The NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway provided no shortage of storylines leaving the storied racetrack.
Those storylines included Joey Logano’s comments about the way Christopher Bell raced him (which he eventually walked back), the final race of the Cup Series season on FOX before turning the reigns over to Amazon Prime Video as NASCAR begins its foray into the streaming world, and the promoter’s caution that more or less wasn’t liked. Perhaps the biggest storyline of them all was whether or not North Wilkesboro should finally get its long-awaited points-paying Cup Series race.
You know what you didn’t hear in the NASCAR news cycle this week?
The Manufacturer Showdown.
If this is your first time hearing of this competition-within-a-competition, I can’t blame you. I myself only heard about the competition hours before the All-Star Race.
Now it’s possible that I just wasn’t paying attention — the competition was announced along with the race’s format a little under a month before the race.
But could you blame me for not knowing about it until the race began when there was little to no mention of the competition leading up to the event?
For those unaware, the Manufacturer Showdown consisted of the five highest qualifying All-Stars from each manufacturer. The manufacturer that compiled the lowest average finish for its five drivers was the winner of the showdown.
It’s an interesting idea for a competition, to be sure. However, the lack of marketing for an event like this led to most forgetting about its existence, and it became a non-story throughout the evening.
In fact, it was such a non-story that the broadcast on FOX barely mentioned it either. You know how sometimes FOX would highlight drivers of a certain manufacturer on its ticker when talking about said manufacturer specifically? Or how NBC highlights the playoff drivers at season’s end? Or how The CW highlights the Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash drivers?
FOX didn’t even do so much as highlight each of the five drivers competing for their respective manufacturer so the select few who actually wanted to pay attention to the Manufacturer Showdown could keep track.
The story became quickly about the battle between Logano and Bell for $1 million and whether or not Wilkesboro deserve a points race. The Manufacturer Showdown was mentioned maybe twice throughout the evening — once at the beginning of the broadcast, and once at the end of it. At that point, it was announced that Chevrolet had won the showdown.
Chevrolet’s five-driver roster consisted of Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman. Chastain, Bowman, Elliott and Byron finished third through sixth, while Busch came home eighth, giving Chevrolet an impressive average finish of 5.2 to beat Ford and Toyota for the prize … which, to my knowledge, was only a trophy.
That’s it.
Keep in mind, Bell won the race and the $1 million, driving a Toyota. What exactly was there to gain in the Manufacturer Showdown when the winning manufacturer didn’t even win the race?
The drivers in question didn’t even seem like they remembered the showdown. In Bowman and Chastain’s post-race media availabilities, neither one mentioned anything about the manufacturer showdown.
When it comes to the All-Star Race, a driver is more than likely to care about winning the $1 million than a trophy. After all, they have 37 other races (including the Clash) to try to win trophies.
But the All-Star Race is really about the money and nothing else. As such, a trophy for winning a random manufacturer showdown was never going to be a huge story in the grand scheme of things — especially considering the All-Star Race is currently held at a storied venue that was recently revived and well on its way to receiving a points race.
Sure, a win is a win. Technically, five drivers (including three Hendrick Motorsports drivers, wild enough, none of them named Kyle Larson) earned a trophy Sunday night (May 18) for their manufacturer. But isn’t that what the manufacturers’ point standings are for? To celebrate the manufacturer with the most points (ergo, the best average finish) for the season?
The Manufacturer Showdown was honestly just another pointless gimmick added to an All-Star Race that already had a lot to follow with the promoter’s caution, as well as the heats and the Open preceding it. Nobody really paid attention to the competition, and if NASCAR insisted on introducing this event, the All-Star Race was probably not the right place for it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid idea. But it loses its luster a little bit when:
A) The All-Star Race already has something bigger than a trophy on the line, and …
B) There is an entire season-long manufacturers’ points battle that essentially the same purpose.
If NASCAR wanted to introduce a one-race Manufacturer Showdown, perhaps a race with a little less on the line would have been a better time to do so — such as the Clash. Since it’s also an exhibition race (and everyone would be eligible to contribute, not just a select few) and there are less prizes on the line, it would be a cool additional incentive for drivers to compete for.
Either way, congrats to Busch, Bowman, Byron, Chastain and Elliott for representing their manufacturer well. It’s still something worth celebrating.
It’s just a shame for them that nobody really cared that it was happening due to poor marketing and overall lack of interest for the event in and of itself.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.