Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes NASCAR has to do away with the All-Star race completely. He thinks such races end up treating a track like ‘an afterthought’.
Darrell Waltrip won the maiden All-Star race held in 1985. The famed event was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway and at times, Atlanta Motor Speedway. 1992 was the first time it was hosted at night.
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Earnhardt himself won an All-Star event in 2000, while his father, seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, won it three times. The retired veteran, however, has launched a campaign against the exhibition race.
“The best idea that I’ve heard is for the All-star Race to go away entirely. I don’t really love any of these ideas, you know, fully. But I don’t like any of the tracks being an afterthought right or just something that’s just on the back burner,” Earnhardt said on the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download.
NASCAR currently awards a $1 million paycheck for All-Star winners. The sanctioning body tested a handful of tracks since 2020, when Bristol hosted for the first time, followed by Texas in 2021 and 2022.
North Wilkesboro Speedway had a three-year stint before handing the baton to Dover Motor Speedway and taking its place in the regular-season schedule. Notably, the 2026 edition switched to a day race after spending years under the lights.
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This year also had a new format where two 75-lap segments scrambled the running order. The top-26 drivers were inverted in the second segment before going for green the last 50 laps. Denny Hamlin wound up the race winner for the second time in his career.
NASCAR insider reveals massive lobbying effort to tear down Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Dale Earnhardt Jr. heads off the track in his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet after the CARS Tour late model stock car race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, April 11, 2026.
The CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Marcus Smith, revealed a bid to tear down Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. The NASCAR insider pointed fingers at Nashville soccer club owner John Ingram for funding a petition to make it happen.
“John Ingram owns the Nashville soccer team. He lobbied the community to pay for his soccer stadium so that he could bring a soccer team to Nashville, which is fine. But in that lobbying, he said, I’m going to preserve the speedway and now he’s funding these political operatives that are coming in from all out of the city to come in and basically trick people into signing this petition to get rid of the speedway,” he said.
Ingram funds the CARE for Nashville group, which goes around asking for signatures from the general public. They allegedly misled people by claiming NASCAR wanted to tear down the track, citing a 2023 proposal that called for demolishing parts of the facility.
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However, the proposal was actually meant as a redevelopment plan that added to the track instead. They’re also claiming the tear-down will pave the way for affordable housing.
It’s been a while since NASCAR raced at the short track, but Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s CARS Tour Series made its debut at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway this year. Earnhardt himself competed with a Bass Pro Shops paint job.
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