Sunday, May 25, 2008

Kasey Kahne in Victory Lane!! (part 1)

I'm super excited!! Let me go on and say it...Kasey Kahne won the All-Star Race last week and about 30 Minutes ago he won the Coca-Cola 600!! Woo-Hoo! They are so great right now!!


All-Star Ra ce Format
The Sprint All-Star Race last weekend was at Charlotte. The format is complicated and changes about every year. This race is NOT a points race. T his is just a fun race for a million dollars. They have a short race right before the All-Star race called the Sprint Showdown. This is for the drivers who did not qualify for the All-Star Race. In order to qualify for the All-Star race, you have to have either 1) won a race in 2007 or so far in 2008 or 2)you have to have won an All-Star race. But those aren't the only ways, there are two more. You have to finish first or second in the showdown or get voted in by the fans. They don't announce the fan-vote winner until after the showdown. Once the All-Star race starts, you race 4 25-lap segments. After the 2nd segment, they give you a 10 minute break to work on the car. Then, you go back and race the last two segments.
Kasey Wins Fan vote

Now for the Showdown. I had high hopes for Elliott Sadler. He started on the pole, but at lap 7, AJ Allmendinger put him into the wall. That ended Elliott's night,which was really sad. All was well for Allmendinger, however, because he went on to win the Showdown. After the Showdown, AJ Allmendinger said, "I feel like I won the Daytona 500!" Sam Hornish Jr. finished second, which was a great run by him.
The race was alright for Kasey. He ended up finishing 5th, so his only hope for getting into the real race was the fan-vote. Kasey fans, including myself, stepped up to the task and voted Kasey in!! I think I alone voted probably a hundred times or more! What was interesting though was that Dale Earnhardt Jr. told his fans to vote for Elliot Sadler, so everybody expected him to win, but obviously they didn't vote enough. I was watching a Carl Edwards interview. And what was funny was that he said, "So Kasey got voted in by the fans...well...just goes to show you what a bunch of women can do for ya." It was quite funny.

Kasey IS an All-Star
AJ Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., and Kasey Kahne transferred into the All-Star Race starting 22nd, 23rd, and 24th respectively. Kasey was very good in the All-Star race. I thought the race was interesting, but that may be because Kasey was passing people or leading. There were no cautions except for the cautions ending the segments. Nobody crashed. The final call, that proved to be the winning one, was when Kenny Francis, Kasey's crew chief, elected to take no tires, only fuel in order to get Kasey track position. Kasey and Jimmie Johnson were the only ones to do that, the rest took two tires. This didn't work so well for Jimmie, but worked great for Kasey. Kasey took the lead with about 15 laps to go, and I was praying that he could keep the lead. Greg Bifle (who took two tires) came close one time, but he decided to wait, because he thought he would have time later. That wasn't so. Kasey took the checkered flag. I was screaming. Kasey was screaming on the radio. He was so excited. I thought I might cry. It was such a great race. Everybody was in shock that no tires prevailed over two. It was a great night. Kasey didn't even make the race, gets voted in by the fans, starts last, and still wins!! Kasey is the first driver to get voted in by the fans and win the All-Star Race. It was great. In all with the Showdown winnings, Kasey Kahne won $1,047,000!! I'll be back tomorrow with a rundown of the Coke 600.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

one word. AMAZING!!!!