Last year, to allow Kyle Larson to remain at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Fast Friday practice session and Indy 500 qualifying weekend, Kevin Harvick filled in for him behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Harvick practiced and qualified the car, but he was not allowed to take part in the heat races, and he would not have been allowed to compete in the main event either, even if Larson had not made it to the four-turn, 0.625-mile (1.006-kilometer) North Wilkesboro, North Carolina oval in time after Sunday's Firestone Fast Six qualifying session.
Yet Harrison Burton, who also no longer competes full-time in the Cup Series, is automatically eligible for this year's All-Star Race after Rick Ware Racing named him the driver of the No. 51 Ford.
And the rules haven't changed.
So why is Burton allowed while Harvick wasn't?
There are three ways a driver can be eligible for the All-Star Race: by winning a past Cup Series championship, by winning a past All-Star Race, or by winning a race in either the current season or the season prior.
Harvick is a former Cup Series champion and a former All-Star Race winner. But in order for those criteria to make a driver eligible for the All-Star Race, he still needs to compete full-time. By 2024, he had already retired from full-time competition and moved to the Fox Sports broadcast booth.
The same is not true for the 2024 or 2025 race winners. Those drivers are eligible regardless of whether or not they still compete full-time. So Burton, even though he hasn't competed in a Cup Series race since November, is eligible because he won at Daytona International Speedway in August.
Harvick, on the other hand, did not win a race in either 2023 or 2024, so he did not receive automatic eligibility, even as a former series champion and All-Star Race winner. That, coupled with the fact that he no longer competed full-time, kept him from being able to advance past the single-car qualifying session.
Of course, Harvick technically could have taken part in last year's All-Star Open to lock himself into the All-Star Race; it's not like he was fully ineligible. Just look at someone like Chad Finchum or Cody Ware this year. They don't meet any of the criteria, yet they could still lock themselves in via the Open.
But that would have been counterintuitive since the No. 5 Chevrolet was already locked into the main event with Larson as the driver, and the plan was always for Larson to compete in it. It would have made no sense for the No. 5 car to compete in a completely unnecessary race to secure a spot it had already secured.
The All-Star Open is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from North Wilkesboro Speedway beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 18. The main event is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET, and Larson is set to compete after Justin Allgaier qualified the car (despite not running a heat race). Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!