20 drivers will compete in the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend to win the NASCAR All-Star race and take home $1 million. What is set to be the 40th running of the All-Star exhibition event will be considerably different from its previous edition in certain aspects. Prime among them is the new format and the addition of multiple tire compounds.
Advertisement
The main race on Sunday will be a 200-lap contest around the 0.625-mile oval with breaks at Lap 100 and Lap 150. The race will be preceded by the All-Star Open in which 20 drivers will race for two transfer spots into the main race. 17 drivers will gain entry to the main race through wins in the ongoing or the 2023 Cup Series season, past being an All-Star winner or a season champion.
The final driver will be decided by the All-Star Fan Vote winner. The starting line-up will be decided by two heat races of 60 laps each in which the 17 pre-decided drivers will compete. The finishing positions from Heat Race 1 will set the inside row while those from Heat Race 2 will set the outside. Meanwhile, Goodyear’s three tire compounds are perhaps the most noteworthy addition to the upcoming event.
Teams will have at their disposal “prime” tires which are traditional slicks along with “option” tires. The latter are soft slicks originally developed for wet weather usage. Aside from these two, there’ll also be proper wet-weather tires. The spotlight will be on how the “option” tire performs for NASCAR pegs it to be the solution to improve short-track racing. The tire proposedly produces quicker speed but wears off heavily.
Why having different tire compounds can be a disadvantage for teams on Sunday
A key concern that crew chiefs and drivers have ahead of the All-Star race is the sensitivity of the Next Gen car to the tires that it runs on. Based on the tire compound that’s in use, the handling of the car could change a lot and there simply will not be enough time on the pit road to adjust the handling when switching tires. RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski pitched in on this worry.
He said, as reported by Sportsnaut, “When the pace picks up because they [the cars] sit on the bump stops, it dramatically changes the way they handle. So, if the new tire is much faster, you’re going to have to choose between setting up for that or the (standard) tire, and that can create some discrepancies that could open up passing, right?” Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Rodney Childers shared the same doubt.
While neither NASCAR nor Goodyear has a solution for potential speed disparity, time will have to be bided till Sunday to see how the Next Gen car reacts to the primes and the options. Starting the race on option tires is mandatory for all teams. They will have two sets of primes and two sets of options to use. The strategy will be all the more important to be successful in this experiment.
