NASCAR 'All Star' win for Denny Hamlin felt familiar. New format sure to come

What happens to the All-Star Race going forward? Everyone has an opinion, and all we really know is, something will happen to the format, and something should. On Groundhog Day, it’s basically a coin flip as to whether Phil sees his shadow or not.

But the day each year when NASCAR would release the “updated” All-Star Race format had become a real grab-bag of possibilities. You just never knew what the new twist(s) would be from year to year. Some worked better than others, and frankly, that’s excusable because things sometimes look better on paper than they do on asphalt — or, in the case of Dover, concrete.

But if we’re being honest, how did anyone ever suggest this year’s format looked decent on paper? What’s all-starry about inviting all 36 chartered teams to the main event? Let’s add that to the mix of topics this week as we go through the gears ahead of the biggest annual weekend in automobile racing, where the formats are familiar, if not all the locales.

First Gear: Dover deserves to stay in NASCAR, but maybe not like this For five decades (DECADES! ), Dover was a twice-a-year venue for NASCAR’s Cup Series. That ended in 2020, and through 2025, it was still host to one Cup race each year … until this year.