The days of passing in the grass and Tyrannosaurus Rex’s dominating exhibition events are long gone. It’s no secret that NASCAR’s All-Star Race has drastically lost its allure with each passing year. Boredom seldomly isn’t front a center for this once extravagant event, and while the sanctioning body has been attempting to recapture lightning in a bottle, the experiments haven’t been working.
Recently serving as a test session for future endeavors, the latest crop of changes brings elements of mass confusion. Even the most intellectual and optimistic NASCAR enthusiasts have scoffed at the notion of six stages and the outrageous formulas that determine the lineup for each segment.
While everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, it’s unfair to criticize without seeing the finished product. But it’s going to take more than vehicular underglow, number placement, and outrageous formatting to revive the All-Star Race.
The biggest question that should be asked is, should NASCAR consider putting a halt to the exhibition event? This may sound like an outlandish statement given the historic memories from older All-Star Race weekends, but if you really think about it, it’s a fair inquiry.
Perhaps the most important reasoning for this thought is the safety of drivers. Knowing what we do about concussions, what’s the point of putting the sport’s superstars in danger, especially at a high-speed track like Texas Motor Speedway in 2021?
Of course, the livelihood of these athletes is the main concern, but there’s also the monetary aspect. These stock cars cost around $350,000, and there’s a high risk of wasting resources. For what? A shot at $1 million?
Sure, many of the teams that make the main event can realistically “afford” to wreck out, but what about the smaller budget teams running in the All-Star Open? With driver safety and unnecessary carnage on the line, it doesn’t entirely make sense to keep fielding an event that’s gradually been losing its luster as is.
According to Nielson, the All-Star Race ratings and viewership have been declining over the past five years. In fact, viewership in 2020 fell 15% from the year prior and was the lowest it’s been since 2003.
The reality is NASCAR won’t do away with this event — not now anyway. While still being run, the only thing to do is embrace it and hope the sanctioning body implements progressive changes that will alter the event for the better.
With the only incentive being $1 million, maybe that’s something worth exploring. Clearly, that’s not been enough to put on a good show for fans. What if points were awarded solely for stage wins or even stage finishes as a whole to put towards the playoffs?
This would heighten an emphasis on competition for drivers in the exhibition event, something that’s been lacking as a whole throughout professional sports’ all-star weekends. The most recent incentive for an all-star event was when the MLB awarded the conference-winning team with home-field advantage in the World Series. That luxury was abolished in 2017.
One thing other professional sports have gotten right for their respective celebratory weekends is skills competitions. More often than not, people look forward to these head-to-head challenges over the main event. Whether it’s the three-point contest for the NBA, NHL shootouts, or the home run derby for the MLB, these events steal the show.
Which begs the question — Why did NASCAR get rid of the Pit Crew Challenge in 2013? The short answer is lack of sponsorship, but with the sport’s popularity gradually ascending again, there should be a conversation about bringing this back.
For as much as people praise stock car racing for being a team sport, it doesn’t feel like it sometimes. Those warriors on pit road deserve just as much recognition as the men and women driving the cars, and it’s about time they can showcase their athleticism to a larger scale than live pit stops each Sunday.
Lastly, there should be a way to make this a pure all-star event. NASCAR should attempt to homologate a stock car specifically for this event and merge winners and past champions from all three national series. This would make for a one-of-a-kind event never showcased in professional sports, and it would bring much deserving exposure to drivers and teams in the developmental series.
Take away the All-Star Open to avoid smaller budget teams being set back even further money-wise, keep the fan vote, of course, but this could very well spell the resurrection of the All-Star Race for NASCAR.
Whether this notion is even possible remains to be seen, but it would certainly be entertaining. For now, we’ll have to see how NASCAR’s latest experiment with the All-Star Race plays out at Texas. Although they’ve received much scrutiny since revealing the format recently, it’s unfair to criticize without seeing the result.
Ultimately, the sanctioning body should be praised for searching for ways to improve the future of the sport with innovations. It should also be taken into consideration that many hours of planning and preparation went into presenting these new rulings. In the end, it’s these people’s job to get creative. They’re not dumb. Respect the process and ingenuity until it’s proven to be a failure.
