Ken Squier and Ned Jarrett could not believe their eyes. Neither could the 130,000 fans packed into Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 17, 1987, as Dale Earnhardt, “The Intimidator,” kept control of his car despite being pushed onto the grass by fierce rival Bill Elliott. It became a moment known as the “Pass in the Grass.”
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It’s arguably one of the most exciting moments in NASCAR All-Star Race history. Dale Sr. went home with $200,000 that day, giving fans plenty to talk about, even almost 40 years later.
Now, let’s think about the 2026 All-Star Race. Denny Hamlin, after winning and managing his tires around the Monster Mile successfully, left with $1 million. But will we be discussing a tire management masterclass years later? Most NASCAR fans would say absolutely not. And that is the basis of the debate surrounding the state of the All-Star Race.
There’s a lot the NASCAR community is unhappy about. Changing venues, experiments with the format no one asked for, and for some, even the (previously mouth-watering) prospect of earning a seven-figure check by winning a race. NASCAR has a problem on its hands. And it’s not something that can be ignored anymore.
What’s happening with the All-Star race?
NASCAR has planned a bunch of changes for the 2027 season. Among them is something fans have been asking for for a while: bringing the Clash back to Daytona. But some questions remain unanswered, including the future of where the All-Star Race will be held.
Between 1985 and 2019, only Charlotte got a taste of the All-Star Race, barring a solitary trip to Atlanta in 1986. It was special. Older fans will remember when lights were installed at the speedway in 1992, turning it into a night race and making it even more of a spectacle (night races weren’t as common back then).
But in 2020, it shifted to Bristol, then to Road America, and then to North Wilkesboro. Earlier this year, North Wilkesboro swapped places with Dover, allowing the latter to host the All-Star Race. And although NASCAR has not announced it officially, multiple reports suggest North Wilkesboro will return as the All-Star Race host in 2027.
It’s safe to say that this chatter doesn’t have the NASCAR fanbase rippling with excitement. Choosing where to host the race is no easy task. And Dale Earnhardt Jr., who would have heard countless stories of iconic moments from the event growing up, feels the best solution may be to scrap the race altogether.
“The best idea I’ve heard is for the All-Star Race to go away entirely. I don’t really love any of these ideas fully, but I don’t like any of the tracks being an afterthought, right? Or just something that’s on the back burner,” Dale Jr. said in a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download.
Why pit historic venues against each other to decide which one gets to host a race that, quite frankly, doesn’t have as many exciting moments as it once did? That’s what Dale Jr. argues.
Speedway Motorsports owner Marcus Smith, who was on the same podcast, feels that NASCAR should treat the All-Star race like a ‘punching bag ‘, as it has been of late with its various gimmicks.
In 2025, NASCAR intentionally threw a yellow flag, calling it the “Promoter’s Caution.” In 2024, it introduced multiple tire compounds. And just this past year, after what was, bluntly speaking, a boring All-Star Race, NASCAR scrapped the traditional All-Star Open qualifier altogether. Instead, it introduced a 350-lap, three-stage format featuring the entire chartered field. To generate traffic, they simply inverted the field.
Smith feels NASCAR should treat the All-Star race like an experimental event. He even suggested something former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone once had plans of doing: turning the sprinklers on the track on a turn to make a simple race into chaos by making it wet. F1 said no. Let’s see if NASCAR does otherwise.
The debate, then, isn’t whether the All-Star Race should change. It’s about how far NASCAR should be willing to change it.
NASCAR should defend the soul of the All-Star Race
First, do we really scrap a race that’s gone on to become one of NASCAR’s biggest events since its introduction in 1985? No. The All-Star Race, when done right, with exciting racing and history to lean on, can still attract tens of thousands to the track and millions of viewers from around the world.
Jeff Burton, on the same podcast, suggested NASCAR rotate the All-Star Race between multiple short tracks, such as South Boston Speedway and Hickory Speedway. And while, ideally, that would make for great racing, the Next Gen cars have not produced that on short tracks. So, as far as where the race should be held, NASCAR should take a different approach.
Embrace the history of the All-Star Race. Let NASCAR take it back to Charlotte. There are concerns over priority, with the crown-jewel status of the Coca-Cola 600 taking precedence, as well as the fact that the ROVAL is an important part of the venue. But fans want to go back to feeling that excitement. And that starts and ends with Charlotte.
Even “The King”, Richard Petty, said after NASCAR’s 2026 All-Star race: “Take it back to Charlotte”.
Charlotte is the motorsports capital of the country. Most teams are based in North Carolina, with their shops located close to the track, making for a relatively headache-free weekend when it comes to logistics.
Burton had a suggestion that could make the All-Star race a must-see again. Have only former Cup Series winners and Champions in the grid. Even if it makes for a relatively shorter one.
And that makes sense. Because the name quite clearly states just that: All-Star.
There are concerns with this solution, too. Since 2022, the racing itself has been criticized in NASCAR, All-Star Race or not. The aero dependency has made it difficult for cars to overtake the way they did in the sport’s earlier eras. But these cars also thrive best on intermediate ovals, which helps Charlotte’s case.
Test ideas for the future and try to find small ways to make the racing more fun and engaging, something that could eventually be implemented in regular Cup Series races as well. But the soul of what made the All-Star so great once should be revived and protected.
Reduce the duration, as fans don’t want to watch 350 laps of action in a non-points Cup Series race. Short distance, aggressive racing for a big sum of money and bragging rights for a whole year, until the band gets back together once again.
NASCAR simply needs to remember why fans fell in love with it in the first place. History, high stakes, and the best drivers in the sport going all out for one night. Sometimes, the best way forward is to look back.