Johnson wins All-Star Challenge

Johnson took the lead from Harvick soon after the start of the final segment, slowly extending his advantage as the laps wound down to the finish.

His win makes it seven wins at the Charlotte circuit, including the last three Coca Cola 600s, with the 2006 event taking place next weekend.

Kevin Harvick finished second, unable to keep up with Johnson, with Johnson's teammate Jeff Gordon completing an all-Chevrolet top three. Carl Edwards in a Ford and Ryan Newman in a Dodge rounded out the top five.

Though Johnson took victory without too much pressure in the closing stages, excitement and action had filled earlier stages of the race. Scott Riggs won the Nextel Open while Kyle Petty won the fan vote to join the other eighteen runners in the All-Star Challenge.

After a few early cautions, the race was stopped on lap 34 as rain hit the speedway. The race restarted for a three lap sprint before the end of the first segment, with Kyle Busch leading at the end. The top ten positions were then inverted, as chosen by the fans.

Ryan Newman led at the start of the second segment before pole sitter Kasey Kahne took over. However, it was just a few laps later when Kahne and Mark Martin collided coming off turn two, with Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.

Kahne, Martin and McMurray suffered heavily as the others escaped with only minor damage as the race was red flagged again, this time to clear up debris from the wreck.

The race soon resumed with Harvick in the lead, a lead he held until the end of the second segment.

After pit stops between the second and third segment, the order at the beginning of the final twenty lap shootout was Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

The race resumed once more, but as Johnson took the lead from Harvick, another crash took out another two competitors, with Kenseth and Stewart bouncing off each other before colliding with the turn one and two wall.

From the restart, Johnson pulled away to take his second Nextel All-Star Challenge win as he continued to show his strength at the speedway named after his car's major sponsor, Lowe's.

Pos  Driver               Make      Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet  89
 2.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet  89
 3.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet  89
 4.  Carl Edwards         Ford       89
 5.  Ryan Newman          Dodge      89
 6.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge      89
 7.  Dale Jarrett         Ford       89
 8.  Kyle Petty           Dodge      89
 9.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet  89
10.  Scott Riggs          Dodge      88
11.  Matt Kenseth         Ford       72
12.  Tony Stewart         Chevrolet  72
13.  Greg Biffle          Ford       50
14.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge      48
15.  Mark Martin          Ford       48
16.  Kyle Busch           Chevrolet  48
17.  Jeremy Mayfield      Dodge      48
18.  Jamie McMurray       Ford       48
19.  Michael Waltrip      Dodge      43
20.  Kurt Busch           Dodge      33