The Fans' Winner

Last night the fans of NASCAR made the move of the race by voting in Kasey Kahne in the Sprint All-Star Race. Kahne would use that vote to his advantage and take the win, but the road to that win would be a long one.

The event started off with the Sprint Showdown, the last chance for drivers to get into the main event. At the end of 40 laps it was A.J. Almindinger and Sam Hornish, Jr who would be transferring to the main event. Kahne finished 5th and would transfer to the main event on the fans vote.

Pole-sitter Kyle Busch went right to work into destroying the field in the first segment, winning it and banking an easy $75,000. It seemed Busch would give an encore in segment two, but a dropped cylinder canceled those plans and Busch would have to retire after segement two, handing the segment victory to Carl Edwards. Edwards and his Office Depot team figured that car didn't need any adjustments and would be good enough to hold off the field in the final two segments, they were wrong. Segment three went Edward's teammate Greg Biffle with Dale Earnhardt, Jr in second. At the end of segment three came the mandatory pitstops in which Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin chose to take no tires on their stop while Greg Biffle took two and Earnhardt, Jr took four.

The start of the final segment was frantic with Johnson and Hamlin battling hot and heavy for the lead and Kahne and Biffle were not to far behind. Hamlin finally got the lead and looked to be heading off to victory, but like his teammate Kyle Busch, Hamlin also expericend engine troubles and handed the lead and the victory to Kahne. Greg Biffle, who finished second, was left scratching his head after the race. "I can't believe I got beat by no tires", Biffle said. Kahne who hasn't been in victory lane after a Sprint Cup race since October 2006 was thankful for having loyal fans. “I love it,” Kahne answered when asked what he thought about the Sprint Fan Vote. “This weekend is all about the fans. Everything that Sprint and Lowe’s Motor Speedway do over the two weeks we race here in Charlotte is all about the fans. This is so awesome to get our first victory with Budweiser and to win this race. I want to thank all the fans for voting for this Budweiser Team. I owe this victory to them.” And as a fan of his I'm pretty thankful too.

The Sprint Cup series remains in Charlotte as they will run the traditional Memorial Day classic, the Coca-Cola 600.

All-Star fans pick a winner (Thatsracin.com)

Fan Vote Turns Victorious For Kahne and Budweiser Team at All-Star Race (KaseyKahne.com)