It was where the end of an era met the beginning of a different one.
2003 marked the end of Winston’s run as the tile sponsor of the NASCAR Cup Series. Matt Kenseth won the final Winston Cup title, over 30 years after Richard Petty won the first title under the Winston banner.
At the same time, the driver whose explosive win record would become synonymous with NASCAR’s top division for the next decade was in his sophomore season, not yet a champion, but learning to race like one.
On one May night, the two came together. NASCAR’s All-Star race had carried the title sponsor’s name since its inception in 1985, and named simply “The Winston,” it had the sport’s elite on its win list. That night, it would add another, though Jimmie Johnson’s legend had only begun to be written.
The race has had multiple formats over the years, but the affair was simpler then. The Winston Open was the last-chance race, but instead of three drivers transferring to the main event, it was a winner-take-all scenario. There was no fan vote to stump for.
The Open was just 30 laps, divided into two segments. After the first 20 laps, anyone from 15th on back was eliminated. The final 10 laps were for a chance at the big prize.
The cars that got eliminated were probably the ones expected to. Mostly running for small and underfunded teams, they didn’t have the money or speed to compete, even in a field without the season’s previous winners. Perhaps the most notable among them was newly-elected Hall of Fame crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine, who ran a couple of years as a driver in a self-owned car. His only race in 2003 was the Daytona 500, for which he’d failed to qualify.
Jeff Burton came away with the win and the lone transfer spot, beating Dave Blaney to the checkers by .799 seconds. Burton’s son Harrison will race in this weekend’s Open. Blaney’s son Ryan is in the All-Star Race.
The main event was a 90-lap affair, and that year it, too, featured eliminations…
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