All-Star Race Preview: A Night for the Stars to Shine

This exhibition race is divided into several racing segments which ultimately culminate in the final segment in which a winner is crowned. The racing begins Saturday evening with the Monster Energy Open, a 50-lap sprint race divided into two 20-lap segments and a final 10-lap dash to the finish. As many as four Open drivers can transfer into the All-Star Race, three by winning each segment of the Open, and the potential fourth by winning an internet fan vote. To qualify for the Open, a driver must have finished in the Top 50 of the 2017 Monster Energy Cup standings, attempted to qualify for the 2018 Daytona 500 or competed in a NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series event during the 2018 season. This is an exciting heat race, because the winners of the segments are usually drivers that are not normally contenders for the victory on most Monster Energy Cup race weekends. After the Open and later Saturday night is the Monster Energy Cup All-Star Race. This is the weekend's main feature.

It is an 80-lap event divided into four segments of 30 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps and a 10-lap shootout finale. The drivers who transfer from the Open join the drivers who are race winners from the previous and current Monster Energy Cup seasons, past All-Star event champions and Monster Energy Cup Series champions who are active drivers and have competed in at least one series event during the 2017 or 2018 season. Once the field is set, racing begins in the first segment of 30 laps. After the first 30-lap segment a break of approximately 5 minutes and optional pit stops are performed. The next two 20-lap segments play out similarly. The winner of each of these segments gets an automatic seed into the final 10-driver, 10-lap shootout. The rest of the 10-driver field is set by average finishing position for the three prior heats. Any remaining drivers that don't make the cut are eliminated from the final segment. The winner of this fourth and final segment earns a hefty $1 million purse. NASCAR has tweaked the excitement factor a bit this season and added NASCAR overtime rules to all segments of the All-Star Race. Only green flag laps count, so there will be no finishes under caution, and no caution flag laps taken off the board to shorten these exciting segments.

Since this is an exhibition racing event and a departure from NASCAR's normal racing format, we have to put the historical track statistics in proper perspective this week. The stats can be skewed since most teams come to the All-Star race with "disposable cars" and are looking to hit the big payday even at the expense of wrecking the team's car. However, we can rely to the loop stats to a certain degree when evaluating our contenders this week. The loop stats in the table below cover the last 13 years or 13 All-Star Races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Chase Elliott - We would have expected by now that Elliott would be a one-time winner in the Cup Series and have the automatic seed into the All-Star Race, but that is not the case this weekend. So the Hendrick Motorsports rising star will be a top entrant into the Open field. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet will be making his fourth start in this exhibition event. Elliott qualified third and finished third in this race one year ago, but he didn't race his way into the All-Star Race. Thanks to the fan vote the young driver made it into the night's main event. Once again, this talented youngster should stand tall in this thinner field of Cup Series talent and be one of the top drivers to beat. Considering Elliott's 10th- and 11th-place finishes at Atlanta and Fort Worth earlier this season, the team should be dialed in.

Erik Jones - Jones will be looking to make his second-career start in the Open this weekend. He will also be looking to erase the disappointment of crashing out of this event one year ago in his All-Star debut. The Joe Gibbs Racing youngster has been pretty stout on the cookie cutter ovals this season. Jones earned 11th-, eighth-, fourth- and seventh-place finishes at Atlanta, Las Vegas, Fort Worth and Kansas. He has some good familiarity with Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jones earned a strong seventh-place finish in last season's Coca-Cola 600, and he has a pair of Top-5 finishes in his handful of Xfinity Series starts at the North Carolina oval. All Star night usually provides some surprises, and most often it comes from this Open heat race. Jones is positioned to take advantage of this field of competition, and could easily put the No. 20 Toyota in victory lane after this 50-lap exhibition.

Aric Almirola - The driver of the No. 10 Ford is having a banner season. Almirola owns five Top-10 finishes through the season's first 12 events and strides a lofty 11th in the driver standings into All-Star weekend. This will be the veteran driver's fifth-career start in the Monster Energy Open, so he doesn't lack for experience on this big stage. With a collection of seventh-, seventh-, fifth- and sixth-place finishes in his prior starts, Almirola is always racing at the front in this exhibition race. When you consider this will be the best team and fastest car he's ever brought to All-Star weekend, then the conclusion is pretty textbook. Almirola notched respectable 13th- and 10th-place finishes at the similar ovals of Atlanta and Las Vegas earlier this season, so this opportunity will not be wasted on the SHR No. 10 team. They know they have a good chance to win Saturday night.

Daniel Suarez - The winner of last season's Monster Energy Open is back to defend his crown this Saturday night. Although the intermediate ovals have not been anything to get fired up about for this driver and team in the early season, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is heating up coming into All-Star weekend. Suarez just snapped a three-race Top-10 streak coming into Charlotte this week, and that has boosted him from 24th- to 21st-place in the driver standings over that span. The driver of the No. 19 Toyota showed he liked racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season when he grabbed 11th- and sixth-place finishes in his first two-career starts at the oval. In addition, Suarez has also nabbed four Top 10s in five-career Xfinity Series starts at the track. That makes Charlotte on of his better intermediate ovals on the circuit.

Paul Menard - Menard will be making his amazing 11th start in the Monster Energy Open. That makes him one of the most experienced drivers in the field. He won the pole for this event in 2015, and finished a career-best third in that Open. The No. 21 Ford team had somewhat struggled on intermediate ovals this season, but Menard silenced his critics with a brilliant sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway this past Saturday night. That's a great indicator heading into All-Star weekend. Wood Brothers Racing has traditionally been strong on the cookie cutter tracks, with Ryan Blaney's last few seasons as good evidence. Menard may not be the favorite to win, but it there's a surprise winner in the field, it could likely Menard and the Wood Brothers Racing team.

William Byron - The absolute long shot of the field, but with the best chance to upset the much more favored teams, has to easily be rookie Byron and the No. 24 team. This will be his first appearance in All-Star weekend festivities. Byron had been trending northward until his crash and DNF at Kansas this past week. Two of his last four finishes were Top 15s at Richmond and Dover. The young driver also collected his first Top-10 finish of the season a few weeks back at the similar intermediate oval in Fort Worth. Byron is a very long odds driver to win the Monster Energy Open, but if a major crash were to happen or some other game-changing incident, he's one of the likely candidates to seize on the opportunity to grab a rare win.

The All-Star Race Contenders – Drivers in the hunt for the win

Kevin Harvick - Harvick enters All-Star weekend as the most dominant driver in the series after the first 12 races. He's already nabbed five victories, and the season is still very young. That will be a huge factor heading to Charlotte this Saturday night. The Stewart Haas Racing star is fresh off consecutive victories at Dover and Kansas. It would seem the No. 4 Ford team are the outfit to beat each and every weekend right now. Harvick is a one-time winner of the All-Star Race, in 2007, and he's also finished runner-up in two of the last four All-Star events. It's been a long while between drinks, but Harvick may finally visit All-Star victory lane again this Saturday night.

Kyle Busch - This will be Busch's 13th appearance in the All-Star Race. He is the defending event champion. The Joe Gibbs Racing star started on the outside pole, led 10 laps and took his first All-Star victory in this exhibition one year ago. For years his aggressive driving style prevented him from winning this race, but last year he finally had the right balance of speed and patience to win. Coming into the weekend, Busch has been a top performer on the intermediate ovals. He finished runner-up at Las Vegas and won at Texas earlier this season. That makes the No. 18 Toyota team a dangerous squad heading into this installment of the All-Star Race. It took Busch a long time to win this event, so you can bet he'll defend his race title of one year ago with lots of urgency. There's a lot more at stake here than just the big race purse.

Martin Truex Jr. - This will be Truex's eighth appearance in the Monster Energy All-Star Race. Although he's never won the All-Star Race, he is a two-time winner of the opening heat race (Monster Energy Open), so he knows all too well the pressure and performance required to race his way into the night's main event. The No. 78 Toyota team of Furniture Row Racing has been a bit behind the likes of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick on the intermediate ovals this season, but they've been gaining ground fast. Truex is fresh off a runner-up finish at the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway this past weekend. It wasn't a dominant performance, but it was just what this team needed right now. It could be he's heating up at the right time entering this weekend of the season.

Kyle Larson - The uneven start to the season has seen Larson experience some big highs and some even bigger lows. However, the speed of the No. 42 Chevrolet has come on strong the last couple races. Larson had dominant cars at both Dover and Kansas, but the breaks would not go his way to get those wins. His 101 laps led and methodical charge from the rear to the front at Kansas Speedway this past week cannot be overlooked. This will be the Chip Ganassi Racing star's third-career start in the All-Star Race. Larson turned in his best performance in this exhibition event last year. He won the pole position, led 40 laps and finished runner-up to Kyle Busch in the final stage. You can bet Larson will be hungry to push it up a notch Saturday night.

Joey Logano - The Penske Racing star can hardly wait to race this Saturday night at Charlotte. Logano is coming into All-Star weekend enjoying a rebound season. He's tracking towards a 15 Top-5 and 30 Top-10 campaign at the third-point of the season. Logano won the All-Star Race in 2016 and he finished runner-up in the 2013 installment, so he knows what it takes to win this prestigious event. The intermediate ovals have rewarded him with four Top-10 finishes this season, including his brilliant third-place effort this past weekend at Kansas Speedway. Logano is not one of the prime contenders to win the Monster Energy Cup All-Star Race, but he's certainly at the front of the line of the second-tier contenders.

Brad Keselowski - The Penske Racing star is due some close examination before this All-Star Race. Keselowski is a one-time winner at Charlotte Motor Speedway in points-paying events, and he boasts a pretty strong resume in the All-Star exhibition events. The veteran driver has yet to win this season, but he always seems to bring his best to Charlotte for All-Star weekend. Keselowski owns a pair of runner-up finishes in this exhibition event in 2012 and 2016, so he knows what it is to race up front and taste a near-brush with that million-dollar purse. We should see a motivated driver and No. 2 Ford team this weekend in one of NASCAR's most prestigious prime-time events.

Ryan Blaney - This will be Blaney's second start in the All-Star Race. Last year he competed in the Open, and won stage 2 to advance into the night's main event. The young driver would go onto finish 11th and be eliminated from the final stage of last year's All-Star Race. For his second start in this exhibition, he'll be with a new race team. Blaney's No. 12 Penske Ford team has been very strong in their first season together. He has three Top-5 and six Top-10 finishes to this point in the season and they come to Charlotte ninth in the driver standings. Blaney is fresh off an outside pole and 54 laps led at Kansas Speedway this past week. Although he was caught up in an accident, he showed his has the speed to contend this Saturday night.

Kurt Busch - Busch is a one-time winner of the All-Star Race, and that victory came in 2010 while he was racing for Roger Penske. The Stewart Haas Racing veteran has over 80 laps led and eight-career Top-5 finishes in this exhibition event. Four of those Top 5s have come in just the last five All-Star events. It's easy to see that the 39-year-old driver has tons of experience performing on this big stage. Busch nabbed the pole position, led 40 laps and finished seventh at Fort Worth earlier this spring, so the No. 41 SHR Ford team does have the speed on these ovals. Busch also led 52 laps at the similar quad-oval in Atlanta earlier this year. This driver and the team have the makeup to be upset minded in this All-Star Race.

Jimmie Johnson - The seven-time Monster Energy Cup Series champion is a four-time All-Star Race winner, and he's an eight-time winner of points-paying events at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has a real knack for dominating at this particular intermediate oval. This season has been a real tumultuous affair, but we have to give the Hendrick Motorsports star his due at this particular oval, and for this particular race. Johnson was experience similar struggles last season at this time, and still managed to finish an impressive third-place in last season's All-Star Race. He led 19 laps that evening and you wouldn't have realized he was in a prolonged slump. At best Johnson is a long shot to win, but he's worth keeping an eye on just in case.