1) What is your ideal All-Star Race format?
Gabriel Goodman: The All-Star Race should be at a track where car control is a factor. The best All-Star events have been ones where drivers are slipping and sliding. I would have the All-Star Open as a separate race, with the top-three finishers moving on to the All-Star Race later in the evening. As for the All-Star Race itself, I would like to see high tire wear and predetermined cautions around 25% and 50% of the way through the race. That way, there could be a green-flag stop in the final segment, depending on how extreme tire wear is.
Stephen Stumpf: The ideal format is nothing; the All-Star Race has run its course as a useful event. It lacks an identity, and right now, it’s being passed around as a hot-potato race that somebody has to suck up and host. The chances of it ever happening are slim, but increasing the schedule to 37 points races would be far more preferable to continuing the All-Star Race, especially now that the format allows everyone to compete, which defeats the entire purpose of it.
Jeffrey Boswell: My ideal All-Star Race would take place at a road course. Here’s the radical part: each car would have one of three setups: superspeedway setup, Martinsville Speedway setup or 1.5-mile flat oval setup, with the drivers not knowing which until the green flag.
2) Approaching the halfway point of the regular season, which slumping NASCAR Cup Series driver’s recent performance is more concerning?
Michael Bellifemini: Joey Logano’s last four races have been concerning. He was already having an inconsistent year up until mid-April, sitting around 14th in points, but with the crashes and the lack of speed, he’s now out of a Chase spot. Logano is 18th in the standings at about 40 points below the cut line, so there is still time to turn it around, but the No. 22’s recent performances are definitely troubling.
Michael Finley: There’s a lot of hay being made about William Byron and Logano. My pick is actually Chase Briscoe. I cannot imagine that team was expecting to be where it is in points right now after its breakout performance last year.
Christopher Hansen: Christopher Bell. It’s been a slow start to 2026 for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver, with four finishes of 20th or worse in the last five races. For a team that’s used to winning races and contending for championships, Bell’s tough start has his team hoping the bad luck turns around as the regular season nears the halfway point. Additionally, at this time last season, Bell had already gone to victory lane three times, compared to no wins so far this season. A little luck should do wonders for Bell’s confidence behind the wheel and help him get his season on track.
3) So far, Silly Season has only been re-signings and contract extensions. Who or what will be the first major domino to fall?
Stumpf: Legacy Motor Club will likely expand to three cars, and since the team is starting from scratch and will want as much time as possible to prepare, the driver will be announced sooner rather than later in order to get a head start for 2027.
Hansen: Legacy announcing the driver of its third car for the 2027 season seems like the most likely Silly Season domino to fall first. There have been rumors swirling for some time now about Legacy acquiring a third charter for its organization. I expect this to be one of the first big moves before the 2026 season concludes.
Boswell: Kyle Busch’s contract with Richard Childress Racing expires in 2026. His tenure there started with a flourish, with three wins in 2023. Since then, Busch has gone winless. It’s time for Busch and RCR to go their separate ways. RCR has NASCR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series superstars Jesse Love and Austin Hill waiting for the promotion, and Busch stands in the way of that. If a smaller NASCAR team is looking for a veteran driver with the chops to win races who can also mentor a young, talented driver (or be a terrible example for a young, talented driver), Busch may be its man.
4) Now that he has the first win, how many NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races will Kaden Honeycutt win this season?
Bellifemini: Kaden Honeycutt could get four to five wins this year. They say once you win one race, the flood gates open, and he runs consistently up front enough that he should be able to go to victory lane several more times in 2026.
Goodman: Now that Honeycutt has broken through with his first win, I expect the No. 11 team to win many more races. With Honeycutt’s skill on road courses, intermediates and short tracks, he will win five races by the end of the season.
Finley: Three or four. There’s still a lot of tough competition in this series. He’ll get two or three in The Chase alone, as Cup drivers will not be allowed to compete in those races toward the end of the season.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
Michael has watched NASCAR for over 25 years and has covered it on-and-off for 14.
In addition to Frontstretch he also writes sporadically for his own websites GrandPrixFocus.com and StockCarFocus.com.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
Put a bullet in the head of the AS race and put us out of our misery.
Return the preseason shootout, clash, whatever you want to call it, to Daytona. Scrap the All Star race, and roll the $1m prize into the preseason race at Daytona. You’d have two weeks of exciting (if mostly random) racing to start the season. The big purse for the preseason race would generate media coverage, then you’d have the 500 to push NASCAR into the limelight for two consecutive weeks. Then try to hold onto as many new eyeballs as you can.