NASCAR: The one full-time driver not competing in the All-Star Race
By Asher Fair
One full-time driver will not be participating in the NASCAR All-Star Race festivities and won’t even be entered into the All-Star Open.
The NASCAR Cup Series is set for a week off from points racing this weekend, but there is still a race for $1,000,000 scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday night.
After the first 16 points races on the 36-race schedule, the series is set for its annual All-Star Race, with this year’s race set to take place at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Fort Worth, Texas for the first time ever.
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Based on this year’s criteria, there are 17 drivers who are locked into the All-Star Race, and four more spots are slated to be filled by the winners of the three stages of the All-Star Open and the winner of the Fan Vote to create a 21-car field.
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All 36 charter teams are required to participate in the event, meaning that the 19 chartered entries that have not qualified for the 100-lap main event must compete in the 50-lap qualifier to attempt to lock themselves into the 21-car field.
However, with 37 full-time entries and only 36 charter teams, one full-time team is not required to compete this weekend, and that team did indeed make the decision not to compete.
That team is the #37 JTG Daugherty Racing team of Ryan Preece.
Preece is the only full-time driver who competes without a charter, and he has started all 16 points races so far this season.
But the charter that JTG Daugherty Racing, which still run a chartered #47 Chevrolet for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., had used to run the #37 Chevrolet before this year is now controlled by Spire Motorsports.
As a result, the decision was made not to enter the #37 Chevrolet in the event.
Charter teams are required to participate in the all-star race ... JTG Daugherty Racing will not enter Ryan Preece (non-chartered 37 can skip) into Open. ... Roster portal shows Austin Cindric will enter Open. ...This is a 510hp package race so won't learn much for playoff race.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 7, 2021
Given the low-horsepower, high-downforce package that is being used for the weekend, there is not much to learn ahead of the November playoff race at the same track. Plus, traveling to and entering a 50-lap race with such a small purse just to most likely be eliminated before the main event simply wouldn’t be worth it for the team.
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The All-Star Open is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Texas Motor Speedway beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 13, and the All-Star Race is set to be broadcast live on the same network beginning two hours later at 8:00 p.m. ET.