The Sprint Showdown was held on Friday evening, a 40-lap last-chance race for drivers not already locked into Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race. Both events are at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and no championship points are involved. This year, a change in the format was introduced, namely the leader at the end of the first of two 20-lap segments automatically transferring into Saturday's main event. Paul Menard won the pole, which was determined by each driver taking three laps around the 1.5-mile quad-oval and making a pit stop with no speed limit on pit road.
Greg Biffle, driving the #16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, led after 20 laps and went to the garage while everyone else made pit stops under the competition caution and got ready for the second half of the race. After two laps of the second segment, J.J. Yeley spun his #23 Toyota and brought out a caution. Yellow flag laps did not count in the second segment, so after the restart there were still 18 green flag laps left. Martin Truex Jr. in the #78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet was the inital leader on both restarts after segment 1, but Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Kyle Larson soon joined him in a fierce battle for the lead. Bowyer eventually pulled away to take his #15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota to the main event from the Showdown for the second straight year. A few minutes later, Danica Patrick, driving the #10 Mobil 1/Aspen Dental Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, was announced as the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote for the second time in three seasons, Josh Wise having won in between driving a Dogecoin-sponored #98 Phil Parsons Ford. Biffle, Bowyer and Patrick will join 17 other drivers who have all won races or past All-Star Races in the 31st running of the Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment