting line up was set. He questioned NASCAR officials but wasn’t at all pleased with their answer.
“He (Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR) answered me, but I don’t know if it was correct,” Hamlin added. “Here’s the thing, it says per rule book and rule book says – they’ve always told us that as long as everyone has an opportunity to get on the race track then it’s official and to me, here’s what they did, they went to all of us during that break, during the rain and said just so everyone knows, none of these laps when you practice your pitting, count towards your practice speeds. Why do they care about practice speeds if they’re not going to line us up by our practice speeds? It was total mixed messages from my standpoint.
“Maybe we should have asked more questions, but I can assure you everything we read online from Jayski to the entry blank and everything says you line up based on the rule book and the rule book says that if you have a practice then it’s official. I thought that we had enough practice. We’ve seen it in qualifying, if you have a 20-minute session and they run eight minutes, they say if everyone hits the track then it’s official.
“We had 14 minutes in practice so I thought it was official. It had no bearing on us tonight, that’s a moot point, but I think it’s just more of the confusion. There’s so many rules nowadays and gosh, it’s frustrating that it’s so confusing at times. I’m in the sport and we’re confused so how does the race fan keep up at times? I don’t know, you better watch it every week, that’s for sure.”
Hamlin says the format needs to be improved but he isn’t sure how exactly it should be done.
“I’m not smart enough to figure it out,” Hamlin stated. “Short of just saying this race is going to end under a green-white-checkered, let the race just run out and say, ‘Guys, we’re going to throw a caution with five (laps) to go and you’re going to race to a green-white-checkered. That would create a fun finish, but I don’t know. It’s tough to say what to do, but we’re doing this to try to make it exciting for the fans that’s what it’s about. It’s a fun race and we’re all having fun doing it, we just don’t want to get confused when we’re doing it.”
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 75 M&M’s Toyota, finished in the tenth. Busch said he didn’t know what the race looked like because he didn’t watch it on TV so therefore he would not comment.
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, finished in the 18th position after being involved in multi car wreck on Lap 72. Kenseth says he got bumped from behind and pushed into the accident.
“I got rolled over.” Kenseth said. “I saw them checking up and wrecking in front of me and I slowed up just a little bit and somebody just drove right over top of me wide open. I don’t think they’d seen the wreck yet. I hope everybody understands this race more than I did from the cockpit because ever since the first car pitted in that firsts segment, I have no idea what was going on, none.”
Kenseth still finds the format confusing and that he doesn’t like not knowing what is going on during a race when he is behind the wheel.
“I still don’t understand,” Kenseth added. “I’ve never been this confused in a race car in my entire life. I hope everybody watching understands because I have no idea what happened ever since the first car pitted until right now.
“I can’t say I don’t like it, I don’t know what’s going on. From the driver’s seat, I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe if I was on the pit box or watching on TV I would understand. I just don’t know what happened there. I knew that we had to pit before a certain lap and that was the wrong lap and the caution happened to come out, but I don’t really know what happened from there to be totally honest with you. I just don’t know.
“It depends if it’s working for you or not. It’s always frustrating as a driver not to know what’s going on and nobody could give me an answer if we were on the lead lap or not on the lead lap – nobody could give me an answer as to what was going on and that’s always frustrating as a driver. It’s easiest when you can just get in and go as fast as you can every lap and not worry about the rest. We weren’t running that great anyway and got a lap behind and got in the back and never came back from it.”
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Chevrolet, finished in 20th position after being collected in the multi car wreck on Lap 72. Smoke was another driver who wasn’t afraid to let his disapproval of the new format be known.
“I’m as baffled as everybody,” Smoke stated. “I don’t know how in the hell we were scored a lap down after they stopped the 20 car (Matt Kenseth) and the pit everybody together a lap down then lead lap and then lap down. It’s the most screwed up All-Star race I’ve ever been a part of. I’m glad it’s my last one. I’m all right. I’m just madder than hell because I don’t understand how the hell they’ve officiated this from start to finish.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, finished third and said the race was crazy. He noted not many of the drivers in the race knew what was going on.
“Yeah, I didn’t know what way up and what way was right and left,” Junior said. ” Lap-down cars were pitting with lead-lap cars and wave-by cars were up front and in the middle. NASCAR did a good job of sorting the lineups out. 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. That really was probably part of it; guys getting caught a lap down, the 20 not pitting within the first 50 laps. They weren’t anticipating all that.”
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet, was eligible to race in the All Star race via one of the two fan votes. He finished sixth and says he was confused and that the night was crazy for most of the drivers because of the confusion.
“I really don’t know,” Elliott said. ” I was just very, very confused, I felt like, for the majority of the race. We had a really good car until we got our damage there. We were 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. I was planning on pitting on that first lap after we got back going and it was just chaotic and if it was my fault and I didn’t do a good enough job getting out of the way, I’ll take the blame. I was just trying to get on pit road.
“Yeah, I was confused the whole time. I really was. There was a lot of time I didn’t know what was happening and just a lot of things, but hey, I was really proud of our effort. It was such a long day and my guys did such a good job fixing our car; not once, but twice, today. So, I’m proud of them for that. 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.”
