The event was run Saturday night, May 16, 2009, at the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Charlotte, North Carolina suburb of Concord.
The qualifying for the Showdown, which was scheduled for May 15 was cancelled for the first time in history, due to rain.
Usually, NASCAR rules state that the cars would start on the rulebook factor (top 35 owners, plus qualifying attempts and past champions), but as this was a non-points race, the cars starting position were based on the qualifying order draw.
For the All-Star Race, the format is different from the regular qualifying that occurs in the weekly events.
Sprint customers and fan balloting onsite at NASCAR events voted in Joey Logano.
A winning pit crew - the Jeff Burton #31 RCR team – and individual tire changers, carriers, and fuelers were crowned as champions of the skills challenge.
The five judges were: Kevin Harvick won the event, beating Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Darrell Waltrip Harvick challenged the Fox Sports analyst, who won Sprint All-Star Race I, to the event on an episode of Trackside Live!
In practice for the Sprint Showdown, Carl Long blew a motor and requested to change his engine.