Johnson wins record-tying third NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

Johnson wins record-tying third NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

May 19, 2012

CONCORD, N.C.—-Jimmie Johnson joined an elite club on Saturday night.

In beating Brad Keselowski to the finish of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at 
Charlotte Motor Speedway by .841 seconds, Johnson won the exhibition event for 
the third time, tying Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff 
Gordon for most all-time.

Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who 
qualified for the event by winning the preliminary Sprint Showdown.

Johnson was the first to stake his claim to a top spot in the running order, 
winning the first 20-lap segment after passing polesitter Kyle Busch for the top 
spot on Lap 15. In winning the first segment, Johnson earned the right to lead 
the field to pit road before the final 10-lap dash.

Thereafter, Johnson made frequent pit stops and ran behind the rest of the field 
to save his car for the finish.

Kenseth passed Denny Hamlin with three laps left in the second segment and 
secured the win in that leg. Like Johnson, Kenseth spent segment No. 3 running 
at the back while Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne waged an intense battle for 
the win.

Kahne got a strong run from the high line through Turns 3 and 4, but Keselowski 
held on to win the segment by .006 seconds.

Earnhardt won segment No. 4 by 1.618 seconds over Marcos Ambrose. After the 
20-lap run ended, Johnson, Kenseth, Keselowski and Earnhardt entered pit road in 
that order, took no tires or gas and came out in those same top four positions 
for the final 10-lap run.

Of the top four drivers, Keselowski and Kenseth had the freshest tires, having 
stopped under caution for Greg Biffle's blown engine on Lap 73. But Johnson's 
No. 48 Chevrolet was the class of the field and pulled away for the win in an 
anomalous All-Star race that did not see a single caution for a racing accident.

Though Earnhardt transferred into the main event with a decisive victory in the 
Sprint Showdown, the compelling story of the preliminary event was polesitter AJ 
Allmendinger's run from the back of the field to the second transfer spot after 
pitting with a flat tire coming to green at the start of the race.

Allmendinger took four tires during a pit stop between the Showdown's two 20-lap 
segments, and the new rubber paid off.

After two cars dropped out between segments and three others went to the rear 
because of pit road penalties, Allmendinger restarted 13th.

>From the drop of the green flag on Lap 21, Allmendinger surged forward, finally 
passing Jamie McMurray for the second position with a hard run off Turn 2 on Lap 
39 of 40.

"Jamie's real good—he knows how to get around this place," Allmendinger said. 
"He kept making sure he got good exit shots. Finally, he just got off the bottom 
a little bit. At that point, I wasn't going to lift. I didn't care if we all 
wrecked, if I got into him or what.

"These guys on this Pennzoil Dodge, this Penske organization, they belong in 
this race. They deserve it more than I do. I was going to do everything I could 
to get ‘em in, or I was going to die trying."