Don’t blame the format.

There was nothing wrong with the structure of Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race — nothing, that is, that a few minor tweaks can’t fix.

Yes, the final 10-lap segment was anti-climactic. Having gained control of the race and the final restart by winning the first of four 20-lap segments, Jimmie Johnson gradually pulled away from Brad Keselowski during the final dash for the $1 million first prize.

The race didn’t provide what NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France likes to call “a Game 7 moment.” On the other hand, not every World Series has a Game 7, and sometimes, as with last year’s St. Louis Cardinals victory over the Texas Rangers, it’s a Game 6 moment that captivates the imagination.

The stat sheet from Saturday’s race belies what an enthusiastic crowd saw on the racetrack. True, there were only seven lead changes among seven drivers, even with segment winners lagging in the back after locking up their positions among the first four cars to enter pit road before the final run.

The box score shows Brad Keselowski winning the third segment wire-to-wire. The box score also shows yet another Sprint Cup Race without a caution for a racing accident. Four of the six yellow-flag periods were planned, as breaks between segments. The other two occurred when the experimental engines of Roush Fenway Racing drivers Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle blew up and oiled the track.

So, in one sense, the race didn’t live up to the billing its gets every year, as a slugfest rife with destruction and anger.

But even if wrecking — other than a few scrapes with the wall — took a vacation, there was plenty of racing action to admire.

After cutting a tire before the preliminary Sprint Showdown even started, AJ Allmendinger made a heroic run from the back of the field to the second transfer position into the All-Star Race.

My jaw dropped on the very first lap of the main event, as I watched Marcos Ambrose streak around the outside of Turns 1 and 2, as he mowed down nine cars on the opening circuit.

I saw Jimmie Johnson start sixth in the first 20-lap segment and move to the front within 15 laps, running down pole-sitter Kyle Busch to win the first leg.

Even though Keselowski led every lap of segment No. 3, I saw some of the most compelling racing of the evening in the closing laps, as Kasey Kahne drove like a wild man in pursuit of the No. 2 Dodge. With one lap left in the run, Keselowski took Kahne’s high line through Turns 3 and 4 and preserved his advantage.

On the next circuit, Keselowski was back on the bottom, almost as if he were giving Kahne a sporting chance. Kahne got a huge run off Turn 4 from the outside lane, and in a drag race to the finish, Keselowski won the segment by .006 seconds.

I heard one of the loudest roars I’ve heard in four years after Dale Earnhardt Jr., who transferred into the All-Star Race by winning the Showdown, completed a charge from the back of the field to the front and battled for the lead. Earnhardt won the final segment in a car that had had enormous speed — and a car, incidentally, that crew chief Steve Letarte may well bring back to Charlotte for next Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.

So there was a lot to like about the All-Star Race, even absent a demolition derby in the last 10 laps. The evening had drama, and it had energy, even if it did have some quirks that need correcting.

After Johnson won the first segment — guaranteeing he would be first to pit road before the final run — he took the next three off, lagging behind the field and tuning his car. Matt Kenseth and Keselowski used a similar approach after winning segments 2 and 3, respectively.

Another advantage accrued to those three drivers. Knowing they would enter pit road for their mandatory final stops in the first, second and third positions, Johnson, Keselowski and Kenseth had the luxury of pitting for tires late in segment No. 4, under caution for Biffle’s blown engine, without sacrificing track position for the final run.

You could make a strong case, as Johnson did after the race, that after the first segment, the deck was stacked heavily in favor of the No. 48 Chevrolet.

There’s an easy way to fix that. Instead of allowing the winner of the first segment to enter pit road first — and almost assuredly leave pit road first after a stop-and-go — make the first segment winner come in fourth, the second segment winner come in third, and so forth.

Since the leader of the race with 10 to go is the driver most likely to win it, that would give segment winners an incentive to continue racing — not to hang back, as they did Saturday night.

If you prefer a more radical solution, then park a driver as soon as he wins a segment and keep the car parked until the final pit stop. That would prevent the team from tuning the car while other drivers are actually racing, and it would eliminate a potential tire advantage for the segment winners.

Sponsors might not like that approach, but interviewing drivers in their logoed uniforms while their cars are sidelined could compensate for the lack of track time.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author

CONCORD, N.C. – Jimmie Johnson joined an elite club on Saturday night.

In beating Brad Keselowski to the finish of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway by .841 seconds, Johnson won the exhibition event for the third time, tying Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for most all-time.

Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who qualified for the event by winning the preliminary Sprint Showdown.

The All-Star Race win and accompanying seven-figure first prize ended a spectacular eight days for Johnson, who delivered victory No. 200 to owner Rick Hendrick May 12 at Darlington and on Thursday night cheered his crew to its first victory in the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge in Charlotte, N.C.

All told, Johnson won $1,071,340 for his third win in 11 All-Star starts.

“It means a ton to me,” Johnson said of tying Earnhardt Sr. and Gordon. “Those are two of the greatest drivers that have ever been in a stock car. I want to set my goals high, and I want to be considered one of the best to sit in a stock car, and the only way you can do that is by winning big races and piling up those stats.”

The All-Star Race victory was the seventh as a car owner for Hendrick, who sat on the window ledge and took a ride on Johnson’s winning Chevrolet after the race.

“That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in racing,” quipped Hendrick, who caught his foot in the dash while straddling the window.

Johnson was the first to stake his claim to a top spot in the running order, winning the first 20-lap segment after passing polesitter Kyle Busch for the top spot on Lap 15. In winning the first segment, Johnson earned the right to lead the field to pit road before the final 10-lap dash.

Thereafter, Johnson made frequent pit stops and ran behind the rest of the field to save his car for the finish.

“I let it rip around the top and got to the lead, and we were smart from there and made sure we worked on the car and got it right so we could be there at the end,” Johnson said. “Within two corners tonight — as I was on the outside, which is usually the place you don’t want to be — I knew it was on.

“I was able to get to the lead in that first segment and really set our night in the right direction and have control of the night. Everybody knew that, if you could win that first segment, you could control the night, and we were able to do that starting sixth, so it was pretty awesome.”

Keselowski thought Johnson showed his hand in the first segment.

“He started sixth, I believe, and drove to the lead in 20 laps,” Keselowski said. “I think that’s probably a pretty good indicator of the strength of his car. I don’t believe he passed anyone that was not good. We’ll just leave it at that.

“He passed Kyle, I think Denny (Hamlin), maybe (Kevin) Harvick. (Ryan) Newman. Those aren’t slouches that he passed, and he passed them in 20 laps. I think that’s a pretty good indicator of the strength of his effort. Whether that’s car or driver, I’ll let you all figure that out. That’s a pretty good indicator he was the guy to beat all night.”

Kenseth passed Hamlin with three laps left in the second segment and secured the win in that leg. Like Johnson, Kenseth spent segment No. 3 running at the back while Keselowski and Kasey Kahne waged an intense battle for the win.

Kahne got a strong run from the high line through Turns 3 and 4, but Keselowski held on to win the segment by .006 seconds.

Earnhardt won segment No. 4 by 1.618 seconds over Marcos Ambrose. After the 20-lap run ended, Johnson, Kenseth, Keselowski and Earnhardt entered pit road in that order, took no tires or gas and came out in those same top four positions for the final 10-lap run.

Of the top four drivers, Keselowski and Kenseth had the freshest tires, having stopped under caution for Greg Biffle’s blown engine on Lap 73. But Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet was the class of the field and pulled away for the win in an anomalous All-Star race that did not see a single caution for a racing accident.

Though Earnhardt transferred into the main event with a decisive victory in the Sprint Showdown, the compelling story of the preliminary event was polesitter AJ Allmendinger’s run from the back of the field to the second transfer spot after pitting with a flat tire coming to green at the start of the race.

Allmendinger took four tires during a pit stop between the Showdown’s two 20-lap segments, and the new rubber paid off. After two cars dropped out between segments and three others went to the rear because of pit road penalties, Allmendinger restarted 13th.

From the drop of the green flag on Lap 21, Allmendinger surged forward, finally passing Jamie McMurray for the second position with a hard run off Turn 2 on Lap 39 of 40.

“Jamie’s real good?he knows how to get around this place,” Allmendinger said. “He kept making sure he got good exit shots. Finally, he just got off the bottom a little bit. At that point, I wasn’t going to lift. I didn’t care if we all wreck, if I got into him or what.

“These guys on this Pennzoil Dodge, this Penske organization, they belong in this race. They deserve it more than I do. I was going to do everything I could to get ?em in, or I was going to die trying.”

Allmendinger finished third in the fourth segment of the All-Star Race, but a four-tire call on the final pit stop dropped him to the back of the field. Allmendinger charged to 11th before time ran out.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race – NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Concord, North Carolina
Saturday, May 19, 2012

1. (6) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 90, $1071340.
2. (19) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 90, $276340.
3. (15) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 90, $176340.
4. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 90, $121315.
5. (21) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 90, $141315.
6. (5) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 90, $86315.
7. (18) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 90, $81165.
8. (17) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 90, $80165.
9. (20) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 90, $79165.
10. (2) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 90, $88165.
11. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 90, $77140.
12. (10) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 90, $76140.
13. (8) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 90, $75140.
14. (12) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 90, $74640.
15. (11) Trevor Bayne(i), Ford, 90, $74040.
16. (7) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 90, $73765.
17. (9) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 90, $73640.
18. (14) David Ragan, Ford, 90, $73535.
19. (23) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 90, $73435.
20. (3) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 90, $78335.
21. (16) Mark Martin, Toyota, 90, $73235.
22. (4) Greg Biffle, Ford, Engine, 67, $73135.
23. (13) Carl Edwards, Ford, Engine, 25, $73034.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 92.045 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 28 Mins, 00 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.841 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 10 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: Kyle Busch 1-14; J. Johnson 15-20; D. Hamlin 21-36; M. Kenseth 37-40; B. Keselowski 41-60; Kurt Busch 61-62; D. Earnhardt Jr. 63-81; J. Johnson 82-90.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): B. Keselowski 1 time for 20 laps; D. Earnhardt Jr. 1 time for 19 laps; D. Hamlin 1 time for 16 laps; J. Johnson 2 times for 15 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 14 laps; M. Kenseth 1 time for 4 laps; Kurt Busch 1 time for 2 laps.

Edwards gears up for shot at $1 million All-Star repeat
Carl Edwards is the one driver in the garage who can claim to be most recently familiar with winning the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. But just one week ago, he admitted he wasn’t completely familiar with the event’s new format.

At Darlington Raceway last weekend, Edwards was asked about his hopes for an All-Star repeat and his thoughts about the new five-segment schedule for the annual non-points race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I don’t know . . .,” Edwards replied. “What is the new format?” As the tweaks to this year’s race were explained to him, a slight grin crossed his face: “Oh, that’s cool.”

Edwards figures to be more familiar with the nuances come Saturday night, when he defends his title in the 28th edition of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (SPEED, 7 p.m. ET).

Edwards, currently mired in a 44-race winless streak in points-paying events, last performed his signature victory backflip in this race last season. Although an all-star win wouldn’t count toward ending the second-longest drought of his career or increasing his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points total, the $1 million winner’s purse and bragging rights would go a long way toward giving his Roush Fenway Racing team a boost.

This year’s race will have four 20-lap preliminary segments with a final 10-lap shootout. A pit stop is mandatory before the final leg of the race and the four preliminary winners (or highest finishers, in the event a driver wins multiple segments) will receive the advantage of entering pit road first for the final stop.

“That’s going to make those first races really important,” Edwards said. “If you look at the way the racing is right now, you start up front and you’ve got a huge advantage. That’s a great way to address that issue.

“We started, I think, first or second in the last segment last time and that was a huge advantage for us. I don’t know if we would’ve been able to win if we started back in the pack. That’s going to put a premium on those first segments. I think you’ll see guys really, really battling it out.”

The level of competition promises to be as hectic as ever, which is a departure from the all-star exhibitions of other sports. The seven-figure payday for the winner plays no small role in ramping up the intensity.

“Any time they put that much money in front of anybody, it’s going to cause things to rise to another level,” said Kevin Harvick, the 2007 winner of the event. “Take the points away from that and you really have some unique scenarios that have come up over the past several years in all-star races.”

The night will also feature the Sprint Showdown qualifying race, where the top two finishers will transfer into the main event. One other driver will be selected for the all-star race through a fan vote to complete the exclusive 23-car field.

BUESCHER POURS IT ON IN TRUCKS
For two big reasons, James Buescher has forged closer bonds with his Turner Motorsports team this season.

For one, a growing sense of team chemistry has spurred the No. 31 Chevrolet to improved on-track performance in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The off-track reason is Buescher’s offseason marriage to Krishtian Turner, making team owner Steve Turner his father-in-law.

With the close-knit team now closer than ever, Buescher’s stock has risen. Fresh from his victory in the truck series’ most recent race, at Kansas Speedway, he now stands second in the standings, just four points back of leader Timothy Peters entering Friday night’s N.C. Education Lottery 200 (8 p.m. ET, SPEED) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Everything seems to be clicking,” said Buescher, who also won the NASCAR Nationwide Series opener at Daytona in a Turner car. “I joked earlier in the season that getting married in the offseason, I finally started winning some races. So I don’t think that’s a reason.

“But I think just the evolution of our team, it’s still a young team. We have only been a NASCAR team for a few years now. . . . So it’s not like we had a whole lot of experience coming into it, and I think it’s just taken some time to figure everything out, and be able to put every piece of the puzzle together.”

Buescher has done plenty of double duty this season. He’s competing for the championship in trucks, but has also run all but one Nationwide race. Having a dose of success on both tours has been a confidence builder for Buescher, who had been winless in both series dating back to his NASCAR debut as an 18-year-old in 2008.

“It does weigh on you and it weighs on your mind when you’re in a losing streak like that,” said Buescher, who has finished no worse than third in the last three truck series races. “But you know, when you finally can get to Victory Lane twice in a couple months, it just gives you the confidence to know that you are capable and you do have a team capable of winning, and you’ve just got to keep trying to get to Victory Lane, because even though we have done it twice, it doesn’t mean it’s going to make the next time any easier.

“We just have to keep working like we are and don’t take anything for granted.”

Peters doesn’t have a win this season, but his consistency (top-five finishes in all four races in 2012) has him atop the points. Kyle Busch, winner of the last two truck events at Charlotte, has curbed his competition in the series and is not entered this year.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The No. 48 team of Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson saved the best for last Thursday night.

Posting its fastest time in the final round of the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, the No. 48 NASCAR Sprint Cup team dethroned the two-time defending champion No. 11 crew of Joe Gibbs racing driver Denny Hamlin.

In a competition that includes simultaneously changing front and rear tires, fueling and jacking four different common cars and then pushing a team car across the finish line, Johnson’s crew accomplished the task in 22.239 seconds to edge Hamlin’s over-the-wall gang (22.533 seconds) in the finals.

Gas man Brandon Harder, front tire changer Dave Collins, front tire carrier RJ Barnette, rear tire changer Calvin Teague, rear tire carrier Matt Tyrell, and jackman TJ Ford were the winning team for the 48, which finished second last year.

“In this discipline, the athleticism and training really pays off,” Johnson said after the event. “We made a big effort to get full-fledged athletes who did nothing but work on their pit stops and disciplines. And then they focused on this — the distance to run, the car push and all that — and I think it just shows how strong they are, how physically able they are to get the job done.”

The victory was the first for the No. 48 team in the eight-year history of the event held at Time Warner Cable Arena. The team won $80,675, a $10,000 increase over last year’s prize money. In addition, the Jimmie Johnson foundation received a donation of $9,169 from the NASCAR Foundation.

The team also won the right to select pit stall No. 1 for Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race, which pays $1 million to win.

“I think it’s going to be a big advantage, especially if you can get out there and win one of those first couple of segments,” said crew chief Chad Knaus, who sprayed his team with champagne after the victory.

The winners of the first four 20-lap segments of the All-Star Race enter pit road 1-2-3-4 for a mandatory stop before the final 10-lap dash to the finish.

Conserving their strength for the finals, the No. 48 crewmen employed a strategy of stopping the push and letting the car roll to the finish whenever they had an insurmountable margin. That approach worked impeccably en route to the finals, setting up the confrontation with the champions of the previous two years.

With a clean run in 22.453 seconds, the No. 48 team cruised into the finals by winning a head-to-head matchup against Matt Kenseth’s No. 17Â crew (23.228 seconds). The No. 11 team earned its spot in the title match with a semifinal run in 22.869 seconds, beating the No. 88 crew of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (23.567 seconds).

Whenever the 48 team had a clear win, Teague would signal his mates to stop pushing.

“I saw that, too,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t involved in the training that went into it, but I think they were trying to conserve energy, and once they felt like they had a heat won, they just kind of backed off.”

The event also crowned individual winners in each of the skill categories. Jeff Kerr of Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 team won the jack man competition for the third time. Tom Lampe of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 crew won the individual competition for gas men with an event-record time of 8.610 seconds.

Kerr said the secret to winning the competition was “to learn to deal with pressure without making a mistake. It the same thing when you go across pit road. The pit stop when you’re running first and the pit stop when you’re running 43rd are two totally different pit stops.

“The people that can do it under pressure are the people who can do it when it counts, and those are the people you want on your team.”

Representing Jeff Burton’s No. 31 team, the front tire changer/tire carrier combination of Tim Sheets and JD Holcomb were fastest in their category with a record time of 13.615 seconds. Changer Jake Seminara and carrier Kenny Barber took home individual honors on the rear tires in a record 13.073 seconds.

Each individual winner received $10,000 for his efforts.

This year more than ever, the Pit Crew Challenge was a perfect lead-in to All-Star weekend, given the emphasis on pit crew performance both in Friday’s unique Cup qualifying session and Saturday’s Sprint All-Star Race.

A pit stop is an integral part of time trials, and the mandatory pit stop precedes the final 10-lap segment of the All-Star dash for $1 million.

“We love that,” Seminara said. “I think it was two years ago we came in the pits fifth on the last pit stop and came out second, I believe, and put him in position to win the race (though a late crash cost Busch a chance for the victory).

“We relish it,” added Barber. “We wish we could do it every week.”

Kurt Busch violated Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; reckless driving on pit road during the race; involved in an altercation with another competitor after the completion of the race) of the 2012 NASCAR Rule Book. Additionally, Craig Strickler, a crew member for the No. 51 team, has been fined $5,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31 for violating Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; interfering with a member of the broadcast media).

Tony Gibson, crew chief for the No. 39 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, has been placed on NASCAR probation until June 27 for violating Section 12-1 and Sections 12-4G and 9-4A (Crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his team members). Andrew Rueger, a crew member for the No. 39 team, has been fined $5,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until June 27 for violating Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; failure to comply with a directive from a NASCAR official). Both of these violations occurred post-race.

Fifth Third will be theprimary sponsor of Kenseth’s Ford at four Sprint Cup Series races in 2012 including:
- Sprint All Star Race in Charlotte, NC on May 19
- Quaker State 400 in Sparta, KY on June 30
- Crown Royal’s “Your Hero’s Name Here” race in Indianapolis, IN on July 29
- Pure Michigan 400 in Brooklyn, MI on August 19

“Fifth Third Bank is excited to partner with Roush Fenway Racing and Matt Kenseth on this Sprint Cup Series sponsorship,”said Greg Carmichael, executive vice president and chief operating officer ofFifth Third Bancorp. “Our organizations share many common values including a focus on teamwork and a desire to challenge the status quo to be the best at what we do. We are looking forward to working with the Roush Fenway Racing organization, and Matt Kenseth, to help drive our business and build the Fifth Third Bank brand.”

The partnership between Fifth Third Bank and Roush Fenway Racing was announced today at the NASCAR Hallof Fame in Charlotte where the paint scheme for the Fifth Third Ford Fusion was also unveiled.

“Fifth Third Bank is a leader when it comes to banking and I’m thrilled to be driving the Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion starting with the Sprint All Star Race,” said 2012 Daytona 500 winner, Matt Kenseth. “I’m looking forward to introducing Fifth Third Bank to all our loyal NASCAR fans.”

“Roush Fenway Racing is excited to partner with Fifth Third Bank and help drive their business througha primary sponsorship of Matt Kenseth’s team. They are a well respected,innovative financial services organization with a long and rich history that shares our company’s passion for excellence and commitment to winning,” said Jack Roush, owner and founder of Roush Fenway Racing.

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Doubtless Jeff Gordon was happy for his boss.

In a euphoric Victory Lane, Rick Hendrick celebrated his long-awaited 200th victory, a win delivered by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s most prolific winner since he entered the series full-time in 2002.

Gordon, however, is a larger part of Hendrick’s milestone than Johnson is. Over a career now in its 20th full season, Gordon has contributed 85 victories to the Hendrick Motorsports ledger. Johnson’s win in Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 was his 56th for the organization. Neither Gordon nor Johnson has won a Cup race for anyone else.

But for Gordon, the celebration was tempered with frustration. The four-time champion didn’t have a winning car Saturday night, but he was solidly in the top 10, running eighth when a cut left-rear tire forced him to the pits on Lap 193, barely past the midpoint of the race.

Ultimately, Gordon finished 35th and dropped a spot to 24th in the series standings, one spot behind Mark Martin, who has run only eight of the 11 Cup races this year. The Southern 500 was the latest chapter in a cavalcade of catastrophe for Gordon, who has finished outside the top 20 in seven of 11 races this year.

With 15 races left before the Chase for the Sprint Cup field is set, Gordon faces the very real possibility of missing NASCAR’s playoff. His most likely path to title eligibility would seem to be winning a race or two and claiming one of two wild card spots. To do so, Gordon must get back into the top 20.

Hendrick, who predicted in January that all four of his drivers would qualify for the Chase, acknowledged Gordon’s predicament.

“He’s got to win,” Hendrick said flatly. “He and (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) know that. As good as he runs — as good as that car has been this year at different places, we can do it.

“It’s an uphill battle, but I’m confident Jeff will put everything he’s got in it, and we’ll win some races with him.”

Gordon’s continued frustration played a strong counterpoint to Hendrick’s jubilation in Victory Lane, but that wasn’t the only stark contrast of the evening. Equally striking is the way Gordon has handled his rash of ill fortune versus the way Kurt Busch handled his on Saturday night.

Yes, Gordon’s language on the radio has been saltier than usual of late, but in question-and-answer sessions with reporters, he has handled his adversity with wry resignation and customary grace.

“I don’t think there’s too many questions about that fact that we’re shooting for a wild card,” Gordon said. “We’re pretty far away from the Top 10. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I think that the nice thing about that is we just go do what we always try to do, which is win races.”

Gordon made those comments before the Southern 500. Today, they’re even more apropos.

Like Gordon, Busch was running in the top 10 for most of the Southern 500 before disaster struck. On Lap 361 he blew a tire and hit the outside wall near the exit from Turn 2. Ryan Newman checked up behind Busch and was turned into the wall by Aric Almirola.

Busch and Newman brought their wounded cars to the pit road for repairs.

Frustrated and furious, Busch peeled out of his pit stall when the work was complete, driving dangerously close to crewmen and NASCAR officials who were still at work in Newman’s pit.

“It’s easy to see, and it’s easy to say that Kurt blew a fuse again,” Newman said after the race, in a story reported by SI.com. “I’m not sure why he tried to run over our guys and NASCAR officials — and nobody is.

“I think the chemical imbalance speaks for itself.”

Those are harsh words, without specific medical evidence to support them, but the history is there. A tirade against pit reporter Jerry Punch in last year’s season finale at Homestead was the effective final straw in Busch’s relationship with owner Roger Penske and sponsor Shell/Pennzoil.

The 2012 season brought a fresh start with James Finch’s Phoenix Racing, but Saturday’s race has cast an ominous pall over Busch’s efforts to rehabilitate his career. NASCAR is collecting facts and reviewing the circumstances before taking action with respect to the incident, if any, later this week.

In 2007 at Dover, Busch was parked and later fined $100,000 and docked 100 championship points for “buzzing” Tony Stewart’s car on pit road. Stewart’s jackman, Jason Lee, avoided potential injury by jumping onto the hood of Stewart’s car.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, said at the time that the penalties were designed to focus everyone’s attention on pit road safety. NASCAR will determine this week whether Busch needs a strong reminder.

In a larger sense, the Southern 500 leaves Busch’s career teetering on the brink. If a driver can’t be trusted to avoid the mistakes that have cost him in the past, who will take a chance and hire him? The job with Finch, which Busch could have used as a stepping stone to a bigger team, instead may become the millstone that drowns him.

Gordon and Busch share common ground. Both are enormously gifted wheel men. Both are Sprint Cup champions. In fact, Busch has been one of the top talents in the sport since he arrived in the series full-time in 2001.

There the similarity ends. Busch’s self-destructive lack of restraint is a treacherous threat to his very presence in NASCAR racing.

No matter how bad things get on the racetrack, that’s a problem Jeff Gordon will never have.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Finally!

After months of frustration, Jimmie Johnson gave Rick Hendrick his 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, running away from the rest of the field on a green-white-checkered-flag restart that took the Bojangles’ Southern 500 one lap past its scheduled distance.

On Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, Johnson ended his own winless streak of 16 races, a drought of relative epic proportions for the five-time champion. The victory was Johnson’s 56th, breaking a tie with Rusty Wallace for eighth on the all-time list.

Hamlin ran second, followed by Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

Johnson won the 199th race for Hendrick, outdueling Kasey Kahne in last year’s Oct. 9 Chase race at Kansas Speedway. In subsequent months, the organization has been tantalizingly close to No. 200 — notably at Martinsville, where Hendrick drivers were running 1-2-3 before a late caution.

On Saturday night, in winning for the third time at the Lady in Black, Johnson finally put the question of the 200th win to rest. After pitting for the final time on Lap 299 of 368, however, Johnson had to save fuel to make it to the checkered flag.

All of Johnson’s 56 victories have come under the Hendrick banner.

“You’ve got to love that man,” Johnson said of his car owner during a celebration in Victory Lane. “He said, ‘Two hundred is great, but let’s go get 250.’ So that tells you where his head is. I love it. Oh, man, what a day!”

In the closing laps, with the outcome in the balance, Hendrick left the pit box and paced up and down pit road.

“I had to get away,” Hendrick said. “They said that we were going to make it (on fuel), but I don’t believe them, you know? Everything has happened backward for us. We’ve run so good this year and then had such bad luck…

“I’m kind of numb, but I’m glad it’s over. I think we’re going to win a few more now.”

Matt Kenseth finished sixth and trimmed the series lead of Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who came home 12th, to two points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remained third in the standings, 14 points back, after a 17th-place result. Hamlin is fourth in points, 17 behind Biffle.

Stewart, himself a car owner, had the highest praise for Hendrick, who picked up his first victory on a shoestring budget when Geoff Bodine won the April 29, 1984 event at Martinsville.

“I think it’s phenomenal, especially with the competition over here getting tougher and tougher,” said Stewart, who lost second position to Hamlin when his car temporarily lost fuel pressure coming to the final restart. “It’s getting harder and harder to win these races.

“Especially for it to happen in the Southern 500 — it’s such a historic race. It’s a pretty cool milestone.”

The co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which gets engines, chassis and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, chased Johnson in the late stages of the race before the final caution, but Johnson’s Chevrolet was simply too strong.

“I was trying to postpone (No. 200) for another week by trying to get to Jimmie, but I just couldn’t do it,” the reigning Cup champion said. “The closer I got to him, the tighter I got. That was one of the best runs we’d had, but still I wasn’t strong enough.

“He had plenty of car left. He was just riding, trying to save fuel. They won it in dominating fashion. To win a 200th race, you don’t want to back into it. They dominated and took it the way they should.”

Stewart also fields the No. 10 car for Danica Patrick, who started 38th and finished 31st, six laps down in her Darlington Cup debut. The night before, Patrick ran 12th in her first Nationwide Series race at the 1.366-mile track.

“She ran good lap times tonight,” Stewart said. “There was a period in the race when she set her balances at her best — they said she was within a tenth (of a second) of the leaders at that point in the race. So I’m really, really proud of her.”

Johnson, who led a race-high 134 laps, held an advantage of .8 seconds and was saving fuel, when Kurt Busch hit the wall on Lap 361. Ryan Newman checked up behind Busch, only to be turned into the wall by Aric Almirola. Caution flew for the eighth time to set up the two-lap sprint to the finish.

After the race, Newman parked his Chevy near Busch’s and exchanged words with the 2004 champion. Several of Newman’s crew members tried to confront their counterparts on Busch’s team, and the driver himself, but NASCAR officials restrained them.

The hard feelings stemmed from the aftermath of the wreck, when Busch brought his car to pit road for repairs.

“The 39 (Newman’s) guys were mad because Kurt burned out of our pit stall, and I don’t know if they were still there working or whatnot,” said Nick Harrison, Busch’s crew chief. “Their gas man came down there raising hell and wanting to fight Kurt.”

“It’s crazy, pit road,” said Tony Gibson, Newman’s crew chief. “Things happen, and everybody’s emotions run high. It’s a hot night. Everybody settles down and talks about it. We’re all good. We can’t control drivers. Nothing against the team — none of those guys. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

The race was an anomaly. In a track known for wild action, this year’s Southern 500 ran caution-free for the first 172 laps, through three cycles of green-flag pit stops.

By the time NASCAR called the first caution, for debris in Turn 2, Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet had emerged as the dominant car, having opened a lead of more than five seconds over Kyle Busch, who was running second when the yellow flag was finally displayed.

Bojangles’ Southern 500 Results

1. (2) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 368, $319786.
2. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 368, $238656.
3. (17) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 368, $209415.
4. (5) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 368, $178123.
5. (6) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 368, $147554.
6. (19) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 368, $154776.
7. (7) Carl Edwards, Ford, 368, $145906.
8. (3) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 368, $108790.
9. (28) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 368, $130748.
10. (21) Joey Logano, Toyota, 368, $104715.
11. (26) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 368, $120969.
12. (1) Greg Biffle, Ford, 368, $107580.
13. (14) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 368, $100705.
14. (9) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 368, $117488.
15. (15) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 368, $124725.
16. (23) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 368, $136391.
17. (24) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 368, $96930.
18. (10) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 368, $126530.
19. (13) Aric Almirola, Ford, 368, $124416.
20. (18) Mark Martin, Toyota, 368, $87605.
21. (25) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 368, $110063.
22. (31) Casey Mears, Ford, 367, $99063.
23. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 367, $125263.
24. (27) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 366, $113696.
25. (36) David Gilliland, Ford, 366, $94913.
26. (20) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 366, $108575.
27. (34) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 365, $78255.
28. (37) David Ragan, Ford, 364, $90152.
29. (22) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 364, $88680.
30. (42) Reed Sorenson(i), Ford, 363, $89505.
31. (38) Danica Patrick(i), Chevrolet, 362, $76980.
32. (33) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 362, $76805.
33. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 357, $121480.
34. (11) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 345, $107813.
35. (12) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 339, $124466.
36. (41) David Reutimann, Toyota, 314, $84380.
37. (43) JJ Yeley, Toyota, Clutch, 132, $75915.
38. (39) Cole Whitt(i), Chevrolet, Vibration, 35, $75682.
39. (32) David Stremme, Toyota, Overheating, 32, $72225.
40. (40) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, Power Steering, 27, $72050.
41. (35) Mike Skinner(i), Toyota, Electrical, 20, $71875.
42. (29) Scott Speed, Ford, Overheating, 20, $71780.
43. (30) Josh Wise, Ford, Vibration, 19, $72139.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 133.802 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 45 Mins, 25 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.781 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 38 laps.
Lead Changes: 22 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: G. Biffle 1-48; K. Kahne 49; J. Johnson 50; L. Cassill 51; Kyle Busch 52-72; G. Biffle 73-98; D. Hamlin 99-100; J. Johnson 101-172; Kyle Busch 173; J. Johnson 174-179; Kyle Busch 180-188; J. Johnson 189-194; Kyle Busch 195; D. Hamlin 196-199; K. Kahne 200-231; D. Hamlin 232-280; D. Earnhardt Jr. 281; M. Truex Jr. 282-298; D. Hamlin 299; M. Truex Jr. 300-307; J. Johnson 308-312; Kyle Busch 313-324; J. Johnson 325-368.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Johnson 6 times for 134 laps; G. Biffle 2 times for 74 laps; D. Hamlin 4 times for 56 laps; Kyle Busch 5 times for 44 laps; K. Kahne 2 times for 33 laps; M. Truex Jr. 2 times for 25 laps; L. Cassill 1 time for 1 lap; D. Earnhardt Jr. 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 12 in Points: G. Biffle – 411; M. Kenseth – 409; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 397; D. Hamlin – 394; J. Johnson – 372; M. Truex Jr. – 372; T. Stewart – 369; K. Harvick – 361; Kyle Busch – 349; C. Edwards – 337; C. Bowyer – 335; B. Keselowski – 328.

DARLINGTON, S.C. — After a stellar qualifying run, Jimmie Johnson said there was some speed left in Darlington Raceway — and Greg Biffle found it.

Biffle toured the 1.366-mile Lady in Black in 27.281 seconds (180.2557 mph) to win the pole for Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500, beating second-place starter Johnson and third-place Kasey Kahne by .105 seconds.

Biffle, who posted back-to-back wins at Darlington in 2005 and 2006, snagged his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his second at the Lady in Black and the 11th of his career.

“This is what a racecar driver looks forward to, showing up every weekend and having a really fast car to drive,” said Biffle, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leader. “They’re making me look good so far.

“It was a pretty uneventful lap. The car just had a ton of grip — it stuck to the racetrack really, really well. I felt like I was a little bit light down in Turns 1 and 2 — I should have been a little bit quicker down there — but I got a lot out of it in 3 and 4, so it was a great lap.”

Johnson and Kahne ran identical speeds (179.566 mph), with Johnson winning the front-row starting spot from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate on an owner points tiebreaker. Ryan Newman (179.461 mph) qualified fourth, followed by Kyle Busch (179.448 mph).

Johnson said his car was comfortable — perhaps too much so in Turns 3 and 4 of the qualifying lap.

“I knew I left a little time on the table down there, and Greg went out and found it,” Johnson said.

Danica Patrick qualified 38th at 175.497 mph for her Cup debut at Darlington, picking up approximately .75 seconds from her fastest lap in practice. The Southern 500 will be Patrick’s second Cup race and her first in a Cup car with an open motor.

But it’s all part of the trial-by-fire approach to a 10-race schedule she developed with team owner Tony Stewart.

“We definitely struggled in the Cup car (in practice),” Patrick said. “But this was the plan, to do it difficult, and this is one of the places that would really challenge me . . .

“I felt better in qualifying. I ran three quarters of a second quicker than I did in practice. For me, usually if I stink during practice, I don’t usually find a lot in qualifying.”

Note: Scott Riggs, Michael McDowell, Stephen Leicht and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for the 43-car field.

The foundations of the modern sport, however, were poured the following year with the opening of Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The track’s 63rd running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 is set for Saturday night (FOX, 7 p.m. ET).

Before Harold Brasington’s then-1.25-mile track was built – a year-long process – asphalt race tracks were virtually unheard of in the southeastern United States. The Strictly Stock Series competed on paved ovals only twice pre-Darlington, at the 1/2-mile Dayton Speedway in Ohio although Daytona’s Beach & Road Course surface was a combination of pavement and sand.

Darlington, however, was the game-changer leading to construction of paved, banked superspeedways (tracks measuring a mile or longer) over the next decade in Daytona Beach, Fla., Charlotte and Atlanta.

More than 80 cars from all points of the compass turned out for the Sept. 4, 1950 Southern 500, driven rather than towed in many cases from small Carolina towns a few miles from the track and more than 2,500 miles distant. Qualifying for the 75-car field took two weeks as Brasington mimicked events leading up to the Indianapolis 500.

Johnny Mantz, a 31-year-old from Long Beach, Calif., drove a six-cylinder Plymouth to a nine-lap victory over Fireball Roberts in a race that took more than six and a half hours to complete. Much of the race was run on the track’s flat apron because the banking was rough and abrasive and quickly wore tires down to the cords.

Mantz’s Plymouth, jointly owned by Hubert Westmoreland and Bill France Sr., was the only car in the field equipped with special Firestone racing tires that lasted all day. While his competitors were in the pits for tire changes, Mantz only had to stop periodically for fuel – leading to his enormous margin of victory. He averaged 75.25 mph – not much slower than Curtis Turner’s 82.034 mph pole speed.

Many of those competing in the first Southern 500 are deceased including top four finishers Mantz, Roberts, the season’s champion to be Bill Rexford and 1949 champion Red Byron.

Still living are Cotton Owens, now 87 and a NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee, who finished seventh in a Plymouth. Hershel McGriff, racing the same Oldsmobile 88 with which he’d won the year’s inaugural Carrera Pan America – Mexican Road Race – was eighth. McGriff competed in several NASCAR K&N Pro Series events in 2011 at the age of 84.

America was a far different place five years after the end of World War II. There was little infrastructure, especially in the south, no Interstate highways and not much in the way of hotels in such rural areas as Darlington, S.C.

Gasoline cost 18 cents a gallon, a new car, which could be raced in the Southern 500 without modification, went for $1,510 and the average annual salary was $3,210. The price of a black and white television set was $249.95 but it was unlikely you’d find auto racing programming on the few available channels.

Owens, whose crew was comprised with relatives and friends, had begun racing close to home with a Chrysler dragged from a wrecking yard. His friends included NASCAR Hall of Famer Walter “Bud” Moore. He “commuted” to the track each day – a three-hour drive – from his home in Union, S.C.

McGriff met France and Turner at the Mexican race. “Bill invited me to come to Darlington,” said McGriff, who raced in California, Oregon and Washington. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it.”

McGriff drove his Oldsmobile cross country from Portland, Ore., a distance of more than 2,600 miles sharing driving duties with his owner/mechanic Ray Sundstrom. “I slept two or three nights on the county courthouse lawn and went into the bathroom to clean up,” said McGriff, then 22 years of age.

The race itself was spectacular – if only because so many cars were confined to a relatively small space. McGriff remembers the field being lined up and stretching all the way around to turns 3 and 4. “I can’t imagine how they scored them,” he said. “You could go 10 deep the track was so wide. We ran on the flat (apron). You could run on the top part (banking) and go faster but you wouldn’t run far.”

The race was an endurance contest as much in the pits as on the track.

McGriff had found three or four volunteers at a local gas station to service his car. Changing a tire required a heavy floor jack and a lug wrench – air guns and lightweight jacks came to stock car racing much later. Gas was dumped into the car through a funnel.

Mantz, meanwhile, kept up a consistent pace content to let the faster, eight-cylinder cars wear out their tires. McGriff changed 14 – at $15 a tire. “Then we’d go by him like he was standing still,” said McGriff, who completed 374 of the 400 laps and was paid $500.

And afterwards? “I got back in the car and drove home,” said McGriff. “I didn’t get any dents. There was so much room that if a guy wrecked in front of you, you could stop.” Today’s Darlington racing, where speeds exceed 180 mph, obviously is not your grandfather’s Southern 500.

Owens went on to win nine times as a driver and 38 races as an owner. NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson drove Owens’ No. 6 Dodge to the 1966 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. “His hobby was his love; he got to do it as a living and we did it as a family,” said Debbie Davis, Owens’ daughter.

McGriff, named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, won four times and finished sixth in 1954 standings. Offered one of Carl Kiekhaefer’s potent Chrysler 300s for the 1955 season, McGriff instead chose to stay in Oregon to run the family’s lumber business.