After sitting on the pole, leading the first 47 and the last 31 laps, Carl Edwards nabs a win at tonight’s Sharpie 500 in Bristol.  Overall, there were only 3 leaders in addition to Carl 84 laps led.  Jeff Gordon led a single lap and the big lap leader of the night was Kyle Busch with 415.  As they say though, none of em count except the last one which was all Carl’s.

Here’s what the unofficial finishing order looked like:

Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

This past Saturday was the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Stars night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.  As in past years, drivers not in the “big show” by virtue wins, past champion provisionals or by being a past All-Star winner participated in what was this year named the “Sprint Shootout”.  In the past, this has been an incredible little race, the real epitome of “go or go home” and has proven to have some incredible finishes.  My favorite one in recent years was in 2005 when Brian Vickers wrecked Mike Bliss just short of the checkered to snatch the win and thus, the transfer into the feature race from Bliss.

This year was another good one.  After netting the pole, Elliott Sadler’s night ended early when A.J. Almendinger took him out in lap 10.   Almendinger went on to win the race and advance to the feature.  Patrick Carpentier’s night was another short one.  He took himself out in turn 2 on lap 2.  The most impressive finish of the night was Sam Hornish Jr’s.  He had problems early on but went on to grab a second place finish.

Driver and team introductions are always a favorite part of the night for me.  No surprises there.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was cheered and Kyle Busch was boo’d.  The Sprint Fan Vote winner ended up being Kasey Kahne.  Personally, my choice would have been Kyle Petty but, I couldn’t vote because I’m no longer a Sprint Wireless customer.  I could have went into a Sprint store but I didn’t feel like the hassle.  Now, I would have preferred a web voting method or a text message method open to all wireless carriers but I can’t complain too loud since it is, after all, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The Sprint All-Star race consisted of four 25 lap segments.  Fan Vote winner Kasey Kahne started out dead last.  There were zero cautions other than the ones between segments.  This almost seemed impossible with one million dollars on the line and no points to worry about.  It came as no surprise that Kyle Bush won the first segment.  He was strong, leading all 25 laps of the segment.  After all, this type of race seems to have been made for him.

On lap 39 in the second segment, Kyle’s Toyota started developing engine trouble and he lost the lead to Carl Edwards.  Carl then went on to win the second segment.  During the ten minute break between the second and third segment, Kyle’s team declared his night over due to the engine trouble.

After the break, Carl started the third segment leading but quickly lost the lead to Dale Earnhardt Jr. who went on to lead laps 51 through 64.  Greg Biffle was able to take the lead from Jr. when the handling went away from the 88 Chevy.  Greg went on to win the third segment with Jr. finishing second.

After the third segment, there was a mandatory pit stop.  Drivers and teams could elect to do a stop and go but the starting order of the last segment would be determined by the order they left pit road.  In an incredibly bold move, Kasey Kahne’s team opted not to take any tires and came out with Jimmie Johnson who did the same.  Starting order for the final segment was Johnson, Kahne, Hamlin, Biffle and Kenseth.  Out of the gate, Denny Hamlin took the lead and held it until lap lap 83 but became the third JGR car to develop engine troubles during the event.  Tony Stewart had swapped an engine after practice requiring him to move to the rear of the pack at the start of the race.  Kahne then took the lead and went on to stretch out that lead and bring it on home making him the first Fan Vote winner to win the All-Star race.

Here’s the finishing order for the main event. 

In his twenty-third NASCAR Talladega start, Tony Stewart finally takes home a trophy from Talladega with his win of the Nationwide Series Aaron’s 312 Saturday.  Tony led 81 of the 117 laps and held off Dale Jr. for the win after an attempted a last-lap pass on the backstretch.

“I don’t care if it’s a bicycle race, I finally won a race at Talladega,” a beaming Stewart said. “I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight, I’m so excited. This is not like winning just any Nationwide race. To me, this is the biggest one I’ve had, to finally win at Talladega.”
 
“This place means a lot to me. Everybody knows how close I am to Red Farmer and Donnie Allison. It was important for me to win here in this state in front of people who I consider family, and we’re close like family. Now I can go to Red Farmer and Donnie Allison and say, ‘I finally won one here.’ ”

Here’s the rest of the finishing order.

Unofficial Race Results for the Aaron’s “312″ – Saturday, April 26, 2008

(Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)