A.J.'s a Winner: Allmendinger holds off Hornish for Showdown win

A.J. Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr. are better known for the successes in open wheel racing, but on Saturday they earned the right to call themselves NASCAR All-Stars by transferring from the opening Sprint Showdown event into the main Sprint All-Star Race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Allmendinger inherited the lead in the event following the start of the second and final 20-lap segment. The first was led by his Red Bull Racing teammate, Brian Vickers, but Vickers relinquished the position after dropping his Toyota to pit road during the competition caution that separated the two segments.

Roush Fenway Racing’s David Ragan led the field to the restart for the final 20-lap run but Allmendinger quickly made the pass and held the position to the checkers despite a late challenge from Hornish.

Though not the highlight of the night, nor a points awarded event, the win was a big one for Allmendinger. His sophomore season has been a struggle thus far as he failed to qualify for the first three events of the season and was then sidelined for a string of events as Craftsman Truck Series veteran Mike Skinner.

“I feel like I won the Daytona 500,” Allmendinger said after climbing from his car.  “Nobody understands what this means after what we went through with this team.”

With 10 laps remaining, Hornish took second from Ragan and with his sights set on Allmendinger, looked high and low but the former IndyCar champion was unable to make a clean move around the leading Toyota.

“I wasn’t going to take any chances unless I had a good run on him and could get by him cleanly,” Hornish said, knowing only the top two spots transferred. “I wanted to be smart and not waste a chance to get into the All-Star Race.”

There were four caution flags throughout the two segment, 40-lap preliminary. The first fell on lap two after Patrick Carpentier spun his Dodge. Following the restart for his incident, Carpentier’s Gillett Evernham  Motorsports teammate and pole-sitter Elliott Sadler got a tap from eventual-winner Allmendinger and slammed the outside retaining wall.

The opening event wasn’t a complete letdown for the GEM camp. Its third driver, Kasey Kahne, transferred into the All-Star event courtesy the fan vote after finishing fifth in the Showdown.

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