No hate for Jimmie Johnson this week. He dominated the Sprint All-Star Race this weekend, only to lose out on the final segment. A $1 million slip by his pit crew cost him a well-earned victory at the end of a masterful performance. Interesting race, 90 laps of good, clean racing followed by 10 laps of utter chaos.
I like these non-point races once in a while. A little change is good. The change in the rules and stakes makes for a fun evening’s viewing. The first three segments ran clean and fast. The final segment, however, was absolutely crazy. The leaders didn’t make it to the first turn before a series of collisions eliminated or damaged nearly half the field.
So much happened in the multiple restarts that ensued from the start of the final stage that the ultimate two lap dash, which was absolutely dominated by Kurt Busch, was entirely anticlimactic. From the moment of what turned out to be the final restart, Busch manhandled the competition to cruise to an easy win. Well, easy in those last two laps, anyway. The first ninety-eight laps were actually pretty rough on Busch, including two hard kisses on the outer wall.
While Kurt Busch’s rough night ended well, Kyle’s night ended ugly. Restarting in second place, Kyle was making a move on leader Denny Hamlin when he smashed into the wall late in the race, hitting it hard enough that it took him out of the running for the final few laps. I watched the replay over and over and I thought it looked clean, but Busch had some words about and for Hamlin, blaming him for the incident and robbing him of what he thought was a sure victory.
Although the race was sponsored by Sprint, it has no bearing on the Sprint Cup standings, so no one moved a bit. That leaves Kevin Harvick at the top looking down on Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, and the rest of the field.
