The annual NASCAR All Star Race this weekend returns to Texas Motor Speedway for the second year in a row, but this time with a brand new format in place.
The All Star event, which was traditionally held at Charlotte Motor Speedway is a non points-paying race, in a shootout between NASCAR’s best drivers for $1 million.
There are 20 drivers who have automatically qualified for the occasion, meeting the All Star Race qualifications: being a race winner in 2021 or so far in 2022; having previously won an All Star Race; being an active NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The rest of the regular season field are still able to qualify via the NASCAR Open, which will have the same format as previous years, split into three stages, with two 20-lap sprints, and a final 10-lap sprint at the end.
The winner of each stage in the 50-lap Open will qualify with whoever wins the All Star fan vote, which is a driver who didn’t win one of the Open stages or didn’t automatically qualify for the All Star Race.
This ultimately culminates in a 24-car field for the All Star Race.
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The main event is scheduled to run for 125 laps which will be split into four different stages.
The first two stages will both run for 25 laps, with the winners automatically qualifying on the front row for the final stage, as long as they finish in the top 15 in Stages 2 and 3 respectively, while the winner of Stage 3, which is another 25 laps automatically qualifies in third for the final stage.
The driver who qualifies in fourth for the final stage is the winner of the pit stop competition, which is the driver and team combination who can be the quickest to get off pit road after a four-tyre pit stop, but the driver has to have finished in the top 15 of Stage 3.
The final stage will run for 50 laps, with a competition caution occurring after Lap 25, if no natural caution occurs between laps 15-25.
The winner of the final stage will be crowned NASCAR’s 2022 All Star Race champion, and receive $1 million in prize money.
The All Star Open starts at 07:30 AEST on Monday, and the main event at 10:00.
Drivers who have qualified for the All Star race and how they did so:
- #1 Ross Chastain: 2022 race winner
- #2 Austin Cindric: 2022 race winner
- #4 Kevin Harvick: 2018 All Star Race winner, 2014 Championship winner
- #5 Kyle Larson: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2019 and 2021 All Star Race winner, 2021 Championship winner
- #6 Brad Keselowski: 2021 race winner, 2012 Championship winner
- #9 Chase Elliott: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2020 All Star Race winner, 2020 Championship winner
- #10 Aric Almirola: 2021 race winner
- #11 Denny Hamlin: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2015 All Star Race winner
- #12 Ryan Blaney: 2021 race winner
- #14 Chase Briscoe: 2022 race winner
- #16 AJ Allmendinger: 2021 race winner
- #18 Kyle Busch: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2017 All Star Race winner, 2015 and 2019 Championship winner
- #19 Martin Truex Jnr: 2021 race winner, 2017 Championship winner
- #20 Christopher Bell: 2021 race winner
- #22 Joey Logano: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2016 All Star Race winner, 2018 Championship winner
- #23 Bubba Wallace: 2021 race winner
- #24 William Byron: 2021 and 2022 race winner
- #34 Michael McDowell: 2021 race winner
- #45 Kurt Busch: 2021 and 2022 race winner, 2010 All Star Race winner, 2004 Championship winner
- #48 Alex Bowman: 2021 and 2022 race winner
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