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NASCAR All-Star Open Preview

Race Set for Texas Motor Speedway

· Jun 09 - 4 minutes read

The race world heads to the Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for the annual NASCAR All-Star Open, being held in Fort Worth for the first time.

A $1 million payday is at stake for the winner of the invitational-only race. Another $100,000 will be given to the fastest pit crew during a mandatory pit stop near the end of the race.

Kyle Larson Nascar All-Star Open News — Maddie Meyer/Getty Images/AFP

All-Star Open Format

The 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race is a six-round, 100-lap event that will feature a different starting grid for each of the six rounds.

The first-round starting lineup is done by random draw and Kyle Larson has the pole.

The drivers will race for 15 laps, and then the field will be inverted from the eighth through 12th positions, with the rest of the field for round two decided by random draw.

Then it’s another 15 laps, an inverted field for a 15-lap round three, and an inverted field for a 15-lap round four.

The fifth round is where they really start racing. Using the cumulative results of the previous four rounds to determine the lineup, drivers race for 30 laps, and teams must stop for a mandatory four-tire pit stop. The fastest pit crew gets the bonus.

Then, using the finishing order of the fifth round, a final 10-lap sixth round is raced for the $1 million grand prize.

If we look at betting odds, Larson is an obvious favorite as the hottest driver on the circuit. He’s on a two-race winning streak, having won at both Charlotte and Sonoma. And in the three races prior to that, he finished in second place each time out.

Larson has never won at Texas Motor Speedway, but he does have three top-five finishes here. He also won the All-Star Open in 2019.

Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. are also great contenders for this race. Hamlin was a winner at this event in 2015 at Charlotte and has three all-time wins at Texas, most recently in 2019. Hamlin doesn’t have a win yet this season, but he has finished in the top 10 in four of his last five races.

Truex has never won this event and he’s never won at Texas, but he is tied for the lead this season with three wins. He’s also coming off a third-place finish at Sonoma last weekend.

Kyle Busch was the All-Star Race winner in 2017 and the second-place finisher last year. He has four career wins at Texas, including the EchoPark Automotive 500 in October 2020 – the last time NASCAR raced here. He’s also finished in the top five in each of the last two races this season.

Other Drivers to Watch

BetUS set the odds for Kurt Busch at +3300, largely because of a disappointing season. But he finished in the top 10 last week in Sonoma, and he races in Texas better than anywhere else. In 36 career races at Texas Motor Speedway, he has finished in the top 10 a total of 23 times, including a current streak of eight straight top-10 finishes. He also won the All-Star Race in 2010.

Austin Dillon is another +2200 play that deserves a look. He hasn’t won in 2021, but two weeks ago at Charlotte, he did finish in sixth place. He also has three other top-10 finishes since April. He was the winner of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway just 11 months ago.