NASCAR's burnout artists will get their time to shine

[The General]

He plants one foot on the accelerator, one foot on the brake, and the rear tires begin to spin and scream. Thick, white smoke starts to billow from beneath the racecar, drifting into a grandstand filled with cheering fans. Engine parts mangle and melt. If he's really good, the driver can make the tires blow out, the loose pieces of tread ripping into the sheet metal of the rear end. When they finally roll the thing into Victory Lane, the vehicle is a charred, smoking husk of what it used to be.

That's the burnout, the post-race celebration of choice among the young drivers who dominate the Sprint Cup circuit. For years, drivers like Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson have wowed spectators with their ability to produce copious amounts of smoke and noise, their vehicles often streaking down the frontstretch like top fuel cars after taking the checkered flag. It's long been an unofficial competition, with drivers critiquing each others' burnouts, copying certain techniques or adding new ones of their own. Saturday night, for the first time, some of NASCAR's best will rev engines and spin tires with a little something on the line.

Five drivers -- Johnson, Harvick, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch -- will compete in the inaugural Pennzoil Burnout Challenge, which will be held at Lowe's Motor Speedway before the qualifying event for the Sprint All-Star Race. In similarly prepared Richard Petty Driving Experience cars repainted in all-star colors, drivers will have to perform a full, drag-racing style burnout between two designated points followed by 360-degree spins. The winner will earn $10,000 for his preferred charity.

Humpy Wheeler, president and general manager of the Charlotte track, sees the burnout contest as a skills challenge comparable to those surrounding other all-star events, such as the slam dunk contest in basketball or the home run derby in baseball. But drivers just seem to dig the idea of burning out in a car that's not their own.

"It's fun to do burnouts," said Biffle, a 12-time race winner on NASCAR's premier circuit. "I think I do a pretty good burnout, but it's a matter of the tire holding together, too. These cars have so much power and control that it's easy to do a burnout, but what happens is, obviously, the tire will come apart and tear the quarterpanels off the car. NASCAR doesn't like that when you're in post-race inspection and the quarterpanels are ripped off it, so you've got to be kind of careful."

NASCAR.COM - NASCAR's burnout artists will get their time to shine - May 15, 2008