Carl Edwards is $1 million richer after taking the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star race at Concord, N.C. on Saturday night.
Flawless work during mandatory four-tire pit stops before the final 10-lap shootout in Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway got Edwards off pit road first, ahead of Kyle Busch. That proved decisive in Edwards’ first All-Star win as he became the eighth different winner of the event in the past eight years.
About the only thing that went wrong was Edwards’ slide through the frontstretch grass after taking the checkered flag. Edwards hit the infield sod and destroyed the front end of his No. 99 Ford. Edwards thought he hit a drain, but track officials said there was nothing but grass there.
“I had no idea that drain was there,” Edwards said, after executing his customary celebratory backflip to perfection. “I guess NASCAR’s mad, because they think we’re hiding something with that car.” NASCAR.com
After his trademark celebratory backflip, Edwards needed a tow truck to take him to Victory Lane. He left behind a deep rut in Charlotte’s infield grass.
“You never know what comes from misfortunes and it was definitely unfortunate,” Edwards said. “Pretty wild twist of fate that we tore it up, but I’m going to have faith something good will come from it.”
Edwards had a sheepish grin as he climbed out his window for his customary celebratory backflip, and he apologized to crew chief Bob Osborne for wrecking the car.
“That’s a million dollars. We just won a million dollars,” Edwards said from Victory Lane. “I feel so bad about tearing up the car. But I’m sure Bob’s got a better one.” The Associated Press
The night effectively ended when Edwards hit the accelerator as the green flag waved on the final 10-lap segment. Within a lap, he had left Busch in the dust.
“I didn’t think it was done, but as far as he jumped out on me, (it) really surprised me,” said Busch, who was unable to complete a weekend sweep at Charlotte after winning Friday’s truck race. “I thought maybe I could run within three, four car-lengths of him and kind of stay there. He took off so far, it was like, ‘Damn, ain’t no way I’m going to be able to run him back down in this period of time.’ “
Busch made a charge near the end of the final segment but conceded that he realized before the final segment began that his No. 18 Toyota probably wouldn’t have enough to win.
“We knew we weren’t going to pick up all the speed we needed,” he said. “We couldn’t have made 10 adjustments on that thing on pit road and done what we needed to do. We needed to go back to our (computer simulations) and make some changes and try stuff.”
David Reuitmann finished third, followed by Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman. USA Today
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who advanced into the all-star race by winning the fan vote, finished 14th.
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NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway - Race Results
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