NASCAR: Everything you need to know about the Bristol All-Star Race

The first ever NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled to take place this evening. Here is everything you need to know.

For the first time since the 1986 NASCAR Cup Series season, the All-Star Race is set to be held at a track other than Charlotte Motor Speedway. Tonight’s race is slated to take place at Bristol Motor Speedway.

As it had been for 33 consecutive years and 34 of 35 years since it was introduced, the All-Star Race was scheduled to take place at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Concord, North Carolina once again this year. It was scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16, the week before the annual Coca-Cola 600 at the track.

But the coronavirus pandemic caused those plans to change. While the Coca-Cola 600 remained untouched on the schedule despite an unexpected 10-week pause in action due to the threat of COVID-19, the All-Star Race was moved to Wednesday, July 15. A few weeks after the date change was announced, the location was changed.

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Tonight’s All-Star Race at the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee is still slated to be for $1 million, and it is set to be preceded by the All-Star Open.

A total of 16 drivers have already qualified for the All-Star Race, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. took the pole position by virtue of a random draw.

These 16 drivers qualified for the race by meeting one or more of the following three criteria: (a) won a Cup Series championship, (b) won a Cup Series race in the 2019 and/or 2020 seasons or (c) won a past All-Star Race.

SEE: Full All-Star Race starting lineup

Four more spots remain open in the All-Star Race field. Three are set to be determined by the All-Star Open while the other one is set to be determined by the NASCAR Fan Vote.

The All-Star Open is an 85-lap race broken into three stages: two 35-lap stages followed by a 15-lap sprint to the finish. There can be overtime finishes to each stage, and caution flag laps between stages won’t count. Additionally, only green flag laps will count in the final stage, and as many overtimes as needed will be used until the race ends under green.

A total of 21 drivers are set to compete in this race, and Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell took the pole position for this race by virtue of a random draw.

SEE: Full All-Star Open starting lineup

The winners of each of these three stages are set to advance to the All-Star Race, with the winners of the first two races set to drop out of the All-Star Open once they have won a stage. The winner of the first stage is set to start the All-Star Race in 17th place while the winner of the second stage is set to start in 18th and the winner of the third stage is set to start in 19th.

Finally, the 20th place starter in the All-Star Race is set to be the winner of the NASCAR Fan Vote. If the winner of the NASCAR Fan Vote happens to be one of the stage winners of the All-Star Open, the 20th place starting position will go to the highest finisher of the NASCAR Fan Vote who is not already in the All-Star Race.

The winner of the NASCAR Fan Vote must have a non-wrecked car following the All-Star Open to be eligible to compete in the All-Star Race.

The All-Star Race itself is a 140-lap race that is broken into four stages: a 55-lap stage, two 35-lap stages and a 15-lap sprint. Just like for the All-Star Open, there can be overtime finishes to each stage, and caution flag laps between stages won’t count. Additionally, only green flag laps will count in the final stage, and as many overtimes as needed will be used until the race ends under green.

Set to be used for both the All-Star Open and the All-Star Race is a “choose rule”, meaning that drivers can select the lane in which they restart. Typically, only the leader chooses his lane (relegating the second place starter to the opposite lane), while the drivers in the odd positions restart on the inside and the drivers in the even positions restart on the outside.

Under this rule, we could potentially see something along the lines of the top five drivers opting to restart on the outside lane and the sixth place driver taking track position to move up to second as the leader of the inside lane.

Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast both the All-Star Open and the All-Star Race live from Bristol Motor Speedway this evening, with the former set to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and the latter set to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET.