People and Pop Culture
Closing Shot: All-Star Move
As NASCAR’s All-Star Race rolls into Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 33rd consecutive time, debate continues to simmer over whether a change of venue would re-energize the annual shootout.
Kevin Harvick celebrates with a burnout after winning last year’s All-Star Race. The event features the sport’s top drivers gunning for a $1 million prize.getty images
NASCAR’s best drivers take to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend for the annual All-Star Race, but the event comes amid continued chatter about whether it should be moved to a different venue in future seasons.
The race has been held at the Speedway Motorsports Inc.-owned venue every year except one since its inception in 1985. But like almost everything in NASCAR now, there’s debate about whether change is in order.
The racing on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile paved oval has not always been the most enamoring in recent years, although last year did see an uptick in excitement due to a new aerodynamic package that was tested for the event and produced better action on the track.
Still, at a time when NASCAR has revealed plans to start rotating its season-ending championship race, now held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, many are wondering whether the All-Star Race should get the same treatment in order to inject new energy.
“Just like the final race of the year, I think it’s a great idea to move [the All-Star Race] to different tracks,” Jeff Gordon, NASCAR hall of famer, wrote in a text message. “I’m in favor of moving it around, but I also recognize the added cost to the teams if it is too far away from Charlotte in its current slot on the schedule.”
NASCAR and SMI don’t publicly discuss whether they are considering moving the event. One scenario would be moving it to Nashville’s Fairgrounds Speedway, but that would be contingent upon SMI working out a wider deal with the city to redevelop the track. SMI also may not want to move the race because Charlotte Motor Speedway is seen as its home track, given the company’s headquarters are based there.
To make the All-Star Race more exclusive than other NASCAR events, for the most part the only drivers who qualify are those who have won a points race in the prior or current season or full-time drivers who have won a previous Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. The winner of the race gets $1 million, an amount traditionally paid by the title sponsor of the premier series.
“It’s great that it pays a lot to win,” Gordon wrote, “but that makes it even tougher to move outside of North Carolina because the purse isn’t distributed very well throughout the field.”
