This week it’s off to Charlotte for NASCAR’s version of the All-Star game. The series of Exhibition races are all about cash and have no bearing on the season point total. Total prize money given out for the Nextel Open and Nextel All-Star Challenge is over $4.25 million. The overall winner of the event wins over $1 million in cash on the spot.

Needless to say, unlike other sports all-star events, these guys will show no mercy and will give it their all.

Here’s how it works. Every car owner and driver to win a Cup race in 2005 is eligible to start in the All-Star Challenge. There are a few other ways a driver can get in the Challenge automatically. If he has won the All Star Challenge or a Nextel Cup championship within the last 10 years, he gets an automatic invite. There are two other automatic invites as well. Win the Nextel Open qualifying race and get in. The last way to get in is by fan voting. Of all the participants in the Nextel Open that don’t win, the fans have all the say in who gets in. If there was a way to wager on who the fans vote, I would lay ten dollars for one that Martin Truex Jr gets the fans approval.

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Most sports books offer wagers on both the Open and Challenge. Station Casinos and the Hilton books offer match-ups for both races. The strategy when approaching each race is a bit different from the normal weekly process. In the Challenge there are 3 separate segments with stops in between. It’s a frantic pace with not one driver waiting for the race to come to him. They have to go out and get it, not to mention, there is a million dollars at stake which heightens the pace.

During the week, the President of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Humpy Wheeler, will make his annual selection to win the race. Be sure to take notice of who this man picks because he is correct almost every year. He has picked the winner straight up in nine of the last 16 years since he’s been going public with his choice to win. If I had to make a wager on who Humpy would pick this year, I’d go with Kasey Kahne or Kevin Harvick.

The funny thing about Humpy’s pick is that it isn’t just a guess and there for publicity’s sake. Humpy is a smooth investigator. He sniffs through every garage in Charlotte looking for an edge. He asks just about every driver, crew chief, and car owner how they feel, who they like, who looks fast, and who may surprise. He’s also got all the data from the May 2^nd and 3^rd Charlotte test session that should give him a peek into who’s ready. Finally, after all that, he can look at all the results from this year’s races at the similar tracks of Atlanta and Texas. It would definitely be wise to take notice of his selection. He generally makes his pick by Wednesday in the week leading up to the All Star race.

In those two races Kasey Kahne dominated. He sat on the pole in both races and won both races. Mark Martin was impressive in both races with a 2^nd and 9^th place finish. Tony Stewart also made a great showing with a 3^rd and 5^th.

The driver who is favored to win the Challenge is Jimmie Johnson and that is only because of his tremendous run in all Charlotte point races. Johnson has won five of the last six races in Charlotte. Where he has won most of those races was in the long runs. This is a race of short runs. Never count Jimmie out, but this one will be tougher on him than next weeks Coca-Cola 600.

We’ll go with Greg Biffle to win followed by Kurt Busch with Bobby Labonte having a good showing to the fans delight.

Nextel All-Star Challenge TOP 5 finish prediction:

1)       #16 Greg Biffle (9/2)

2)       #2 Kurt Busch (15/1)

3)       #9 Kasey Kahne (5/1)

4)       #29 Kevin Harvick (12/1)

5)       #43 Bobby Labonte (18/1)

Nextel Open Qualifying race TOP 5 finish prediction:

1)       #11 Denny Hamlin (9/2)

2)       #7 Robby Gordon (10/1)

3)       #07 Clint Bowyer (4/1)

4)       #42 Casey Mears (8/1)

5)       #31 Jeff Burton (5/2)

Bump day with 32 cars?

An example of how far Indy racing and the Indy 500 has fallen in America all you have to do is look at the entry list for this years race. Through Sunday evening there were only 32 names listed on the entry list. 33 drivers have always started the race it should make the day called “bump day” real exciting because there will be no one to bump. There are a few cars entered without a drivers name. Speculation has John Andretti possibly taking a ride. We’re all still waiting for Las Vegan veteran drivers Richie Hearn, Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, or Alex Tagliani to jump in one of those cars. Two of the cars entered that have no drivers are owned by Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi who happen to own cars with the four fastest times during Indy practice last week.

Jarrett bolts to Toyota