NASCAR fans "are upset winner Jimmie Johnson essentially sandbagged for 60 or so laps before turning it up for a final charge to his third All-Star race victory" Saturday in Charlotte, according to Jenna Fryer of the AP. Johnson won the first of four 20-lap segments and said, “Everybody knew if you could win that first segment, you could control the night.” Many fans "seemed annoyed" that Johnson and fellow drivers Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski “had no incentive to race once they won their segments.” NASCAR has “long touted its All-Star event as the only one in professional sports where the participants actually try hard, and Saturday night managed to discredit that theory” (AP, 5/20). The SPORTING NEWS’ Bob Pockrass wrote, “By lining up the segment winners in the first four spots before the final pit stops, NASCAR had hoped to create more drama for the early parts of the event. That didn't happen.” Pockrass: "No matter the format, if more tweaks don't come, it could be hard to manufacture the drama that fans expect from the all-star event” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/20). The SPORTING NEWS’ Jeff Owens wrote the All-Star Race has become "a game of strategy in which the drivers with the fastest cars must ride around at the back of the pack, saving their cars and waiting for the final, 10-lap shootout." Saturday's race "was bizarre and anticlimactic," and "unfitting for what is supposed to be star-studded event.” The last 10 All-Star Races "have produced little drama and few compelling finishes." NASCAR “must go back to the drawing board, rethink the rules and come up with something new” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/20).
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France said that the league’s Concord, N.C.-based research and development center “will be taking on a more significant role going forward.” France said NASCAR Senior VP/Racing Operations Steve O'Donnell "has taken full charge of that responsibility so we can increase our focus on the things that can make the racing better.” France added, “I think you're going to see some things like drying the track off in 20 percent of the time or so. We're working with companies that have the technology to do that, and that would be a big breakthrough for the industry” (NASCAR.com, 5/19). The SPORTING NEWS’ Pockrass noted the new '13 Sprint Cup car will “present an opportunity for NASCAR to make the racing better,” when all car manufacturers “introduce new body styles” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/19).
