All-star event has seen many changes since '85

However, the bottom line remains the same: Winner takes all

The Nextel All-Star Challenge is NASCAR's version of no-holds-barred fighting; anything goes (and usually does) with a winner-take-all format that only furthers the edict that second place is just the first loser.

Formerly known as The Winston, the event is open to winners from the previous year as well as the current season. A driver also is eligible if he wins the Nextel Open, a 30-lap qualifying race for drivers not in the Challenge.

Michael Waltrip

In 1996, Michael Waltrip became the first driver to win the all-star race after transferring in from a qualifying race.

Charlotte played host to the first all-star race in 1985. The next year it was held in Atlanta, but returned to Charlotte in '87 and has remained there since.

Former Cup and All-Star champions also are eligible for the race. Until 2001 the rule restricted only champions of the past five all-star events, but in 2005, the rule became the winners in the past 10 years of either the Cup championship or the all-star race.

So how did NASCAR get to its current all-star format?

1985: The Winston
(70 laps)
Winner:
• 1985 -- Darrell Waltrip

The 12 race winners from 1984 participated in the inaugural The Winston at Charlotte. The race was 70 laps with one pit stop, and was held the day before the Coca-Cola 600.

A split second before his engine blew Darrell Waltrip overcame a huge lead by Harry Gant to win the inaugural all-star event. With 27 laps to go, Waltrip trailed Gant by four seconds. Waltrip took the lead entering Turn 3 on the next-to-last lap. On Lap 70, with the checkered flag in sight, Waltrip shook his fist at the crowd of 133,200, crossed the finish line ... and then the engine blew.

1986: The Winston
(83 laps)
Winner:
• 1986 -- Bill Elliott

The race moved to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Mother's Day in 1986, and was 83 laps. Like the year before, green-flag pit stops were mandatory. Only race winners from the 1985 season were eligible, however, with only nine race winners in 1985 the highest placed non-winner in final points (Geoffrey Bodine) was added to the field.

Bill Elliott

A 100-lap consolation race for non-winners, the Atlanta Invitational, had only 13 cars, and Benny Parsons won that event. Only 18,500 attended the second edition of The Winston, which featured only 23 cars in the two races combined.

1987-89: The Winston
(three segments -- 75, 50 and 10 laps)
Winners:
• 1987 -- Dale Earnhardt
• 1988 -- Terry Labonte
• 1989 -- Rusty Wallace

The race returned to Charlotte in 1987 with a new three-segment, 135-lap format that catered to NASCAR's short-track roots. The event also had a new date: the week before the Coca-Cola 600. Live national television coverage on ABC also was featured.

This format consisted of a 75-lap first segment, with a mandatory green-flag pit stop; a 50-lap second segment; and a 10-lap, green-flag final segment. Each segment was separated by a 10-minute break.

The format of winners also changed. The past 19 race winners, regardless of year, were in the race, and other drivers participated in a 100-lap last-chance race to determine who took the final position.

In 1989, qualifying for The Winston switched to a three-lap qualifying format with a two-tire pit stop in the middle.

1990-91: The Winston
(two segments -- 50 and 20 laps)
Winners:
• 1990 -- Dale Earnhardt
• 1991 -- Davey Allison

After two controversial dashes in the past three years which infuriated fans, the race was cut to two segments to prevent some of the reckless driving, giving the race a 70-lap format -- with a 10-minute break between segments -- that would be used until 2001.

Two changes were made in qualification in 1991:

2001 FLASHBACK Jeff Gordon reigned supreme on a rainy night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May 2001, tying Dale Earnhardt with his third all-star race victory.  Gordon's win spanned nearly four hours, two days and two No. 24 Chevrolets, after NASCAR allowed drivers to use their backup cars following a rain-caused crash soon after the green flag.  •   Complete story, click here 1996 FLASHBACK For Michael Waltrip, 1996 was the perfect season. A perfectly historic season.  Ten years ago, Waltrip cracked $1 million in earnings for the first time, posted a then career-high 11 top-10 finishes and finished 14th in the Cup standings, also a career high at that time.  But nothing compares to what happened in that season's all-star race (then called the Winston Select), when Waltrip became the first -- and only -- driver to transfer from the Open race and win the weekend's main event.  •   Complete story, click here 1991 FLASHBACK There was something about NASCAR's annual all-star race that got into Davey Allison's system and jolted it to a new level.  The event's no-points, win-at-all costs format tended to fire up Allison to no end, and that was a big reason behind his back-to-back victories in 1991-92.  The feat hasn't been matched.  •   Complete story, click here 1986 FLASHBACK It was a different time, different attitude and definitely a different place -- and the year Bill Elliott returned to being Awesome again.  The only time NASCAR's mid-season all-star exhibition was held outside of North Carolina, it was home state hero Elliott who steamrolled the field to win The Winston on Mother's Day afternoon at Atlanta in 1986.  The outcome was in doubt only from the time the 10 cars took the green flag until Elliott raced past Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt in Turn 3 of the first lap.  •   Complete story, click here

The race returned to only winning drivers and owners in 1990 -91.

The Winston Open was reduced to 50 laps, and to guarantee The Winston field would be 20 cars, the field of 20 would be filled out by the top number of cars advancing to the main event until the field was filled to 20 cars.

ABC televised the race in 1990, while CBS carried both the Open and The Winston in 1991. In 1991, to add to the day's events, a NASCAR Legends Race was held on Charlotte's quarter-mile track. Elmo Langely won the exhibition event, which featured retired NASCAR champions and stars.

1992-97: The Winston
(70 laps -- 30, 30 and 10 laps)
Winners:
• 1992 -- Davey Allison
• 1993 -- Dale Earnhardt
• 1994 -- Geoffrey Bodine
• 1995 -- Jeff Gordon
• 1996 -- Michael Waltrip
• 1997 -- Jeff Gordon

In 1992 the race was televised by The Nashville Network and The Winston returned to the controversial 10-lap shootout, which previously had led to controversy in 1987 and '89. The Winston Open also went to a 30-lap format.

The '95 race featured Dale Earnhardt's trend-setting alternate cars, which have infiltrated NASCAR in recent years as teams and sponsors promote different products.

Past Cup champions received automatic invites to the race, as were the past five years' winners of The Winston. The field was inverted after the first segment, and like previous years, a 10-minute break was held between segments.

After Michael Waltrip's win in 1996 by being the last car to transfer from The Winston Open, NASCAR changed the procedure by reverting to a format featuring the 1996 and '97 race-winning drivers and owners, and then adding the preceding year's winners not yet in the field until the field reached 19, then the winner of The Winston Open. If the number added to the previous year exceeded 19, all drivers who won races that year would be in the field.

1998-2001: The Winston
(70 Laps -- 30, 30 and 10 laps)
Winners:
• 1998 -- Mark Martin
• 1999 -- Terry Labonte
• 2000 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• 2001 -- Jeff Gordon

The race remained at its 70 lap format, but for 1998 only green-flag laps counted in any segment (not just the third segment). The second 10-minute break was eliminated and replaced with caution laps, and cars had the option of pitting for tires and fuel at the expense of losing track position.

The inversion was changed to a random draw between three and 12 cars for the inversion after the first segment.

In 2000, after The Winston Open, a 16-lap "No Bull Sprint" was added. The winner of that race also advanced to The Winston.

In 2001, television coverage moved to FX as part of the new NASCAR television contract, and qualifying was changed so the pit stop took place at the start of the qualifying, and the stop was a four-tire change instead of two.

2002-03: The Winston
(90 Laps -- 40, 30, and 20 laps)
Winners:
• 2002 -- Ryan Newman
• 2003 -- Jimmie Johnson

The race format again was changed in 2002 to feature an elimination format ("Survival of the Fastest"), and the final segment returned to 20 laps to make tire wear an issue.

Only race winners and owners from 2001 were in the field, with previous Cup champions and the past five winners of The Winston added to the field (plus the qualifying races' winners).

The "No Bull Sprint" was eliminated after 2002, and for '03, The Winston Open became a 20-lap race with pit stops, and then a 10-lap, green-flag sprint after pit stops. If the caution flag waved on Lap 40 of the first segment, two green flag laps or the next yellow flag would be run to finish the segment.

Mark Martin

In The Winston, only the top 20 cars advanced to the second segment, and 10 cars (in 2002) or 14 cars (planned in 2003, but was 12 after crashes) advanced to the third segment.

A green-flag pit stop for four tires was mandatory in the first segment, but after Frank Stoddard beat the system in 2002 by changing four tires just feet from the finish line on the last lap, the rule was changed to mandating tire stops at a specific point in the race.

Also, the inversion was moved to the final 20-lap sprint, and a 10-minute break was restored between the second and final segment.

2004-present: The Nextel All-Star Challenge
(90 laps -- 40, 30 and 20 laps)
Winners:
• 2004 -- Matt Kenseth
• 2005 -- Mark Martin

The format has been slightly changed but the race remains 90 laps.

The elimination factor was nixed, while 1998-2001 inversion and second- to third-segment break rules were restored, meaning a random inversion (now as few as six and as many as 12 cars) and an open pit road for the final break instead of a 10-minute break.

The four-tire stop is now between Laps 14 and 16.