1. Good game, good effort, Texas, but the All-Star Race was a mess
It’s an annual pastime for NASCAR, its stakeholders and its fans to admit that the All-Star Race isn’t what it could/should be and to throw around ideas on how to fix it. Texas Motor Speedway took its second crack at it this past Sunday (May 22), and as the saying goes, that ain’t it, chief.
Despite being armed with the latest in a never-ending line of new formats, the All-Star Race was a mess in any number of ways. Confusing? Of course, that’s almost a given now.
Too long? Absolutely, even though it’s shorter than a normal race.
Did it have stars? Well, yes! Except that two of the biggest (Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch) were eliminated in one wreck, along with the most improved driver in 2022 (Ross Chastain). That’s always a bummer.
And then there was “The Decision” by NASCAR at the end of the race, throwing one of the most bizarrely timed cautions in recent memory and forcing Ryan Blaney to essentially win the thing twice. Safety is important, and yours truly is pro-yellow flags in many situations. But was anyone really kept that much safer by not allowing Blaney to go the several car lengths he would have needed to drive to win the race?
That choice not only extended the event even further for no reason, it set off a totally avoidable debate about whether Blaney should have been able to self-repair his window net without coming down pit road. Denny Hamlin made some good (albeit not unbiased) points, but they’re ones he never should have needed to make.
In any case, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t like the All-Star Race. The fans sure as hell didn’t like the All-Star Race. And now here we are, with the sport back in the same place it always seem to be this time of year, except maybe worse than ever with respect to its most prominent non-points race.
So what can be done? That’s why this column has four more points.
2. The All-Star Race should not come back to Texas
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