DOVER, Del. — Winning last year may have qualified Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain for the All-Star Race, but neither was able to race for $1 million on Sunday, May 17.
With the All-Star Race moving to Dover Motor Speedway this year also came a new format and the death of the All-Star Open. Instead, all 36 chartered cars started the race together and shared the track for two segments. Then, the 19 all-stars would be joined by six drivers who raced their way in and a fan-vote winner for the third segment.
“I think we should know when the All-Star Race starts,” Sunday’s winner Denny Hamlin said of the race’s confusion.
Per NASCAR, the three segments were three separate events, and the records of the race officially start at lap 151 of the 350-lap event. Why that matters is because the first two segments had a multitude of wrecks, and several of the All-Stars locked into the third segment were involved.
Elliott and Chastain were both damaged beyond repair and had to give up their spots in the third segment. As a result, neither is officially credited as having competed in the 2026 All-Star Race.
The day ended for Elliott on lap 73 of the first segment, when Riley Herbst spun on the frontstretch to trigger a massive pileup including All-Stars Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch.
“Obviously, I started wrecking and started sliding down the track, and I was just kind of along for the ride,” Elliott said. “… It’s been aggressive. I mean, certainly the different tire strategies I think had people doing some different stuff there for the close out of the stage. And then obviously trying to figure out where you’re going to reset and all those things.
“So yeah, just a little strategy being played, and unfortunately, yeah, I got caught up in the mess.
Bell and Busch were able to race in the third segment, but the damage to their cars prevented them from being able to contend for the $1 million prize.
Just a few laps but a whole other event later, Chastain was taken out by a wreck on lap seven of the second segment when he was racing with Brad Keselowski.
“Yeah, we’re out,” Chastain told FOX Sports. “It knocked the front clip off of it. Bummer, because I thought we executed the first stage really well. We weren’t passing anybody really by any means, but we were able to maintain, which has not been the case with this downforce package at Bristol [Motor Speedway]. … The car drove a lot better than Bristol, so a lot to look forward to if we can take another step like that at the next one.”
Chastain wasn’t the only one who impacted by that wreck. All-Stars Keselowski and Bubba Wallace sustained damage but were able to race in the main segment. While Wallace’s car had too much damage to be competitive, Keselowski actually rallied to get a top 10.
“Made a mistake there in the second segment and had some contact with the No. 1 car and crashed myself, crashed him and then we tried to dig out of the hole,” Keselowski told Frontstretch. “But the car was a little torn up and just kind of fought to a 10th-place finish from there.”
While Chastain and Elliott were the only All-Stars who ultimately didn’t get to race in the All-Star Race, others who had damage impact their bid for $1 million included Bell, Busch, Keselowski, Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Shane van Gisbergen and Ty Gibbs.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
this was not an allstar race. it was an all charter race. just cause you have a charter does not mean that you have an “allstar” caliber driver. what happened today at dover was a joke, in my opinion. you had 1.5 laps and a wreck happened that took out 9 drivers. personally, i thought cup drivers were supposed to be “the best”.
what was at Dover today was a joke. i felt it was nascar’s consolation prize to Dover having lost both races cup races.
Judging by the appearance of the attendance, From past history, NA$CAR has an excuse for Dover not getting a Cup points event.