Inside word: Anonymous NASCAR professional shares his thoughts

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has history of doing well in short races. John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR Tom Bowles's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Heading into Saturday's All-Star race, an anonymous NASCAR insider shares his thoughts about the latest vibes in NASCAR nation.

"In the All-Star Race, everybody's got a target on their back. You just know that everybody's going to drive a little harder and more aggressive. It's just all about the money and the trophy -- probably the only race the team will tell you, 'Bring back the steering wheel, we don't care [if you wreck it.]'

"I think everybody's out there for blood. It's really cool when you look at it that way; but you also look at it as another chance to work on our cars, to get them better for the Coca-Cola 600 the following week. You still want to win the race, though; that's where the aggression comes in. If there's a chance ... if you're running eighth and the two cars in front of you are pretty good and you're just getting held up, that's when you get aggressive and you go for it. But if I'm running 12th, 13th and don't have a chance, I'll work on different lines, what was wrong with the car, and just not doing anything stupid like wrecking the car for no reason. It can still turn into a test session [if you're not running well].

"The current format for the race is OK, but I always liked the last segment to be a little shorter. That pretty much puts us in desperation mode, and it was fun to watch. But it's still good racing for the fans. As far as getting into the race, I think it's cool for the top two to make it [through the Sprint Showdown preliminary event]. But to have any more, that defeats the purpose of the All-Star Race: it just becomes another Cup race that's shorter. To have the race winners in, the past couple of champions, and past couple of All-Star winners, it's enough; you don't need to add a lot more. It's an All-Star Race for a reason, and not everybody needs to be in it.

"We should remove the damn past champion's provisional, let alone their exemption for the All-Star Race. Removing Bill Elliott's was the right thing. It's not disrespecting somebody's accomplishments because, God forbid, Bill Elliott's got more accomplishments than I do, and I would just like to say one time that I'm a Cup champion. But I'm sorry, when you're 1988 or whatever it is, you can't live off of certain things in the past. You've got to earn your way in.

"If Tiger Woods misses the cut, he misses the cut; there's no provisional third round that he gets to keep playing. We want to be like every other sport. Does the last year's champion automatically get to play in the playoffs the next year? That, to me, is what we do with these rules on past champions. It's not like you had a bad couple of rounds, and 'hey, you get to keep playing.' What's going to happen 20 years from now when we've got 20 Cup champions that are still racing. Are you going to throw all 20 of them into the All-Star Race? No. And if people complain about it, they can vote them in. There's still a fan vote, too, so it still gives a fan a chance to represent their favorite driver if they're not in the race.

"And I think getting one guy voted in from the fans is fine. Our fans are what makes this sport as big as it is. The reason we're having an All-Star Race is for the fans. Yeah, the money is big and drivers love that, but it's not like we need another race added just for the hell of it. We do it for the fans; so, for fans to have their opinions and have a chance to put their favorite driver in, I'm cool with that. I mean, hell, fans get to vote other players into other sports, so ... if you start one race all season, but the fans love you and you get voted in, then hell, you're still a fan favorite. That's who the fans want to see in the race, that's the option that they get. So I don't have a problem with fan voting at all.

"The money in the race, certain guys need it more than others; winning a million dollars to Jeff Gordon is probably not a big deal, I can tell you that. But it still comes down to prestige. For me,and, I guarantee you, anybody else out there, they'll all say the prestige to win the All-Star Race is what counts. Because it's a cool race to have on your résumé; it ranks up there in the top five races to win during the year. The money beyond that is just a bonus.

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"I don't know if it was right for Greg Biffle to criticize his team in public [at Darlington]. You've got to know where to draw the line. I've always been somebody that tries not to throw my team under the bus, because everybody is working just as hard as everybody else. It's basically one of those things where I've always said that the day I'm perfect, I expect everyone around me to be perfect; but that's never going to happen.

"It's a tough call, though; and certain drivers can get away with it better than others. More experienced, well-known, accomplished drivers can get away with it. But there's always a limit. This sport is brutal, and it's tough -- in the heat of the moment, you say things that sometimes you regret, and sometimes you don't. But I always try to say it behind closed doors, if you're going to say something at all. Everybody can forgive and forget, but [calling someone out in public] is never good. You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.

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"Terry Labonte going to race for Petty sucks [because of the Past Champion's Provisional that will get the 1996 champ in the race each weekend]. I think it's the most stupid rule out there. Because it's taking spots away from guys that deserve to be in the race that -- you can be two seconds off and be automatically in the race because of something that you did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago -- it's a tough pill to swallow for guys that have to make the field each week.

"I also understand the rule ... but like I said for the All-Star Race, just because you win the championship the year before in any other sport, you're not automatically in the playoffs the following year. NASCAR compares itself to so many sports, so let's look at how you make the Indy 500. In 1994, Al Unser Jr. won that race, and the next year he came back and didn't make the field. He didn't earn his way in. It should be the same way for us.

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"I'm going to have to stick with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the All-Star Race. Essentially, he's winning races that don't pay any points right now. He won the Shootout, won the Duel [at Daytona]. In long events, they just seem to lose the handle on their cars late in the race; but I think in these little short races, they have it down. Kyle Busch was pretty fast in the test, but Junior was pretty fast, too; so, we'll see. I think a sleeper can be Kurt Busch. But I'm going to go with Junior."