Jeff Gordon pits during the All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2007. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

“These teams better plan on having separate cars for the two races and I’m living proof of that,” McReynolds said. “We weren’t prepared to destroy that car on Saturday night because we needed it the following week. Heading into Charlotte, all we had to do was win the Coca-Cola 600 or the Southern 500 and we’d be the second team to take home the Winston Million.

“We had this race car that was batting close to a thousand getting to Victory Lane and seemed to win everywhere we took it,” McReynolds continued. “We took it to the All-Star Race because we thought we could win with it. Mission accomplished, to some degree, because we absolutely spanked them in the race but we paid the price.”

Despite the dejection and frustration McReynolds and Allison felt that Saturday night, most teams acknowledge there’s something special about this race under the lights.

“This is the home track for most of these teams,” McReynolds said. “I was part of winning in back-to-back years in ’91 and ’92 with Davey Allison. It was very cool to have so many people from our shop there who normally aren’t at the track, and it was an added bonus for us to carry them to Victory Lane to celebrate with us. They worked on the car week after week but only got to see it race on TV.”

And alleviating the burden of points for even one night helps to lighten the mood in the garage area a bit.

“We think about points every single weekend and we don’t really have to for one day,” Barker said. “We can focus on winning at all costs. The mentality for the All-Star race is going for broke. You’re going for the money at the end and if you’ve got to make it 12-wide to try to get it, do so, and if you wreck, who cares. You won’t do that in a points race.”

Despite his disappointing finish last May, Busch is going for broke again this year.

“Like Jimmy Fennig, my old crew chief, used to say, 'Hey, either bring us back the winner's trophy or the steering wheel, it really doesn't matter to us,'” Busch said. “I think that the Chase format even further strengthens that attitude of the All-Star race being such a great change from not having to worry about points.”

“The guys enjoy the race because it breaks up the monotony of a regular race week and the pressure is off a little bit,” Knaus said. “The way the pit crew is included in the selection of pit stalls by virtue of the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge is kind of cool. They get jazzed by that and it’s a fun event.”

Of course, it’s more fun when you’re an All-Star champion.

“It sounds like a cliché but it’s absolutely all about winning,” McReynolds said. “Yeah, you get money for second but nobody knows and nobody cares who finished second or who led the most laps. I couldn’t begin to tell you who ran second last year because it doesn’t matter. I only remember that Kevin Harvick won.”

SPEED, now in nearly 78 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Gatorade Duel at Daytona, NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The only network delivering live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series programs – NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, Tradin’ Paint, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, This Week in NASCAR, NCTS Setup, Go or Go Home and The Chase is On.

SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.
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