'Pick the Pack': How it works

CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR race fans once again will have the opportunity to vote online and “Pick the Pack” inversion for the 18th annual running of The Winston -- the Winston Cup Series’ $3 million all-star race on May 18 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Beginning Friday, May 3, fans can log on to NASCAR.com and enter a vote that will determine the starting order for the 10-car field for the final 20-lap segment of The Winston. The process -- which goes hand-in-hand with a change in the race’s overall format -- will determine whether four, six, eight or 10 cars are inverted.

Voting will cease with the checkered flag for the first segment of The Winston.

	Jeff Gordon claimed his third Winston victory in 2001. Credit: ASP

A year ago, when the fans were involved in the inversion vote on NASCAR.com for the first time, 48 percent of voters called for a 12-car invert of the 21-car field. One quarter of the voters wanted a 10-car invert, 14 percent wanted eight and 13 percent wanted six.

Jeff Gordon, the defending winner of the race, said he expected fans to "invert as many positions as they can, I can guarantee you that."

Previously, fans had selected the number of cars to be inverted after the race’s first segment. The final shootout has always started "heads up," or with the leader of the second segment starting on the pole.

This starting lineup for year’s event will be set in a three-lap qualifying session on May 17 whose total elapsed time will include a four-tire pit stop. The race begins with a 40-lap segment, after which the backmarkers will be eliminated, leaving a 20-car field for the second, 30-lap segment.

After that segment, the vote tally of NASCAR.com’s users -- including votes registered at the race track using electronic kiosks and at the America Online souvenir trailer -- will determine the starting lineup for the final segment.

If fans vote to invert 10 cars, the leader after the second segment will start 10th and the 10th-place car will start first.

The celebrity or method by which that vote will be displayed has yet to be determined, an R.J. Reynolds spokesman said Thursday.

The event’s largest starting field, at least 27 cars, will compete for the winner’s share of no less than $750,000.

At this point, the field includes, in addition to the winners of the preliminary Winston Open and No Bull Sprint, Michael Waltrip, Steve Park, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joe Nemechek, Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler, Bobby Hamilton, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Ricky Rudd, Bobby Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Ward Burton, Ricky Craven, Bill Elliott, Robby Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin and Mike Wallace.