Two of the sport’s hottest drivers will lead the field to the green for the 25th running of the Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday night. In one of the most unique qualifying sessions in all of NASCAR, the eighteen drivers competing in tomorrow night’s race made three laps and one four-tire pit stop around the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The average of all three laps and the four-tire stop determined the starting line-up for Saturday night’s event.

Johnson was able to get the job done on the track while his pit crew was able to get it done when it mattered most. While the stop wasn’t the fastest of the session, the whole team effort came together and gave the No. 48 team the top-spot.

“Tonight’s a lot about bragging rights,” Johnson admitted. “Then I think with track position as important as it’s going to be in the race, to be where we are is a great situation. We focused real hard today and everybody did their job. Real proud of the team, we worked as a unit today and executed on all fronts.”

Kyle Busch had posted the second-fastest cumulative time of the qualifying session, however a lug nut penalty dropped him down the starting order and bumped his older brother Kurt to the outside of the front row. The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge smoked the tires getting onto pit road, but was able to get it slowed down in time to avoid a pit road speeding penalty.

“I liked what my crew chief Pat Tryson said right before we went out to do our lap, that there was quite a few penalties, whether it was speeding or loose lug nuts, let’s just look for a solid stop from our guys and that will put us in the top five or six. That mentality, I think it eased our crew members’ minds not to try and find that extra tenth or that extra thousandth,” the elder Busch said following his run.

The session was not without its excitement as Tony Stewart hit pit road for his four-tire stop, but the owner/driver made a bit of a mental mistake and took off after only two tires. With his front tire changer looking puzzled, Stewart came over the radio saying, “I’ll be right back.” Stewart put the No. 14 Chevrolet in reverse and backed it up into the stall to complete the work on the car.

Matt Kenseth was third-fastest of the session, thanks to a great stop by the Killer Bees pit crew.

“I always qualify good when there’s a pit stop in the middle.  I don’t know.  Last week was probably just dumb luck.  I think last week was our fourth pole or something like that, so every 100 starts or so we’ll win a pole,” Kenseth said with a laugh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin rounded out the top-5, while Denny Hamlin broke something leaving pit road and will start from the rear of the field for Saturday night’s event.

COMPLETE QUALIFYING RESULTS

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