Fans Pick the Pack for Winston

By Mike Emmett, Turner Sports Interactive
May 20, 2001
12:59 PM EDT (1659 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. -- For the first time ever, Winston Cup fans in a poll on NASCAR.com decided how many cars to invert at the end of the first 30-lap segment of the annual all-star race on Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

And those results? The fans coming to NASCAR.com's Pick the Pack poll overwhelmingly decided to invert 12 cars by a 48 percent margin. Coming in second was eight cars at 25 percent, eight at 14 precent and six at 13 percent.

The cars were inverted for the start of the second 30-lap segment, which was followed by a 10-lap shootout at the end.

NASCAR.com GM Drew Reifenberger (left) presents the results to Winston's Rick Sanders.

Drew Reifenberger, executive vice president and general manager of NASCAR.com who presented the poll results to Rick Sanders, president of RJR's Sports Marketing Enterprises, said: "This was all about the fan. We're the voice of NASCAR and our Pick the Pack poll, plus our special section we had posted on our site to showcase this special event, really put the fan in charge."

Denny Darnell Jr., RJR Senior Manager of Sports Marketing Enterprises, added:

"We are really elated with the tremendous response and numbers in the poll in just a few days since we decided to do this. We created this with fans in mind and you can be sure that we will be looking at similar efforts in the future."

The NASCAR.com special section can be found by clicking here.