North Wilkesboro Speedway is set for its first NASCAR Cup Series points race since 1996.
Premature? Maybe. Maybe not.
NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports could decide to run the status quo back next year and no one would could realistically complain if they got the same results as All-Star Race XL on Sunday night.
But the results are in and the industry seems to agree that it’s time to put 40 cars on track for 400 laps. It’s also time for the All-Star Race to evolve again anyway.
Right now, we’re in this phase where we try something for just three seasons and it’s off to the next concept. There was a three-year stretch where The Clash was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Chicago Street Course is in the last year of a three-season agreement too.
With the championship race set to become an annual rotation, change is simply the watchword these days.
Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith will feel loathe to shelve one of his biggest wins but in the words of Brad Keselowski, it’s time for the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to go. That race served a very specific purpose, at a very specific time in NASCAR history, as that event is what the Gen-6 platform demanded from the schedule.
Those principles apply here.
North Wilkesboro, similar to Iowa Speedway in a lot of ways, is proving to be one of the best short track shows with this car because of its progressive banking and increasingly aging surface. Imagine a race that plays out similar to Sunday night deciding who advances to the Round of 8, assuming we keep some variation of the current format next year.
So then, what should we do with the All-Star Race?
It’s complicated right, because I have written before that the annual summer exhibition should also rotate but across numerous true grassroots short tracks across the country as something similar to the MLB Field of Dreams or Rickwood Field Games.
NASCAR puts up TV money and tells the tracks where to spend it in exchange for one date and now they have a facility that will stand the test of time for a few more decades.
A Speedway Motorsports executive fairly asked the question ‘what does our company get out of that’ over the weekend when the idea came up.
As part of being included in the championship race rotation, maybe NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports cut an agreement that gives the Sanctioning Body control of the All-Star Race in years they don’t have the finale.
Maybe NASCAR trades control of the Clash to Speedway Motorsports if it has an idea for one of its properties. This is now an era of NASCAR history where nothing is a non-starter and that’s really exciting right?
As Christopher Bell said after winning the race on Sunday, he looks forward to an era where most tracks just get visited once a year.
“We need more events like this, more races like this,” Bell said. “I love that we revived this race track, and now with Rockingham getting revived and having an amazing Xfinity race, like I think just continuing to go to different racetracks, that’s the key for success. You can’t just beat the same racetracks up over and over and go to them twice a year.
“I think continuing to diversify the schedule, get to where we’re going to every venue one time a year, and I think you’re going to see the crowds engage and have awesome electricity throughout the races.”
- Instead of two Kansas races, as fantastic as it is, maybe it’s one Kansas and one Chicagoland.
- Instead of two Darlingtons, as fantastic as it is, maybe it’s one Southern 500 and one Rockingham.
- Two Bristols? How about a Wilkesboro points race and the Bristol night race.
- Two at Las Vegas? No. How about one Las Vegas and one at Kentucky Speedway.
- The street course rotation continues to take races to new markets like San Diego and the Pacific Northwest.
- The All-Star Race becomes the Field of Dreams Game
Personalities shine
Racing fans are so funny and a little fickle too.
“We want more personality!”
Carson Hocevar and Joey Logano exist.
“Not like that!”
Ross Chastain has people chanting for him on the frontstretch.
“I don’t get why anyone likes him.”
An element of what made the All-Star Race so compelling on Sunday night was Logano threatening to ‘show (Bell) what is fair’ and Bell giving it right back to him during a post-race press conference with ‘he was frustrated?’ and ‘I have seen Joey do worse.’
It’s good stuff when drivers are willing to put themselves out there like that.
For one, you have got to do better than expect intellectually honest discourse from drivers within the five minutes they climb out of the car, but when they’re willing to produce zingers or bulletin board material, we all win.
Bell is usually so reserved, someone self-described on Sunday as ‘not flamboyant,’ that it was actually downright fun to hear him clap back at Logano.
Denny Hamlin leads the way with a headline generating podcast every week. Hocevar is a young driver, prone to reckless decisions and a generally indifferent to how you feel about it persona, and Chastain can be equally candid.
#BluntLarson is still a gift that occasionally keeps giving too.
So listen, not every NASCAR driver personality is going to be for you, but appreciate when the characters come into conflict or interact with one another because the sport is better off when they’re giving us all something to talk about.
The caution
The All-Star Race Promoter’s Caution, dubbed the Marcus Smith Caution, eventually becoming the Michael Waltrip Caution was literally dropped on the field by Lap 217 and worked out entirely as intended.
For better or worse.
It changed the outcome of the race, prevented Logano from driving away to what seemed like a sure bet second consecutive All-Star Race victory and set up a strategic divergence that produced a memorable finish.
Logano, left out on older tires, alongside Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Harrison Burton needed to fend off Christopher Bell on fresh right sides. It made the race better and the dynamic was only achieved because of the promoter’s caution — replete with an accompanying fireworks show.
The entire build-up was ridiculous, of course, because there was a seven-minute block of the race where the on-track action became secondary to the Waltrip theatrics on the flag stand.
That wasn’t ideal.
But for what this race is, a non-points exhibition, who cares and whatever. It was more legitimate that the decisive caution in the All-Star Open for Riley Herbst brushing across the wall.
That’s what ultimately cost Ryan Preece a spot in the main event, when he clipped the Choose V, which had rubber caked onto it from a David Ragan EV car burnout earlier in the day.
But regardless of the future of the All-Star Race, and where it goes, this is a fine inclusion that produced exactly what it was intended to.
