NASCAR heads into Memorial Day weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway riding a wave of momentum produced last week and capped by a rousing NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
“We are coming off another incredible fan-friendly week that was a huge success for our industry, thanks to the collective efforts of many people,” said NASCAR Chairman/CEO Brian France.” The highlights were numerous and the main highlight was obvious – a victory in the all-star race by one of our biggest stars, Tony Stewart.”
The race itself was the finale to a week-long celebration of speed in the cradle of stock car racing.
Last Wednesday night, the “NASCAR Rev’d Up” concert drew an incredible crowd of 15,000 to uptown Charlotte for the electrifying O.A.R. concert.
The following evening at Time-Warner Cable Arena, the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 team won the 5th Annual NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge Presented by Craftsman. That event was watched by another enthusiastic crowd, with fans of all ages.
This past Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Kevin Costner and Montgomery Gentry entertained fans before the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race.
The Sprint Fan Vote resonated with our fans, generating millions of votes and giving heralded rookie Joey Logano a starting spot in the all-star show.
The NASCAR Sprint All-Star race’s annual “preliminary” event, the Sprint Showdown, was won by former Indianapolis 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. It was a milestone moment – Hornish’s first career NASCAR victory.
NASCAR – and the 140,000 fans in attendance at Lowe’s Motor Speedway – even had cooperation from the weather. The rain held off Saturday night and got all 100 laps in.
The return of the all-star race’s 10-lap shootout as the final segment resulted in some of the season’s best action thus far, as five of our biggest stars – Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth and finally, Stewart – had a chance to take the checkered flag.
When the race, and the week, were complete, fans had watched Stewart take home a million dollars by winning the all-star race for the first time. In the process, he proved a new owner can indeed “make it” on NASCAR’s biggest stage. The win was popular; hundreds of fans stayed late to watch the Victory Lane celebration from the frontstretch.
“What a week,” said France. “It all came together perfectly and everyone involved in NASCAR should be proud. Now we want to build on last week – and build up to one of our sport’s true major races, the Coca Cola 600 this Sunday.”
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