What To Do With The All-Star Race?

The All-Star Race seems to have lost its luster as of late. What should the future of the event be? – Kristen D., Omaha, Neb.

I’m so glad you asked. Because I have some thoughts.

The All-Star Race doesn’t have a place on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule anymore. It’s not going away anytime soon, though. Partly due to the television contract requiring a certain number of events to be broadcasted, partly due to Speedway Motorsports Inc. not wanting to voluntarily give up a date (and who could blame it?), partly because all parties involved still believe the event has an appeal.

And frankly, it does. I’m not debating that. But as the schedule is structured right now, it doesn’t need to be a thing.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that NASCAR has All-Star Races every Sunday because the best drivers are out there. But that’s not … untrue.

However, The Clash at The Coliseum this year to open up the 2022 season gave me all the vibes of everything the All-Star Race has been and should be: Glitz, glamor, unpredictability, pizzaz, star appeal and, above all else, an easy to digest format for longtime traditional and new surface level fans.

The current format (which I’m not going to try to explain because it just ain’t worth it) doesn’t do that. It’s gotten so extensive, convoluted and hard to digest, and that’s not good for anybody.

Not to mention due to the charter agreement, countless open teams will be traveling hundreds of miles to Texas Motor Speedway to unload, race for a few minutes in the open, load up and drive home. Sure, for the drivers and teams that advance to the big show, it’s worth it (maybe). But the vast majority of the open teams won’t be advancing.

I’ll go out on a limb and say for teams like Live Fast Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, even JTG Daugherty Racing and the like, it’s not great financially or mentally. With only one off-weekend spliced in over the course of 37 weeks, any possible off time for those in the…