Breaking It Down: What you need to know about Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race

With $1 million on the line for the winner and no points to worry about, drivers are ready to let it all hang out and throw caution to the wind

Graphic courtesy Dylan Bauerle Racing

Once a year, NASCAR’s biggest stars come together to put on an event unlike anything else in motorsports, the All Star Race. This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Texas Motor Speedway for this year’s running of the high stakes event.

The All Star Race is the one weekend during the season where drivers can forget about points and solely place their focus on winning. With $1 million dollars up for grabs to the winning driver and team, the gloves will come off when the lights come on Sunday night, making it an event you don’t want to miss.

Between all the talent and changes to format, there’s a lot for fans to take in, but here at Breaking It Down, we’ve got you covered:

* To qualify for the field, a driver must have won a race either this year or last year, unless they are a former champion or All-Star race winner. Along with these drivers, the three stage winners from the All-Star Open and the fan vote winner will earn their way into the event Sunday night. With requirements like these, the field is packed with NASCAR’s best drivers, making for no clear favorite going into the big event.

* Kyle Larson is the defending winner of the event, and the only driver to win the All-Star race at Texas Motor Speedway. He dominated last years race, much like he dominated most of the season. Although he is the betting favorite to win the race, the new car has brought far more parity at intermediate tracks than fans saw last year. With that in mind, along with the fact that he only has one win up to this point in the season, Larson is a strong candidate to win but he has his work cut out for him if he wants to take home the big check.

* Larson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, won the event in 2020 at Bristol Motor Speedway but made it clear that he is not a fan of racing at Texas. Earlier this week, Elliott went on record to say, “to get away from Texas would be a major win for me, so the lesser of my times we visit Texas, the better. And I would love that, so that would be great.” Despite his disdain for Texas, Elliott is still a driver to watch for. He finished third in last year’s event at the Fort Worth track and enters the race as the series points leader. With that, he has the momentum and the talent to emerge victorious, which may just change his opinion about the track if it can make him a million dollars richer.

* Fan favorite Bubba Wallace is no stranger to the All-Star Race, but this is the first year he enters the weekend locked in to the main event. He has made the race in the past via the fan vote and the All-Star Open, but his win at Talladega last fall secured him a place in the big show for the first time in his career. He’s never won on an intermediate track in his Cup Series career, but he and his 23XI Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, both had race-winning speed at Kansas last week, with Busch taking the win and Wallace finishing 10th. Wallace and Busch may be dark horses to challenge NASCAR’s biggest names if they can have a repeat performance of last week. There is no telling just how strong Wallace will compare against the sport’s top talents but regardless, his large fan base should be excited to see his No. 23 car locked into the show.

* One other name to watch for is Ross Chastain. This is his second All-Star Race start but the speed he’s shown this year has the entire Cup Series garage taking notice. Although he has not won on an intermediate track this year, Chastain has two wins and plenty of strong runs that have asserted him as a serious contender this season. A win like this could possibly propel him into full Cup Series stardom and he’s proven he has the speed to do it. Chastain’s trajectory to contention is one of NASCAR’s best feel good stories after having such an uncertain future just one year earlier. However, with the talent he’s shown this year, the sky is the limit for Chastain and his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team.

One of the most exciting parts of the All-Star race is the fact that every driver is a proven competitor in the Cup Series. Every driver has a chance at the win and they are all willing to do whatever it takes to secure the million dollars and bragging rights the come with victory. Behind each driver is a story of triumph and tribulations that have led them to the sport’s biggest stage. Until the green flag drops on Sunday, there is no telling who truly has the best shot to win and the uncertainty is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seat all race long.

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The other aspect of the excitement is the format of the race. The All-Star race does not follow the standard three-stage format that fans are accustomed to. When taking that into consideration, this year’s format may seem a little confusing. However, with a little breaking down, fans can get a good idea of what to expect.

For the sake of simplicity, here’s what fans needs to know going into Sunday’s race:

* The race is shorter than a typical Cup Series race at 125 laps/187.5 miles. The event is split up into three 25-lap stages and a final 50-lap stage that will decide the winner. Essentially, the first three stages decide the starting order for the critical final stage. The winner of Stage One will start first, the Stage Two winner will start second, and the Stage Three winner will finish third, so long as they manage to finish 15th or better in the stages following their victory. The fourth starting position for the final stage will be awarded to the driver who spends the least amount of time on pit road during the mandatory pit stops following the completion of Stage Two. Not to mention, the winner of the pit crew challenge will also receive a $100,000 bonus, which should also add some excitement to the event. The rest of the field will restart the final stage based on their running order, so outside of the top four spots everything is fairly similar to how positions are managed during a typical NASCAR race.

* With so much weight placed on the final stage, it should set the stage for a fierce battle between NASCAR’s best drivers. During the stage, NASCAR has announced that if "no natural caution occurs between lap 15-25 of the final stage, NASCAR will call a competition caution." With no points on the line and no escaping the field for long thanks to the stage and competition cautions, the event is designed to create an all-out, every man for himself grudge match that fans won’t want to miss.

With all the nuance to the format, it's fair to say NASCAR has carefully crafted a race that constantly excites and tests driver’s patience. Since it’s an exhibition race, trying new ideas like this is a fun way to create a product that entertains beyond what a typical points-paying race can produce. With this in conjunction with the stacked roster of talent competing for the coveted million dollars, this year’s All Star race is a can’t miss event.