page_title: 2012 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race
section_title: Practice and qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race / Report / Practice and qualifying
caption_attribution_description: English: AJ Allmendinger after qualifications at the 2015 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Sonoma, California
context_page_description: The 2012 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on May 19, 2012, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Contested over 90 laps, the it was the second exhibition race of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season. Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports took his third All-Star Race victory, while Brad Keselowski finished second and Matt Kenseth finished third.
context_section_description: Two practice sessions were held on May 18, 2012; one for both the Sprint Showdown and the other for the All-Star Race. The Sprint Showdown practice was 85 minutes, while the All-Star Race practice session lasted 145 minutes. Qualifying for both events were held following the practice sessions.
  
  During the Sprint Showdown practice session, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was quickest with a time of 28.706 seconds, eight one-thousandths of a second faster than A. J. Allmendinger in the second position. Landon Cassill followed in third, ahead of Bobby Labonte, Martin Truex, Jr. and Burton. Casey Mears was scored seventh fastest, while Aric Almirola, Travis Kvapil and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the first ten positions. Kyle Busch was quickest in the All-Star Race practice session with a time of 28.672.
   
  Greg Biffle followed Kyle Busch in the second position by 0.095 seconds. Marcos Ambrose was third quickest, ahead of Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. Mark Martin was scored seventh fastest with a time of 28.986, 0.314 behind Kyle Busch. Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard and Kurt Busch completed the first ten drivers in the session.
  Allmendinger clinched the Sprint Showdown pole position a time of 28.057 seconds. Truex, Jr. qualified 0.208 seconds behind and will Allmendinger on the front row of the grid. Earnhardt, Jr. took third place, ahead of Burton and Almirola in the fourth and fifth positions. Cassill qualified sixth, while Montoya followed in seventh. Labonte, Kvapil and David Stremme completed the first ten positions.
  Unlike the two-lap qualifying sessions in the season, the Sprint All-Star Race qualifying session consists of three laps and four-tire pit stop, which is during the second lap. Kyle Busch won the pole position for the All-Star Race with a time of 1:59.112 for the three laps with pit stop. Ryan Newman qualified second, ahead of Hamlin, Biffle, and Harvick. Johnson, with a time of 2:01.076, was seventh quickest, less than one-tenth of a second quicker than Menard in eighth. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Regan Smith completed the first ten positions of the grid. Also in the All-Star Race qualifying session, Kasey Kahne collided into the fourth turn wall while trying to finish his qualifying attempt, forcing him to change to a back-up car. "We unloaded with a really fast race car [Friday]," Busch commented after the session, "The guys made some minor changes to it to kind of feel it out and make it better where we could. The guys did a great job there with the pit stop, coming down pit road and changing four [tires] and then getting back out there and coming back to the line pretty quick."
caption: A. J. Allmendinger (pictured in 2015) won the preliminary race's pole position after posting a time of 28.706 seconds.
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