The NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover may have produced solid racing on the surface, but for many across the garage and fanbase, it completely missed the point of what the event is supposed to represent. It was meant to carry a special feeling centred around the sport’s best drivers, but veteran NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck did not feel that. He brutally criticized both the format and the track selection.
Dover was already under heavy scrutiny, firmly under the spotlight, and needed to deliver. From a racing standpoint, it did, with strategy and patience becoming the defining themes of the event as Denny Hamlin eventually outlasted Chase Briscoe by 0.8 seconds in a long battle for the win. But did it feel like an All-Star Race to Gluck? No, just as it did not for several drivers in the garage, including Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell.
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“I do think that this could be the occasion for a rant… Because this can’t happen again, this is not okay. This needs to be sent into the sun and burned with fire. This was not the right track for it, this was not the right format for it,” Gluck said.
“The All-Star Race for so many years was, ‘Hey, you go to Charlotte and what did everybody say about it?’ It was the race for the casual fans. It was the race where you could bring your non-NASCAR fans and kind of introduce them. Bring the kids who do not have a long enough attention span for the 600. An hour and a half quick thing, under the lights, pyro, huge driver intros, 10-lap shootout, you know they are going for it at the end, and somebody wins a million bucks.”
Instead of the fast-paced, high-energy spectacle traditionally associated with the All-Star race, Sunday’s event dragged on for nearly 4 hours and resembled just another points race, only without the points.
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For decades, the All-Star Race built its identity under the lights with dramatic driver introductions, short sprint-style segments, aggressive racing, and a $1 million payday. It was designed as NASCAR’s easiest event for casual viewers to consume, delivering chaotic, entertaining, and relatively short races. However, Dover delivered the exact opposite.
NASCAR also revamped the format, turning the event into a 350-lap marathon split into three lengthy segments, including a massive 200-lap final stage that made it longer than several regular Cup races. Non-locked-in drivers were also mixed with established stars right from the beginning, and by the final segment, several headliners like Elliott, Chastain, and Wallace had already suffered damage or fallen out of contention.
Plus, Dover is known for long green flag runs, tire wear, and physically demanding racing rather than short burst chaos. Drivers like Denny Hamlin had already warned of this long before the weekend.
“Dover is just not an all-star type of racetrack. It needs rubber on the racetrack to then widen out, and then you can start making passes. But that doesn’t happen until 30 or 40 laps into a run. And the All-Star race is made up of short runs, and so there’s just not going to be any passing,” the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran had said.
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Some agreed that the actual racing product itself was fairly strong, thanks to NASCAR’s full track resin application throughout. But as Gluck and many others pointed out, a good race doesn’t mean a good All-Star race.
Some drivers also highlighted a growing concern surrounding NASCAR’s modern exhibition race after the event. The sanctioning body continues experimenting with formats and venues without fully understanding what made these events special in the first place.
Chase Elliott pushes for bigger All-Star Prize
The All-Star Race may still hand out a $1 million check, but in 2026, that number is starting to feel a little stuck in the past. NASCAR has kept the winner’s bonus unchanged since 2003, even as the sport’s costs, salaries, and overall business have exploded over the last two decades. That naturally raises questions about whether the sport’s biggest exhibition race is still keeping up with modern times.
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So, Chase Elliott feels that the event’s purse should evolve alongside the sport itself
Adjusted for inflation, the original $1 million prize from 2003 would be worth roughly $1.8 million today, a massive gap that has only become harder to ignore as NASCAR’s financial landscape continues to grow.
“I think an increase would be great, for sure,” Elliott said. “It would be awesome to make that number bigger. With the time and all the things that have changed over the years, it would make sense for that to adjust.”
Plus, with NASCAR locking in a reported $7.7 billion media rights deal running through 2031, many within the garage believe the sanctioning body has more than enough room to make the sport’s signature exhibition event feel truly massive again.
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