Here's what the All-Star Race will look like in 2016
NASCAR announced the rules for the Sprint All-Star Race on Friday. And there are a fair amount of rule changes.
Let's start with the basics. There will be three segments. The first two are 50 laps each and the final segment is 13 laps. 20 cars will start the race. Drivers eligible are those who have won in 2015 and/or 2016, the three drivers that win segments in the Sprint Showdown and a driver(s) eligible via the fan vote after the Showdown.
Now let's get to the craziness:
• Drivers are obligated to pit for either two or four tires between the first two segments.
• Drivers are obligated to pit again, at least for two tires, before lap 85 (lap 35 of the second segment).
• A random draw is held after the second segment to decide if the top nine, 10 or 11 cars will be forced to make a mandatory pit stop before the final segment.
The idea with the random draw is to create some wild racing over the final 13 laps by having the cars with fresh tires at the back (cars not in the random draw cannot pit). However, the quality of that racing is going to be entirely dependent on the tire wear at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And with the race at night and Charlotte's relatively fresh pavement, tire wear hasn't been too severe in previous years.
“It’s going to be determined by whether or not we can race side-by-side and get close and whether or not the tires fall off, lap times fall off," Carl Edwards said. "Charlotte is so fast and the surface is so nice and Goodyear has done such a good job with the tire that it’s historically been a tough place to pass, so I guess for me I look forward to that race being one where we can really mix it up and race close and I hope that’s the way it is. If that’s the way it is, all the format changes in the world are just – that’s just going to make it more fun of a game, but really it will come down to the racing on the race track.
"Now at the end do you have to pit if you’re in the top-nine or 11 or whatever? You have to? So really the question is will tires be beneficially or not and if they’re beneficially, hey great, but if they’re not it’s going to be – you really think about it logically, I guess it might be a genius idea because if tires aren’t beneficially then they’re making go behind – the faster cars go behind the guys that aren’t fast, but I don’t know. You just hope it doesn’t evolve into something where everybody’s racing really hard for 10th or 11th because they know they don’t want to pit and with this lower downforce package and with the way the tires have been. I think that we’ll most likely have a tire that – I hope we do – where pitting is good, but truly that’s the first I’ve thought about it. I might be completely wrong on all that stuff.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
