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Kyle Busch wins bore of an All-Star Race
The All-Star Race stunk once again. But don’t tell that to Kyle Busch, who sprinted away in the race’s final stage and beat Kyle Larson and Jimmie Johnson.
Busch started the 10-lap final stage in third behind Brad Keselowski and Johnson. Keselowski, the leader heading to the final stage, had old tires on his car because of the All-Star Race’s obscure tire rules. The rest of the field did not. Busch timed the restart perfectly, drove around Keselowski heading into turn 1 and was unchallenged the rest of the way.
It’s the first All-Star Race win in Busch’s career and his first Cup Series win in 2017. Though since the All-Star Race isn’t a points race, it’s an unofficial victory.
[Related: Once again, the All-Star Race’s primary entertainment was its absurdity]
Larson finished second and Johnson finished third.
The All-Star Race was run in four stages of 20, 20, 20 and 10 laps. The race’s selling point was the addition of a softer tire compound to give drivers a faster tire that would have a shorter grip life. Each team was required to use the softer tires at least once during the race.
But the softer tires didn’t have much, if any, impact. No one on the softer tires was able to make up considerable ground on the drivers with the other tires. Clean air — the less turbulent air that cars at the front of the field encounter — was much more important.
“After that first run when Jimmie couldn’t catch me on the option tire, I was hoping that we were going to put them on for the next segment,” Larson said about Johnson chasing him during the second segment. “Yeah, that segment was a lot of fun. We had cars that had taken two option tires, not option tires. The racing was really good. There for that final segment, we all had used up our green tires, added on the normal ones.
“I think the option tire was a really good thing. I think in the future maybe they could bring a tire that has even more grip and more of a speed and lap time difference that we can visually kind of see that there is a difference.”
And it’s also pass when there’s not much speed separation among cars at a large 1.5-mile track like Charlotte.
“I just know when you look at qualifying and you look at the cars on the track, we want parity, we want the manufacturers to all have the same opportunity to go fast,” Johnson said. “These teams all build the same stuff. We all sit there and run the same speed. I mean, it makes sense. We all have access to the same stuff.
“I don’t have the answer. I guess I say that in trying to not say that it’s the track’s fault or something that’s going on here. Mile‑and‑a‑half racing is mile‑and‑a‑half racing. It’s kind of that way. When all the cars are qualifying as tight as they do, we can’t pass as easily as anybody, we have to logically look at it and say, Hey, we’re all going the same speed, no wonder we can’t pass.”
Larson led flag-to-flag in the first two stages while Johnson won the third stage after taking the lead with approximately 15 laps to go in it. No one was able to mount challenges to the cars at the front of the field; a conundrum common to the All-Star Race. The softer tire was added to the race in an attempt to prevent that. And, to the surprise of very few realistic-minded people, it didn’t work.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
