After a successful return to North Wilkesboro Speedway last season, the NASCAR All-Star Race is set to bring the action back to one of the sport’s most iconic and storied tracks. The spotlight will certainly be on the crew chiefs and drivers as they plan their tire strategy for this special race. In testing, the softer tires were significantly faster but wore much quicker. Goodyear has been an incredible partner in this All-Star element, and it will be fascinating to watch how crew chiefs and drivers manage this unique challenge.
The All-Star Race will be a 200-lap event with two ‘All-Star’ cautions at lap 100 and lap 150. At the lap 100 break, teams must perform a four-tire pit stop, using any tire of their choosing. All laps (caution and green flag) will count, and NASCAR overtime rules will be in effect.
Saturday’s All-Star 100-lap Open will have an ‘All-Star’ caution at Lap 50, at which time teams must perform a four-tire pit stop. At the end, three Open drivers will advance to the main event – the top two race finishers and the fan vote winner. Fan voting is now open on NASCAR.com/fanvote.
All-Star weekend festivities will begin Friday with qualifying and the pit crew challenge. While last season’s qualifying was based solely on the results of the pit crew challenge, this season will include the traditional qualifying effort. Drivers will take the green flag, run one full lap at speed, and on the second lap proceed to one of two NASCAR designated pit stalls for a four-tire stop with mock fuel delivery. When the pit stop is complete, the cars will exit pit road and race back to the checkered flag. The qualifying time will be the total elapsed time from green flag to checkered flag, and the pole sitter will start on the pole for Heat Race 1 and the All-Star main event. The pit crew with the fastest stop during the All-Star qualifying attempt (no penalties) is the winner of the challenge. Pit crew challenge results will determine pit picking order.
There are currently 18 drivers already locked into the main event: A.J. Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suárez, Martin Truex Jr., and Shane van Gisbergen.
