Junior backs All-Star events but forgoes burnout battle

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2008 | by Nate Ryan

Unless he wins the Sprint All-Star Race or Coca-Cola 600, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won't be showcasing his tire-smoking skills at Lowe's Motor Speedway next month.

Although NASCAR's most popular driver will skip the inaugural Pennzoil Victory Challenge -- a burnout competition preceding the Sprint Cup All-Star event at Lowe's on May 17 -- Earnhardt likes turning the night into a multi-event showcase as tried by Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL.

Earnhardt wants Lowe's to return to running an "old-timers race" as it once did on its quarter-mile frontstretch oval.

The Winston Legends races, in which former champions such as Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough competed in five-eighths replicas of 1930s and '40s stock cars, were contested on NASCAR's...