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CONCORD, N.C. – Of the 16 drivers guaranteed a spot in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), six have never won the annual non-points race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Two – Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski – are former series champions. Others have points wins. That lineup consists of Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chris Buescher.
It’s a big payday – the winner gets $1 million – and a big night. Since its debut in 1985, the All-Star race quickly evolved from novelty into a no-holds-barred shootout that has often left egos bruised and fenders wrinkled.
Truex (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota) made his first All-Star appearance in 2005 and tomorrow night’s race will be his seventh start. His perception of the event before his first start was that the race “was just a Saturday night shootout for a million bucks or a ton of money.
“Guys … were willing to do whatever it took to win,” he said prior to Friday’s first practice at Charlotte. “Nobody was ever worried about finishing second. I think it still has that feel.”
Truex knows what it feels like to finish second – his best result in the race came in 2010 when he trailed race winner Kurt Busch across the line.
“I’m pretty sure everyone forgets about that,” he said. “I for the most part forget about it till we get here.
“It’s all about winning. It’s a race for the fans. It’s a race to just put on a show, kind of a throwback short track race with the stages and the segments, just putting it all out there for the win.”
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Race winners from the previous season and through the first 11 races of ’17 earn a spot in the field, as do former winners of the event. Three additional slots will be filled by drivers who win stages in the Monster Energy Open qualifying race and a final position will be awarded to the driver who wins the fan vote to round out the 20-car lineup.
There is “no pressure” to win, Truex said.
“None … at all,” he said. “It’s a fun weekend. Anytime you take points off the table, it becomes a lot less stressful and a lot more fun. But at the same time we all want to win it.”
Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson will start on the pole, with Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch second through fifth, respectively.
Truex qualified 14th.
Keselowski (Team Penske No. 2 Ford) will be making his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Race and he also knows the feeling of being second-best. In ’12, he finished behind Jimmie Johnson; last year it was Team Penske teammate Joey Logano who ended up in Victory Lane.
“To me, it’s a marquee race,” Keselowski, who will start seventh, said. “All-Star just naturally implies best of the best even though the best of the best compete against each other every week. (There’s) just something special about it.
“I think the fact that if you win it you get locked into it for life is really cool. And that means a lot.”
Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports) is a four-time winner of the race, tops in the series. No other current active driver has more than one win.
“There’s always some level of pressure,” Keselowski said. “There’s no season-ending pressure but it’s pressure in the opportunity because I know I’m going to have a quality opportunity to do it.”