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CONCORD — In the anxious moments between the burnout competition Saturday evening and the old racing burnouts finding their seats for the Sprint All-Star race later in the night, you could cut the tension with a rocker arm. Then they raced, and everybody went home.

In the cool of the night, after the lights were turned on by an unarmed guy with security clearance, NASCAR successfully started the XXIVth running of an event that once provided shotguns to the participants. Sometime nigh toward morning, the event ended with the fastest car behind the wall and a car that didn't even qualify for the race in victory lane.

Kasey Kahne won after the fans voted him in and earned a million bucks in a race that provided the fans zero excitement. After a pit-stop challenge on Thursday and a truck race on Friday and various qualifying races and tire-squealin' contests that preceded the nut race, the assortment of burnouts and gun-toting security detail had finally reached halftime of the Two Weeks of Charlotte.

Things have changed so much through the years here that no one even mentions it anymore. They started calling this place "The Beast of the Southeast" somewhere along the way, but no one mentioned that either. They don't fill the seats the way they did back when we raced for tobacco money, but there's another race to come, a big one, and presumably many of the empty will be filled by next Sunday.

There's really nothing else they can do to make the All-Star race any better. They tried still another format this time, one with four equal quarters and a halftime and a screaming governor, which might've explained the army of handguns in the infield. But once the race started and Mike Easley went home, there was nothing left to scream at until the race was over. The identical cars are no fun at all.

The race involved no further escalation of either the Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. conflict that fueled last week's news cycle or the Kyle vs. Kurt Busch conflict that fueled last year's 600 and subsequent Christmas dinner at the Busch compound. Word of that affair leaked out this week as nosey reporters forced the brothers to recount the XXIIIrd Sprint All-Star race in which one wrecked the other, depending on the perspective, and we learned all sorts of things about the siblings.

First of all, they hate each other. Well, that might be exaggerating it a bit, but not much. Just to smooth things over from last May, they had Christmas dinner together at their grandmother's house, and Kyle admitted this week it was one of the few times they'd ever sat down together. Kurt then revealed his nickname for his little brother: Shrub.

These are the kinds of things we learn about our heroes during the Two Weeks of Charlotte. Both the Busch brothers were booed Saturday night, along with most everyone to some degree. Junior and Dale Jarrett were the only drivers cheered lustily, though a shameless commercial effort in the brown truck drew jeers. Someone suggested Jarrett's big UPS van looked to be going a bit slow, and Toyota wheel Lee White said it had a Ford engine in it. The UPS Toyota was about as slow, as Jarrett sadly ended his driving career 0-17 in All-Star races.

As All-Star races go, this might've been the worst ever. The racing was so bad, there was some concern afterward that the next week's 600-mile journey could be a disaster. In a 100-lap race Saturday night with built-in breaks in between, there were only three real lead changes on the track if you don't include the leaders blowing up. Kyle Busch led until a rocker arm destroyed his engine, and Kahne made a gas-only pit stop before the final segment. Those were the only two things that happened in the entire race. Kahne led the last 17 laps to easily outrun Greg Biffle to the finish. Biffle wasn't happy afterward.

"We got our (expletive) (expletive) kicked by no tires!" he screamed into the radio as he coasted into the first turn. "That's what I don't understand. We should've (expletive) stayed out (expletive). What a (expletive) piece of (expletive) (expletive)!"

He was asked later if he thought next week would be any better.

"I think there'll be passing,'' he said. "Not probably a lot, I guess."

Kahne ran the caution-free trophy dash after finishing fifth in the qualifying race. He skipped the burnout challenge, which was won by Biffle. Don't ask. You don't want to know.

The word out of the gleaming towers above the speedway is that promoter Humpy Wheeler has something special for next week, something having to do with mayhem and helicopters. So at least we have that to look forward to.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com