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NASCAR's version of an All-Star break

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Posted: Monday May 17, 1999 06:39 PM

Everything goes kind of topsy-turvy this week.

This is the week of our All-Star race, The Winston. It's totally different from any other race we run. We run it at Charlotte, which is the same place we run the Coca-Cola 600 and a 500-mile race there in the fall, but the rules are out the window. Well, the rules are actually just different.

First of all, there's the field. There will be 20 cars starting the race, those who are the most recent winners in NASCAR Winston Cup races. That's one of the things that makes the race so special. You have to have won a Winston Cup race or have won a previous The Winston or be a Winston Cup champion to be included.

The only other way to get into the race is the way we did it last year. A preliminary race, basically composed of everybody who runs Winston Cup but didn't make The Winston, is held on Saturday night, too. It's called the Winston Open. The winner of the Winston Open goes into The Winston as the final entry. We won the Winston Open last year, but, believe me, that's the really hard way to go. Thirty-something cars start that race and only one advances.

The Winston is just 70 laps but it's broken into three segments. You run 30 laps, take a break; run 30 more laps, take a break; and then there is a final no-holds-barred 10-lap dash to the finish. At the end of the first segment, they invert part of the field. The thing is, you never know how many cars are going to be inverted. All they'll tell you is at least three but no more than 12. They pick a number in a blind draw at random to determine how many get inverted.

There are no points on this race. It's something the guys at NASCAR and at Winston came up with 15 years ago as a special treat for the fans. They sure seem to love it. There have been some incredible finishes in the race, and there has been a ton of controversy. You'd have to expect both.

At the Winston, Mayfield will be competing for fans, not points. Robert Laberge/Allsport

First place pays $200,000 and second place is $80,000. That's almost like winner-take-all, so nobody is going to back off -- especially in that last 10-lap segment.

That's pretty much how you have to approach this race -- go for everything you can get. Without any points to worry about, you might take a few more chances than you would normally. You might push the envelope just a little harder. In a regular race, you're taking the risk of wrecking and losing a whole lot of positions for points. In The Winston, positions don't mean much. You either win or lose. There is no in-between.

This can be a big race for people. It can kind of give your season a jump-start if it needs one, and it can slow down a hot team, too. It doesn't have to do either of those, it just can. It's strange that one race on one night with no points could have a big effect on your season, but it has done it for people before.

There have been teams that didn't seem to be headed anywhere but had a big night in The Winston, and they were players the rest of the season.

In a lot of ways, this is a week off before we start again with the Coca-Cola 600 next week. In other ways, it's a pretty key race. All I know is we're planning on doing whatever it takes to win it.

NASCAR's Jeremy Mayfield drives the No. 12 Mobil 1 Ford for Penske/Kranefuss Racing. His column appears regularly on CNNSI.com.

 

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