Nascar Blog

Nascar and Humpy Wheeler are getting together to discuss changes to the all star race in Charlotte, in hopes of jamming even more excitement into the two and a half hour race segment. The current format is a 90 lap non-points race for a million dollars, the field is made up of everyone who has won a race this year and the previous, past all star race winners, cup champions from the previous 10 years and the winner of the Nextel Open, which consisted of everyone not allready in the all star race. They recently also added a fan vote to add one more driver. They have considered adding some of the top drivers from the Busch and Truck series, but, to me, if they were already worthy of being in the race, the would already be driving a Nextel cup car.

The format is also being examined and will likely change from its current three-segment form. The race currently starts with a 40-lap segment, followed by a 10-minute break in which teams are allowed to work on their cars.

That’s followed by a 30-lap run, a yellow-flag pit stop, and a final 20-lap dash for the cash.

They are also considering tying the all star race and the pit crew challenge together, maybe with the winner of the pit crew challenge being on the pole of the all star race.

“We might end up shortening the segments some,” Wheeler said. “We like that final 20-lap dash, the racing has always been very good over that final 20. But we’re looking at a way to get rid of all the lulls in the action.”

The only lulls in the action I remember are the periods between the segments, so they need to shorten the breaks, run more laps and have more wrecks, that should make it more exciting for everyone. And, with all of the commercials they have been showing recently, maybe they just need to cut out more of those, as a full third of the time spent is watching commercials. I say, lets add a challenge, after each segment, the second place finisher can challenge the winner to a fist fight, we could call it Nascar Fight Night, and I bet it would be one of the most watched segments.