The NASCAR All-Star Race is getting a full overhaul this year.
The May 17 event is being held for the first time at Dover Motor Speedway, which opened up a spot on the regular season calendar for North Wilkesboro, where the race had been held for the past three seasons.
The 2026 event does away with the All-Star Open and breaks the main race up into three segments.
Saturday qualifying will set the field for Sunday’s race which will run for 350 laps total. After the first 75-lap segment, the positions of the top 26 cars will be inverted for the second 75-lap segment, with the rest of the field lining up as they finished the first segment. A pit crew challenge on Saturday will determine the pit box selection order.
The final 200-lap segment will include points race winners from the past two seasons, past champions and All-Star Race winners and will be filled out to 25 cars by the top finishers in the second stage. The winner of the fan vote will start in 26th.
William Byron, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Shane Van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch are already locked into the final stage through the various criteria.
The race is scheduled for a 1 p.m. ET start and the prize is once again a winner-take-all $1 million. The Dover weekend will also feature a Truck Series race on Friday, May 15 and an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday, May 16.
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