DENVER (May 13, 2008) -- The All-Star weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte has always brought about a good feeling for Joe Nemechek.

 

The no-holds-barred competition during the all-star races suits Nemechek, who welcomes the opportunity to be more aggressive without worrying about those all-important points that drivers covet in the other 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup weekends.

 

Nemechek will be among the 29 entries who will have to qualify for the main event Saturday night. He will take part in the preliminary Sprint Showdown -- a 40-lap shootout -- with the top-two finishers advancing into the Sprint All-Star Race.

 

"You let it all out and hope that you're one of the two who get into the big show and race with the big dogs," offered the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing driver. "We're going to mash the pedal and go for broke. We had a decent test at Lowe's Motor Speedway last week and if we can get hooked up, we'll have a shot at advancing."

 

Nemechek and his Furniture Row Racing teammates are feeling better about the recent performances of the No. 78 Chevrolet Impala SS. Though the team is not where it wants to be, it's the improvement that has them feeling that a breakthrough race is not that far away.

 

"We're qualifying better and also racing better," noted Nemechek. "If we can get a clean race I feel that we can pull off some solid finishes."

 

Another aspect of the All Star weekend is that it offers a couple of additional days of testing under race conditions for the single-car team based in Denver.

 

"Our main goal is to get into the All Star Race," said Nemechek. "But we would be fools not to use the weekend as a means of working on different setups that will help us in the future, including next week's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's. We need as much information as we can gather."

 

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About Furniture Row and Furniture Row Racing
Based in Denver, Colo., Furniture Row Racing® is owned and sponsored by Furniture Row® Companies. The team runs the No. 78 NASCAR Sprint Cup car from its home base in Denver. For more information about the team visit http://www.FurnitureRowRacing.com. Furniture Row Companies is one of the largest family-owned specialty home furnishings and bedding retailers. The company is comprised of five specialty store brands including: Sofa Mart®, Oak Express®, Bedroom Expressions®, Denver Mattress Co® http://www.DenverMattress.com, and Big Sur Water Beds®. For more information and locations, please visit http://www.FurnitureRow.com or http://www.FurnitureRowRacing.com