CONCORD, N.C. – Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and A.J. Allmendinger each raced their way into the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race via Saturday evening’s 50-lap Monster Energy Open at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Chase Elliott became the 21st and final driver to make the All-Star field by winning the annual fan vote for the third-consecutive year.
Bowman put his No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet into the All-Star Race by leading the final nine laps of the opening 20-lap segment of the Monster Energy Open, passing polesitter Aric Almirola on lap 12 with an inside sweep off turn four.
The Tucson, Ariz., native then held off a hard-charging Erik Jones, who went from fourth to second with a three-wide maneuver coming to five to go, by .355 of a second at the finish line after Jones closed the gap in the final laps before the end of the segment.
“That was about like running a superspeedway by myself once I got the lead there,” noted Bowman. “I just had to try and break the draft that the 20 (Jones) was getting when he got close and stay as wide open as I could.
“I’ll take a shot at a million bucks, for sure,” Bowman added. “That’d be really cool (to be able to win it). It means a lot to these (crew) guys to be a part of (the All-Star Race), with driver intros where you get to be up on stage with your crew and all that, so I’m glad to take this (stage win) back to them and we’ll get after it later tonight.”
During the first segment break, rookie William Byron took only two tires to win the race off pit road, but faded when the green flag waved as Suarez pushed teammate Jones to the race lead before surging past on the outside in turn three.
After leading 12 straight laps, Suarez then got the upper hand in a back-and-forth battle with Elliott during the second half of the stage. Though Elliott shot to Suarez’s inside on lap 33 to assume command, Suarez never lost touch with the Georgia native’s back bumper and regained the top spot two laps later.
Suarez ultimately took the green-checkered flag two car lengths ahead of Allmendinger, who raced past Elliott with two to go in the stage to set up the run to the finish.
“I thought it was going to be pretty tough to pass him (Elliott) back,” Suarez said. “I found that out in one lap from how big of a run the 47 (Allmendinger) was giving (Elliott) and eventually he gave me those runs too. I’m just very proud of these guys. … I’m happy to be in the big show again and now we’re going to try to go for the win.”
Allmendinger never led the final stage until two laps to go. In fact, it was Darrell Wallace Jr. who appeared to have the upper hand, taking two tires on his final pit stop and holding Elliott at bay for the first seven laps of the 10-lap sprint to the finish.
However, Elliott finally got to Wallace’s inside coming to two laps to go off turn four, opening up the draft for everyone behind him and allowing Allmendinger to close in.
Allmendinger then charged inside of Elliott going down into turn three amid a three-wide scramble before the white flag, using a massive slide job off turn two to clear Elliott and go on to win the Open for the second time in his career.
“This is really big; it’s big for our race team,” said Allmendinger. “To be able to call ourselves All Stars, all my guys, Kroger, Clicklist, everybody to be a part of it. To be able to race our way in, it’s cool for a night. It gives us a little bit of momentum that we need hopefully and kind of kick us off in these summer months to have something good happen.
Allmendinger added that he knew the last few laps were going to be wild, knowing what was on the line.
“You could see every time they got side by side that nobody was going to lift. It was just a matter of if we crashed or not,” noted Allmendinger. “I made the conscious decision (that) I was going to crash if I wasn’t going to win. I came off of (turn) two and I wasn’t quite clear, but I said ‘what the hell; we’re going to try to make it clear.’ If I hadn’t, I was going to wad up everybody behind me.”
Elliott was appreciative of the fans putting him through to the All-Star Race for yet another year, but was disappointed by the fact he couldn’t get the job done on the race track.
“I’m very appreciative of the fans, but there is also no one else that would rather have raced their way in, for sure,” said Elliott, who becomes the first driver to win the fan vote three consecutive times.
“I really wanted to race my way in and not have to even worry about the fan vote this year, but it was a fun race. It was kind of interesting to drive and I’m sure it was interesting to watch,” Elliott added. “I’m looking forward to being in the big show. I appreciate all the folks that voted for me again this year. Hopefully this time next year we’ll be in the big show and won’t have to worry about it.”
