NASCAR Sprint Cup: The Best and Worst of the Sprint All-Star Race

Another year for the Coca-Cola 600 dress rehearsal in the form of the Sprint All-Star Race, another year of changes to the format with intent to make better racing. It appears additional tweaks are in order.

The drivers who won each of the four 20-lap segments clearly had the advantage in the final 10-lap run for the big bucks.

Jimmie Johnson won the first segment with his No. 48, which entitled him to be the lead car coming down pit road for the final pit stop before the finale.

That last pit stop served no purpose for the four drivers who had won in the segments. They brought their cars to a brief stop and motored back out on the track with nothing done to the cars.

Strategy did play a big role for the rest of the field with lots of two-tire and four-tire calls.

The blown motors for Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle were colorful and surprising. It was certainly uncomfortable for Matt Kenseth, the remaining RFR driver, who wondered how his night would end.

Junior Nation had reason to cheer, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Sprint Showdown Race and all their hard voting being for naught. A total of nearly 2.5 million votes were cast by fans.

The fan vote surprisingly went to Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion, which was unexpected for the team who had to make an attempt to get his car in contention. He finished 19th in the big race.

It was nice of the fans to support Labonte, but the votes might have been better invested in Martin Truex Jr. He would have actually had a chance to win one of the segments.

Johnson was on cruise control at the back of the field for the second, third and fourth segments. He managed to keep the field in sight, but he was in his own safe zip code.

It almost seemed inevitable that Johnson would win the finale and collect the $1,000,000 check.

What could not be predicted was the sight of Rick Hendrick hitching a ride on the side of the No. 48 after the checkered flag waved. It was cool to see, but perhaps not the wisest move for the boss.

A.J. Allmendinger was on the pole for the Sprint Showdown but, heading for the green flag, his left front tire was flat.

The driver of the No. 22 was a man on a mission, and made his way back to the lead group quickly. Allmendinger finished second to Earnhardt and made his way to the All-Star Race.

There was a lot of good racing in the five segments with cars back in the pack going three-wide. Kurt Busch once again put on a great show with the No. 51, but his car got a little slippery and he finished eighth.

NASCAR will no doubt take a look at the 2012 edition of the All-Star Race and do some more tweaking to the game plan.

One thing that will no doubt change is having the winners of the four segments lead the field down pit road in position one through four for the final segment. Those positions may be inverted.

There may be more changes to the format, and even though it looked like Johnson was going to be the inevitable winner, it was a more entertaining race than the prior year.

NASCAR shortened the skirts or ground effects on the sides of the cars to hopefully change the downforce. It is a bit of testing for the 2013 model that will be raced next year.

Teams likely did some experimentation in preparation for the Coca-Cola 600. Hopefully RFR learned what not to do to the engines.

Tony Stewart was expected to run well, but they were totally off the mark. The driver of the No. 14 was never near the lead pack and finished 17th.

There were definitely some good things about the All-Star Race and some not so good. It is still a fun event for the drivers and fans, and next year we shall see what changes NASCAR implements.