NASCAR All-Star Race Format Explained: How Dover Weekend Works

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NASCAR All-Star Race Format Explained: How Dover Weekend Works

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Thomas Carelli | Last updated May 15, 2026 2:30 PM ET

NASCAR has reached its midway point of the 2026 regular season. As in any sport, the midseason mark features an All-Star event, which sends NASCAR to Dover Motor Speedway for its All-Star Weekend. The weekend is a tripleheader that includes the Craftsman Truck Series and the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. However, those two series will be point races. The Cup Series will be an All-Star Open with a unique set of rules.

All-Star Weekend Format

Practice

The NASCAR Cup Series will feature its longest practice session of the entire season. Cars will take the track on Friday, rather than its traditional Saturday schedule. Cars will have 90 minutes to practice on the high-speed pavement oval at Dover Motor Speedway. Unlike its usual schedule, qualifying will not be right after; it will be on Saturday.

Qualifying

The All-Star format will showcase pit crews in addition to pure speed in qualifying. Here is how the starting order will be set:

(1) lap around the 1-mile oval.
(1) additional lap that features a 4-tire, no-gas pit stop.
(1) final lap, post-pit, to race to the start-finish line.

The final time of the 3-lap qualifying effort will be the qualifying result and, thus, set the starting order for Sunday's All-Star Race.

All-Star Race

Christopher Bell Wins the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)(Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

The race will be broken into these 3 segments:

(1) 75-lap segment, continuing at full speed to (1) additional 75-lap segment.
The end of each 75-lap segment is for scoring purposes only, and no competition yellow flag will be waved.
A competition yellow will end the event after 150 laps to reset the field for the final 200-lap run.

26 cars will advance to the final 200-lap race segment. The drivers below are locked in already, with the rest of the field to be set by the 150-lap race, with scoring tied in, as listed below.

The following (6) bids to the final race segment will be earned by the average finishing result of Segments No. 1 and No. 2.


Christopher Bell
Josh Berry
Ryan Blaney
Chase Briscoe
Kyle Busch
William Byron
Ross Chastain
Austin Cindric
Austin Dillon
Chase Elliott
Ty Gibbs
Shane van Gisbergen
Denny Hamlin
Carson Hocevar
Brad Keselowski
Kyle Larson
Joey Logano
Tyler Reddick
Bubba Wallace

The following criteria have earned automatic bids:

2025-26 race winner.
Former Cup Series Champion
(1) Fan Vote Winner (TBD)

The final 200-lap segment will undergo zero stage ends as one, full 200-lap segment. Cars will pit under green as needed. The race winner will be crowned the All-Star Champion and win a $1 million prize.

The All-Star Race will begin on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET on Fox Sports. The Qualifying session will be on Saturday at 12:00 PM on Fox Sports 2.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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