The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series kicked off its All Star weekend with qualifying for the annual "dash for cash" with practice and qualifying. Dale Jarrett will make his 16th appearance in the annual All Star Race and will start it from the 14th position.
The unique qualifying format for the annual event requires each team to perform a four-tire pit stop in the middle of the two-lap qualifying run. The overall time is what determines the starting positions for each team. A good qualifying lap can help to overcome a bad pit stop and vice versa.
The #44 UPS Team turned in a qualifying time of 126.723 seconds with an average speed of 127.838 mph to pick up the 14th starting spot.
"It wasn't bad," Jarrett said after climbing from the UPS Toyota. "The guys have been doing great stops all year and they had a good one there. I spun the tires a little bit getting off pit road so that probably cost us half a second but overall we felt pretty good about it."
The qualifying session for the All Star event ran without incident aside from Mark Martin spinning during his qualifying attempt. Matt Kenseth will start from the pole after a good lap and lightening-fast pit stop by his team.
While Jarrett is locked into the All Star race his teammates David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip will attempt to race their way into the All Star race by winning the Nextel Open - an event for drivers and teams that have not already qualified for the All Star race. The winner of the event transfers to the All Star race. The qualifying session for the Nextel Open is the same as any other race weekend with the fastest of two laps serving as a team's official time.
Reutimann will start the Nextel Open from 28th as a result of his qualifying time of 29.929 seconds and 180.427 mph. Several drivers had issues during the qualifying session with a number of cars hitting the outside wall at the exit of turn two. Waltrip had such luck and will start the qualifying race last in 33rd.
The Nextel Open begins Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. EDT. The annual All Star race will start shortly after the conclusion of the Nextel Open with a tentative start time of 9:15 p.m. SPEED Channel is providing live television coverage of all the All Star weekend activities.
