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CONCORD, N.C. — Mandatory pit stops, a random draw to reset approximately half the field and a 13-lap dash that will pit track position against fresh tires.
It’s NASCAR’s annual Sprint All-Star Race, and few of those here at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s event (9 p.m. ET, FS1, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) say they know what to expect.
“I think with the new format no one knows, nobody has any way to predict how this is going to go,” Carl Edwards, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, said Friday. “I think it’s going to be a really crazy event.”
This year’s race will consist of three segments — 50 laps, 50 laps and 13 laps. For each of the two 50-lap segments, teams are required to make one green-flag pit stop for a minimum two-tire change. There is also a mandatory two-tire stop required following each break.
The race off pit road will determine the restart order for the second segment. However, only those running first through either ninth, 10th or 11th (to be determined by random draw) will be required/allowed to pit following the second segment. Pit road will be closed to the remainder of the field.
The resulting “inversion” will put those in the back half of the field up front but on older tires going into the final 13-lap dash.
“We have to see how the tires wear,” Edwards, winner of the 2011 event, said. “That’s really going to be the key. And then, man, it’s just … I was going through it this morning, if you are running sixth or seventh before the final stop, I don’t know, then it becomes maybe a race for 12th or something. I just don’t know how this thing is going to play out.”
Former series champion (2014) Kevin Harvick said it’s hard for him to come to grips with racing for 12th prior to the final segment, in hopes of re-starting mid-pack or better and on fresher tires.
“I’d rather be first (at the end of the second segment) and try to be on the outside of that first row of cars on new tires,” the Stewart-Haas Racing driver said. “I don’t know. It’s just against the grain and there’s a lot of thought that has to go into it because there is strategy that plays into it.
“I think if you’re going to win the race, I think you’re going to have to kind of guess at what the right strategy is. And you’re also going to have to get lucky because you’re going to have to come off pit road; if that’s the strategy, it seems like the common strategy. The common theme is usually not just one guy that’s thinking about it.”
The field for Saturday night’s race will consist of 20 teams, 15 that qualified by either winning a race win since the start of the 2015 season or being a former All-Star Race winner or Sprint Cup Series champion. The final five spots will be awarded to the three segment winners in the Sprint Showdown preliminary event and two determined by the Sprint Fan Vote.
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Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford) is one of those hoping to advance out of the Showdown and into the All-Star Race.
“I think with the new rules package it will be easier to pass going up through the field,” Blaney said. “Even though you have 13 laps, if you have 30-lap fresher tires than the people in front of you, you can make good ground.”
Although driving to the front from outside the top 10 sounds “pretty tough,” Blaney said, “it’s been done before for sure, especially with people on different strategies, so it’s doable and that’s kind of where my gut is telling me to want to be at.”
Matt Kenseth, another former winner of the race, said he expects the strategy will consist of teams racing for 12th before the end of the second segment.
“And I think that’s going to be very interesting,” the JGR driver said. “I might be 100 percent wrong on that; that’s what it feels like today and especially after watching the last few (All-Star) races. It’s still really important to be out front and I don’t know that (13) laps after a … break to cool down on your tires is enough to be a huge deficit to four new ones.
“It might be, I hope it is because it will mix the field up a lot more. I don’t think anyone will be sure until we see it.”
Eleven 2015 race winners are locked into the field, as are previous All-Star Race winners Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne. Tony Stewart is also in the field as a Sprint Cup champion and former All-Star Race winner.