Fan Vote going down to the wire to elect All-Star starter

It's election time, and the campaigns are in their final stretches. And we're not talking about the race for the White House.

This campaign is to elect the final starter for Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race, voted in by the fans.

Twenty-one drivers are already qualified for the All-Star Race, and two more will make the starting grid by finishing first and second in the Sprint Showdown. Selecting the 24th and final starting position will be determined by fans' voting, on Sprint and Nextel handheld devices or at Sprint stores, as well as voting on NASCAR.COM.

And in the final hours of voting before the polls close, the race continues to be too close to call.

Robby Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Kenny Wallace and Michael Waltrip are among the top vote-getters.

Voting ends at 7 p.m. ET Saturday. The winner will be announced on NASCAR.COM and also during SPEED's All-Star Saturday coverage, which includes the Showdown (green flag at 7:40 p.m. ET) and All-Star Race XXIV.

Fans can vote either on NASCAR.COM, by texting the word "NASCAR" to 7777 on their Sprint or Nextel phones or by visiting a Sprint store. Standard text messaging and data rates apply.

This is the fifth year in which a driver will be voted into the All-Star Race. Ken Schrader earned the transfer slot in 2004, with other fan-vote winners being Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace.