• TrackPass
• Downloads
• Wireless
• NASCAR Home Tracks

The time has come for the Sprint All-Star Race, and in conjunction with that has come the annual onslaught of hype, hyperbole and promotion.

It's unfortunate that each chapter of such madness is gonna sicken a certain percentage of the population, and this time around, so it is with the vote designed to get the fans involved in the event, and the process.

I guess that's a good thing, though it's troubling to think that someone at Hype Central thinks the event, in and of itself, just ain't good enough to attract anyone's attention.

It's a winner's only all-star race, for God's sake; with at least a million bucks on the line for the winner and a juked-up format designed to drive excitement.

And I know, I know -- before you unleash the floodgates, I know. The fans do select the starting lineups for other sports' all-star games, and they don't do a bad job, across the board.

They must have some kind of parameter in place that prevents 'em from putting Joe Schlabotnick into the starting lineup. Though, from what I'm told, it didn't prevent 'em from voting Magic Johnson into the starting lineup of the NBA All-Star Game, the year he, uh, retired.

Though that year certainly had, shall we say, extenuating circumstances?

But still, no other sports' all-star selection format sinks to the level of the athletes, including some who have actually won some races at some point in their career -- including this very all-star race -- begging for inclusion in their all-star event.

And that's sad.

So I'm here to tell ya -- maintain the vote 'em in process. But it's the All-Star Race -- and at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- of all places.

So here's what I propose: If you're "voted in," you have an extra "tax" in the bargain.

• If you're Michael Waltrip and you're voted in, you have to wear a gauze mouthpiece that would prevent you from speaking in public for a week -- no exceptions for post-race acceptance speeches, TV -- nothing. Would probably be 50-50 that Mikey wouldn't take the spot.

• If you're Robby Gordon and you're voted in, you have to do 10-12 pre-race donuts in the same quad-oval area with one of your Hummer rally trucks. In something that pristine, it should be easy -- and a heckuva lot less of a pre-event travel bill.

• If you're Elliott Sadler and you're voted in, you have to set up at the start/finish line area of the quad-oval and drive five golf balls over the Turn 4 stands. Hope your back is back in shape -- and I don't think I've ever seen anyone sit there, so no lives are at risk.

• If you're Kyle Petty and you're voted in, you must load your car to capacity with Victory Junction Gang campers for the pace laps, and then, on the coming to green lap, go to pit road to remove them.

• If you're Joe Nemechek and you're voted in, your mother, Martha, has to ride in a specially installed right-hand seat, for the race's final segment.

Is that ridiculous? Of course -- but you get the idea. And so is the idea of letting someone into the Sprint All-Star Race based purely on a popularity contest. They ought to just expand the eligible drivers out of the Sprint Showdown qualifying race, from two to three.

You wanna keep the fans involved? Have 'em vote on some aspect of the format. Go back to having 'em vote on the invert -- but here's a clue: I'd vote to invert every darned car that's still running on the lead lap to start the final segment -- but no one would know until they were ready to roll off on the final segment's pace laps.

You wanna talk about the "all-star winner" that that would create. It would be the stuff of which legends are made.

But to earn a start in the "All-Star Race" -- well, you've got to race your way into that, pal.

Short Takes

• It will be interesting to see what NASCAR does now that it's faced with the "new car" equivalent of the "twisted cars" they wanted to do away with when they introduced the new, squared-up chassis.

On his Sunday night Wind Tunnel show on SPEED, Dave Despain had a stunning illustration of Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards' cars going down the straightaway at Darlington, sandwiching Joe Nemechek's car.

• Send Dave your thoughts
• Dave's Community page

All three cars were "going straight," but both Newman's Dodge and Edwards' Ford were distinctly "yawed" partly sideways, which obviously would help the hard-to-turn new car get through corners better.

Despain called Edwards out on the fact and the driver, who has won three times this season, joked that his cell phone was buzzing with a call from crew chief Bob Osborne telling him to shut up. Edwards did say he'd won races this season with a car in both a "squared" and a "yawed" configuration.

He also appeared to bristle during a media session during the weekend, when asked about the configuration.

"Yeah, that's exactly what makes my car so fast," Edwards said. "In fact, when we thought about taking a couple of weekends off, we were gonna go get a monkey to drive the car because it's real easy and that's the only reason we're winning."

Well, Kyle Busch has won just as much, and given his comments on conversations his team has had with NASCAR, it's hard to say if the sanctioning body's reaction is pleasant, considering the tight box everyone complains about being in in the new car, or alarming in that they're letting the cat out of the box, as it were.

"It's his car attitude that's different than everyone else's," Busch said. "I think everyone sees it -- even on TV. It's very, very noticeable for us drivers. During our test session at Charlotte, [Edwards] and [Newman] had it the best. We weren't quite as good as they were as far as yawed out, but I still felt like we were pretty fast."

Busch said he was told NASCAR isn't going to do anything about it, though that, obviously, remains to be seen if only a few teams are able to win.

"The car looks stupid going down the straightaway because it's dog-tracking -- it just doesn't look right," Busch said. "It is NASCAR's rules. We asked them at the beginning of the year when we started looking at things if they were going to make a rule change on it, and they said, 'No, do what you want with it;' so, everybody kept going that way.

"I think [Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing team] has got something in the car that makes it do that. The more we've found to make changes to that way, it's made the car go faster. When you get the car out in yaw through the corner, you have the side force [and] the side force holds the car straight.

“

It would be cool if we ran the same exact schedule they ran in 1955.

”

CARL EDWARDS

"With this car the more that you get it in yaw, the more air hits that right front and it turns, in yaw. The front end of it is turning, but you still have the side force to hold it through the corner. It's the way that you use it to your advantage. We found that out in the wind tunnel. The more yaw we can get in the car, obviously the better. Some guys are getting it more than others."

It will be interesting to see if NASCAR, uh, puts the lid back on that box at any point.

• Why do you have to love Carl Edwards? The kid has a sense of history -- of the mystique of racing. And for an old-timer in 2008, it doesn't get much cooler than that. Last week, Edwards was asked about bringing the Southern 500 back to Darlington Raceway, on Labor Day weekend, no less.

"I don't know the politics of the name and things like that, but it would be cool," Edwards said, but he didn't stop there. "It would be cool if we ran the same exact schedule they ran in 1955. That would be great, but things change, I guess."

How can you not love that idea? Things do change, but why couldn't some of those old-time tracks be brought back?

Run twice in a weekend, one-day shows, either day or night races, with $30,000 claimer cars with $7,500 crate engines -- let the best man win, racing for a purse that would be, oh, half of a typical 500-miler or -lapper.

Talk about the "Car of Tomorrow" -- these would be "Cars of Yesteryear" -- like Street Stocks. And I betcha the racing would match the fascination.

If you don't think those one-day shows would pack 'em in ...

• Ain't points racing great? Not only are guys swapping in and out of the top 35 (in owner points), they're also doing it at the other end of the scale, in the top 12 (in driver points)! Dave Blaney has become the master of regaining the top 35 -- though it's a label he'd definitely rather shed.

And you have just gotta love David Ragan's spunk, even as he continues wrecking cars, he continues to flip the coin and excel with his very next start. And as he currently sits in the ultimate spoiler's position -- in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, yet by only two points -- his confidence is high.

"Certainly, I think we have a chance of making the Chase," Ragan said after logging a top-five at Darlington, one day after destroying his Nationwide car against an inside wall at the tricky track. "I think a lot of people have a chance of making the Chase, it's just a matter of what we do with our chance.

All-Star Race

SPEED will again broadcast the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race. Tune in at 7 p.m. ET on May 17 to watch rivals race for $1 million -- and the fireworks!

• All-Star coverage
• NASCAR on SPEED

"We've got to continue to perform like we have. I've got to keep working on not making mistakes inside the racecar. We could very easily be 25th in points right now with a couple of DNFs, if things hadn't have gone our way a few times; and we could have very easily be eighth or seventh in points right now, if I wouldn't have had the DNF at Daytona and a couple of bad runs.

"Anyway, we just have to keep working hard and doing what we know is right. Ultimately, you can average a 15th-place finish and make the Chase; you just can't have a bunch of DNFs. So that's what we're trying to do."

We'll see how that works out, and which former champion will be in tears, and out of the Chase after Richmond if he does maintain.

• It might just be the All-Star Race, but it's also a sponsor showcase, so it's nice to see two teams collaborating to give a driver, and a sponsor, a little extra seat and air time.

BAM Racing, which is on a short-term hiatus from the sport, is allowing Petty Enterprises to use its No. 49 for the Sprint Showdown, to allow development driver Chad McCumbee a little extra seat time and Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil a little extra exposure on a Dodge engineered by Petty test team crew chief Bill Wilburn.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.