2020 NASCAR All-Star Race

The 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race (XXXVI) was a NASCAR Cup Series stock car exhibition race that was originally scheduled to be held on May 16, 2020 and was rescheduled on July 15, 2020, at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Contested over 140 laps, it is the second exhibition race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was the first All-Star Race since the 1986 Winston at Atlanta Motor Speedway to be hosted outside Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Background
The All-Star Race is open to race winners from last season through the 2020 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, all previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup champions who had attempted to qualify for every race in 2020, the winner of each stage of the All-Star Open, and the winner of the All-Star fan vote are eligible to compete in the All-Star Race.

As part of scheduling changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and citing a desire to host the race with fans (which is not currently possible due to current health orders in North Carolina), the All-Star Race was moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Bristol Motor Speedway.

While most NASCAR races held since the resumption have been held behind closed doors with no spectators, the All-Star Race admitted 30,000 spectators with social distancing. Although this was only 20% of the venue's total capacity of 162,000, the All-Star Race hosted the largest number of spectators at a U.S. sporting event since the beginning of pandemic-related restrictions.

A new "choose rule" was used for restarts during the race, where drivers could choose whether they wanted to be in the inside or outside lane. NASCAR experimented with an underglow lighting package on vehicles at the All-Star Race, color-coded by manufacturer (with Chevrolet in orange, Ford in blue, and Toyota in red). This package was featured on the vehicles of all drivers who had automatically qualified for the event. At the request of teams, NASCAR also experimented with moving the numbers on the sides of vehicles closer to their rear tires, in order to provide additional room for sponsor logos.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying (Open)
Michael McDowell was awarded the pole for the open as determined by a random draw.

Qualifying (All-Star Race)
Martin Truex Jr. was awarded the pole for the race as determined by a random draw.

The Open Stage 1
It did not take long for things to heat up in Stage 1 of the Open. Near the front of the field, a battle for position between Michael McDowell and Bubba Wallace got physical. Wallace used the bump-and-run hitting McDowell in the rear and moving him up the race track to make the pass. McDowell retaliated by running up the high side of the track to pull even with Wallace and turning down into the right rear of Wallace’s car. Wallace spun into the outside wall and destroyed his car taking him out of the race and the possibility of a fan-vote entry.

McDowell spun off the bumper of William Byron’s car and suffered sheet metal damage. His crew was able to repair the car enough for McDowell to continue in the race. While all that was going on Aric Almirola had moved to the lead. Undoubtedly one of the best cars on the Cup Circuit over the last few weeks, Almirola took the Stage 1 win.

After exiting the infield care center, Bubba addressed the media. Not happy with McDowell!

The Open Stage 2
With “Bristol Battles” going on all around the track, William Byron stayed out of trouble and easily won Stage 2. Booking his ticket to the All-Star Race for the 2nd year in the same manner.

The Open Stage 3
Race leader Matt DiBenedetto choose the outside line for the 15-lap final Stage. A big push from Clint Bowyer sent DiBenedetto into the lead and he never faltered. Clearly the best car on the track, the Wood Brothers Ford Mustang pulled away and won the final qualifying position.

Stage 1
Ryan Blaney drove to the early lead, driving past Alex Bowman easily. It only took 7 laps for trouble to bust out on the track as Kurt Busch went around off the front bumper of Brad Keselowski. Minor damage to Busch’s car was repaired in the pits and he returned to action.

Chase Elliott and Joey Logano found each other midway through the Stage, with Elliott making the pass for 4th place. The two fought it out in the Spring race here, wrecking each other out of the lead late in the race.

Kevin Harvick closed onto Blaney’s bumper with 5 laps to go, but Blaney was able to hold him off for the Stage Win. Chase Elliott followed Harvick across the line, with Bowman in 4th and Byron, Michigan’s Erik Jones rounding out the top 5.

Possibly the car to watch in the next Stage is Aric Almirola, who drove from the rear to take the 6th spot at the green and white checkered flag. Erik Jones’s crew was over the wall too soon on his Stage ending pit stop. The resulting penalty? Restart at the rear of the field.

Stage 2
Harvick wins the race off pit road followed by Blaney, Logano, and Bowman. On the restart, Ryan Newman spun off Turn 4 coming back to the line and the yellow displayed again. Chase Elliott moved into the top 4 for the restart and he sprinted past Harvick for the lead.

Elliott won the Stage, followed by Harvick, Blaney, Keselowski, and Bowman. Fan vote winner, Clint Bowyer drove from the last starting position at the beginning of the race to 6th place at the end of Stage 2

Stage 3
While the remainder of the field pitted, Ryan Blaney stayed on the track earning the top spot on the restart. Elliott, Keselowski, and DiBenedetto follow him to the green. The chose cone has already caused position changes as drivers pick what they feel to be the optimum line.

Blaney, with the older tires, was able to fend off an assault as drivers went three, then four-wide behind him. But, was the move to stay out a smart call? Pitting before the final Stage may be too much of a deficit to make up in just 15 laps.

Elliott passed Blaney with 15 laps to go in the Stage and drove away to the win. Blaney, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 5. Harvick was the first of the leaders to pit as only a few cars came to pit road for service. Harvick commented on the radio, “We can’t best then with what we have so why not pit and give it a go.”

The Final Stage
Elliott, Keselowski, Hamlin, and Blaney led them to the green. Elliott surged to such a big lead he may untouchable, Kyle Busch made the big move into 2nd as the leaders raced two and three-wide.

With 5 laps to go Elliott held a half-second lead on Kyle Busch who could get no closer. As Elliott took the checkered flag he became the 2nd father-son combination to win the All-Star event with his father Bill Elliott who won in 1986. Ironically Both Elliotts won on the only two occasions the All-Star Race was not held at Charlotte. Bill’s win came at Atlanta.

Television
Fox Sports is the television broadcaster of the race in the United States. Lap-by-lap announcer, Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon will cover the race from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. Regan Smith and Matt Yocum will report from pit lane. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. This is also Fox Sports' last Cup race for their portion of the season as NBC Sports takes over NASCAR broadcasts for the rest of the season.

Radio
Motor Racing Network (MRN) continues their longstanding relationship with Speedway Motorsports to broadcast the race on radio. The lead announcers for the race's broadcast are Alex Hayden and Jeff Striegle. The network also implements two announcers on each side of the track: Dave Moody in turns 1 and 2 and Kyle Rickey in turns 3 and 4. Winston Kelly and Steve Post are the network's pit lane reporters. The network's broadcast is also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.