The Dover Motor Speedway has been taking verbal shots from all directions throughout the week. NASCAR’s All-Star Race shifting there from North Wilkesboro hasn’t sat well with fans or drivers. Bubba Wallace admitted to “hating” the atmosphere, while Christopher Bell said he would have preferred North Wilkesboro or Charlotte instead. Now, Erik Jones has joined the list of critics after the race, pointing to an even deeper issue: the loss of exclusivity that once defined NASCAR’s biggest exhibition race.
This wasn’t sour grapes from Jones. He walked away from the race with a third-place finish, his strongest result of the 2026 season. Still, he took a dig at NASCAR, showing just how unconvinced he was by the direction the sport has taken.
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The “race festival” feeling of North Wilkesboro, with packed grandstands and supporting events, was missing in Dover. The format change did not help either, no matter how much NASCAR tried to sell it.
“Yeah, I mean, I was an open guy, but to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan. I thought, you know, I think the all-star race is supposed to be exclusive, and, you know, having two open guys in or three for the fan vote for years was, I thought, okay, ” Jones admitted post-race.
“But, you know, today was definitely a pretty extreme step and ruined some guys’ day before they even got started. So, I think the point of the All-Star race is the guys that run up front, win races, they’re supposed to battle it out and see who’s the best that day.”
Jones was class in Dover. He briefly found himself near the front after staying out during a caution in Segment 2 before settling into a consistent rhythm during the 200-lap main event. He cracked the top five with 50 laps remaining and eventually climbed to third. While eventual race winner Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe pulled away up front in the closing laps, the Legacy Motor Club driver comfortably held onto a podium spot, finishing more than six seconds behind the leaders but still securing one of his strongest results of the year.
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But despite this small win for the team, Jones made it clear that he is strongly against the All-Star Race being held at Dover.
All 36 entries competed in two 75-lap stages before the field was trimmed to 26 drivers for the final 200-lap sprint at Dover Motor Speedway. Even with the late cut, however, the format had already taken away from the event’s exclusivity.
Jones’ criticism hits even harder when viewed through the lens of what the event originally represented. When NASCAR launched the exhibition race in 1985 as The Winston, the concept was built entirely around exclusivity. Only race winners, champions, and pole sitters earned spots in the field, turning the event into a showcase reserved strictly for the sport’s elite.
Over time, Charlotte Motor Speedway became synonymous with the race after hosting 34 of its first 35 editions, helping establish the identity Bell referenced this weekend: short, aggressive bursts of racing, late-race chaos, and a million-dollar prize waiting at the end. Even last year at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the event carried that old-school feel.
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“The All-Star Race is kind of like these short bursts of short runs, high aggression. So I think we, I would love for it to get established at a track, whether it was back at Charlotte or somewhere else, keep it there, and then change the rules packages, you know, show up with something different every time, have something new,” Bell admitted before the race.
Only a handful of drivers transferred through the Open before Bell eventually outdueled Joey Logano late to collect the $1 million check in front of packed grandstands at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2025. But Dover’s version this year looked entirely different.
Empty seats at Dover add to NASCAR’s All-Star Race woes
The atmosphere at Dover Motor Speedway became one of the biggest talking points of the weekend. It was the first time the track had hosted the event in its 42-year history after three years at North Wilkesboro Speedway, a move that should have made for a grand occasion. Instead, the event felt flat.
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There were some sections of the track that were packed with fans, but other areas were noticeably less crowded. It only confirmed what drivers like Wallace feared. “It just doesn’t feel like All-Star weekend. To me, it just feels like another race weekend,” the 23XI Racing driver had said before the race weekend, predicting a less enthusiastic crowd than seen in recent years.
Official attendance figures have not been revealed yet. But with Dover Motor Speedway holding a seating capacity of around 54,000, several reports suggested that close to 10,000 seats were left empty.
The attendance conversation only added to growing concerns around NASCAR’s crowd struggles this season. Similar reactions surfaced earlier this year at Martinsville Speedway, where visible empty seats were seen during the Cook Out 400.
While NASCAR’s crown jewel events, such as the Daytona 500, continue to attract crowds exceeding 100,000 fans, regular-season and exhibition races have struggled to maintain the attendance levels the sport enjoyed during its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jones’ “lack of exclusivity” comment makes sense in that context, as races now feel less special to long-time fans of the sport.
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Something has to change for NASCAR to regain its momentum, and fast.
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