2005 Nextel All-Star Challenge

The 2005 Nextel All-Star Challenge was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series All-Star event held at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 22, 2005. Mark Martin claimed his second and final All-Star victory, blowing the field away in the final segment and holding off Elliott Sadler by half a second. Stats

Nextel Open
All other drivers or teams that are in the Nextel Cup Top 50 owners or drivers points that do not automatically qualify for the All-Star Challenge are entered into a 40-lap, two-half event called the Nextel Open. Only the top two drivers, plus one additional driver on the lead lap that is voted in by fans on the world wide web via Sprint/Nextel's web site, their customers and attendees of the race, join the elite field. Standard qualifying rules applied for those in this event, which saw Mike Bliss win "P-1" (a/k./a the pole position), edging Kurt Busch. The Nextel Open was won by Kasey Kahne.

All-Star Challenge
The race is unique to its "All-Star Game" format, much like those in the other North American major "stick and ball" sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey). Only race winners (either drivers or teams) in the 2005 and the first eleven races of the 2005 seasons, plus former Winston/Nextel Cup Champions and All-Star event winners from the past decade (covering the span between 1997 and 2006) automatically qualify for the main event. A description on how the race was reformatted for the 2005 running can be found here. The race also awards no points as it is an exhibition race, meaning drivers can take greater risks than they normally would do in a regular event. In addition, on restarts of the race after caution flags, the cars line up in a double file restart, akin to the start of a regulation race.