2022 NASCAR Cup Series Preview - All-Star Race
Brenden Martin previews the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Weekend which kicked off with practice and qualifying, including a pit road challenge on Saturday and the All-Star Open and All-Star Race on Sunday.
The NASCAR All-Star Race is a staple of the Cup Series season. Traditionally, the All-Star Race has been held at Charlotte Motor Speedway the week before the Coca-Cola 600 the following week. However, the event sees a different host for the third straight season. In 2020, the race was held at Bristol Motor Speedway. This year, the festivities are at Texas Motor Speedway for the second year in a row. Texas in the past has had two points races per season but with the addition of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas to the NASCAR schedule last season, the track in Fort Worth, Texas only sees one points race in the playoffs but now gets the All-Star Race as well.
Here’s how the All-Star race works.
20 cars automatically qualify for the All-Star Race (125 laps) at the regular season's halfway point, leaving four spots for the remainder of the field to race for in the All-Star Open (50 laps). The automatic qualifier cars include previous All-Star race winners, previous Cup Series champions and winners of any race over the last two seasons.
Three of the four remaining spots for the All-Star race are won by winning the three stages of the All-Star Open. The stage breaks come at laps 20, 40 and 50. Once an Open driver wins a stage, they are into the All-Star race and don’t compete for the remainder of the Open.
As for the final spot, fans get to vote online for which of the remaining drivers they want to advance to the All-Star Race. Last season, former Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Matt DiBenedetto won the fan vote.
On Saturday the day before the Open and the All-Star Race, NASCAR held practice and qualifying sessions for the All-Star Open and All-Star Race fields. For the Open, Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Tyler Reddick, who won the Xfinity race earlier in the day, was the fastest car in practice and qualifying. However, Reddick revealed in his post-qualifying interview that his team would be making unapproved adjustments that will force the team to start from the rear, leaving Trackhouse Racing No. 99 Daniel Suarez to the pole.
Suarez won the final stage of the 2017 All-Star Open in the No. 19 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. His JGR teammate at the time, No. 18 Kyle Busch, won the All-Star Race that year.
Speaking of Busch, the former All-Star Race winner earned his fourth career All-Star Race pole thanks to a reimagined qualifying system that saw the top eight qualifiers compete in a tournament-style pit road competition.
Drivers went head-to-head in a short drag race to a makeshift pit stall where pit crews had to complete a four-tire pit spot and drivers raced around the track to the start/finish line. Different strategies were on display with the higher seeds in each match up picking which lane to take.
Pit crews were the event's focal point, giving them their time in the spotlight.
“It’s cool,” No. 12 team tire changer Ryan Flores said to Fox Sports’ Jaime Little. “We get to see the IndyCar guys do it every year. We’re having a lot of fun.”
The final round of the pit road tournament came down between Busch and Team Penske No. 12 Ryan Blaney. Busch stopped at the very front of his pit stall to allow his crew to service his car faster, leading to him leaving pit road earlier.
“It was a cool event,” No. 18 team crew chief Ben Beshore said to Little. “It’s something new, a good way to showcase our pit crew. They did a great job. They put in a lot of hard work this offseason and throughout the beginning of the year.”
Busch was also third fastest in All-Star practice, lending to his credibility as a favorite to win the race at Texas, a track he has won at four times with the most recent one being in October 2020.
The NASCAR All-Star Open will begin on Sunday, May 22 at 5:30 p.m. ET and will complete the 20-car field for the NASCAR All-Star Race, which will start at 8 p.m. ET. Coverage of both races can be watched on Fox Sports 1 and listened to on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM.
The winner of the race will be awarded $1 million.
All-Star Open Practice Results:
All-Star Open Starting Order: (To the rear: No. 8 Reddick - Unapproved Adjustments, No. 31 Haley - Unapproved Adjustments)
All-Star Race Practice Results:
All-Star Race Starting Order:
NASCAR Cup Series – All-Star Open – 50-laps (stages of 20-20-10) / 75 miles
NASCAR Cup Series – All-Star Race – 125-laps (stages of 25-25-25-50) / 187.5 miles
Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval) – Fort Worth, Tex.
Fast Facts for May 21-22, 2022
Tire: Goodyear 18-inch Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits: Open: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 3 sets for the race
(2 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying);
All-Star Race: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 5 sets for the race
(4 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying*)
(*teams advancing to bracket qualifying will get a set of sticker tires to replace qualifiers)
Tire Codes:
Left-side — D-5160;
Right-side — D-5122
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.);
Right-side — 2,280 mm (89.76 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi;
Right Front — 50 psi; Right Rear — 46 psi