Dale Earnhardt, Sr. after winning the 1987 All-Star Challenge at LMS in Concord, North Carolina. SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17th. (Lowe's Motor Speedway Archives Photo) » More Photos

That certainly was the philosophy Richard Childress and the late Dale Earnhardt had together. Earnhardt won the All-Star event three times and he tore up plenty of cars trying to win as well. “He won a couple of them,” Childress said of Earnhardt. “Two or three times, we didn’t bring the car back, but he always brought me the steering wheel back.”

Childress has carried that philosophy over with Kevin Harvick, who last year ended several years of frustration with a victory in the All-Star race. “To win at Charlotte was a pretty big event for us and to win the All-Star race is one of those races where we all want to win and we all want to have that on our resume,” said Harvick. “And to do that is something that we’re all pretty proud of.”

And make no mistake about it, pride is a huge issue in the race. Win the All-Star event and you’ve got bragging rights over the field for an entire year. “Obviously it did pay a million dollars so that didn’t hurt anything,” said Harvick. “Still the trophy is the most important thing.”

Harvick has an All-Star trophy now. Neither Busch nor Edwards does, but they will going for it on Saturday night. Busch in particular is hoping to end some of the frustration this race has caused him.
“So far in the past couple years I’ve been running either first or second at the end of the third segment then they go into the invert and then you get back in traffic and you get caught up in a wreck,” said Busch. “That is what happened to me two years in a row. I think this year I’ll try to win the first two and then I’ll sand bag in the third one and try to get myself positioned right for the fourth one and try to win the thing.”

And so it will be settled Saturday night under the lights at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Will the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV come down to Kyle Busch vs. Carl Edwards, consistently the two fastest drivers in the Sprint Cup Series this year, or will there will be an upset winner like Harvick last year?

You’ll have to watch SPEED to find out, but this much is irrefutable: There will be checkers Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. And wreckers, too.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to