Mike Hembree

Special for USA TODAY Sports

CONCORD, N.C. – Josh Wise finished Friday's Sprint Showdown in 18th place, but he scored a big win at the ballot box.

In voting by fans, Wise was picked to join the field for Saturday's Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger, the top two finishers in the Showdown qualifying race, also advance to the All-Star Race, one of the featured events of the Sprint Cup season.

Wise, a 31-year-old native of Riverside, Calif., drives for Phil Parsons Racing. The No. 98 Chevrolet is sponsored in part by digital currency Dogecoin and Reddit.com, a fact that generated many web-based votes in the fan balloting.

Wise's fan-vote win is an upset. Among the drivers he defeated in the fan vote are Danica Patrick (last year's fan-vote winner), Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson.

Wise is 36th in the Sprint Cup points standings with no top-10 finishes in 10 races.

"This is huge for me and our team," Wise said. "This started with a 16-year-old kid posting something on reddit.com about some good runs we had. For some reason, this awesome [Internet] community got behind us. I'm just super-thankful to be a part of it. It's been a pretty cool experience."

Wise, who will be participating in his first All-Star race, said the Dogecoin-Reddit connection is bringing new fans to NASCAR.

"This is kind of a big deal for our sport because it's a lot of young kids and people from around the world," Wise said. "I've had the chance to interact with a lot of them. It's a lot of people who've never watched a NASCAR race. They're tuning in. It's a big deal. About 110 million people regularly use Reddit. A large portion of them knew about this and were a part of it."

Race winner Bowyer said he was impressed.

"For you and your community to beat out Danica Patrick is something," Bowyer told Wise.

"We would have liked to have raced our way into the All-Star Race tonight, but it just didn't happen," Patrick said in a statement. "The guys gave a good effort, and we'll learn from this and hopefully, it will help us next week in the Coca-Cola 600.

"Last year, we were lucky enough to get the Sprint Fan Vote, and that didn't happen this year. It's my understanding that I had more votes than I did last year, but you know, it is what it is. I don't doubt my fans at all. I know they voted, and I'm grateful for all they did to try and get me in the race."

Patrick tweeted a thank-you to her fan base a few minutes after the vote was announced.

"Thank u to my AMAZING fans for ur votes! Y'all helped me have even more votes than last year! Your support blows me away! On to the 600!"

"No more sorry's guys! You rocked it! Everything happens for a reason!"

Bowyer, Allmendinger and Wise will be part of Saturday's 7:10 p.m. ET qualifying session for the All-Star Race.

The qualifying segment, which is on Saturday instead of Friday this year, will set the All-Star Race lineup. It consists of three laps with a mandatory four-tire pit stop — but there's no pit road speed limit, which makes things interesting. Cars go out individually.

Here are the drivers who have qualified for the All-Star Race:

Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, David Ragan, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Bowyer, Allmendinger and Wise.

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