The season is halfway over as the 2024 NASCAR All Star race starts Sunday May 19th and there is so much to discuss. Let’s break down what has gone down this season and who has stood out, we will look at the All Star race itself, plus a major announcement for next season as NASCAR takes a page out of the NBA’s playbook.
Midway Recap
At this point in the season, the leaderboard is filled with big name drivers that we aren’t all that surprised about being at the top.
Kyle Larson is currently in first with two wins on the season and six top five finishes, he leads the way with 486 points. Larson may be racing the best he ever has in his career and if he can keep it up, he’s hard to knock off the top.
After him comes Michael Truex Jr. who has somehow not won a race this year but has four top five finishes and is second with 456 points. And no surprise in third place. Denny Hamlin is having a scorcher of a season; he’s won three races up to this point and has five top five finishes. He is aiming to steal spots in the standings and move up as the year goes on.
Ryan Blaney has disappointed just a bit throughout his title cup defending season, notching zero wins with three top five finishes. He finds himself in eighth place with some serious work to do if he wants to catapult to the top of the standings.
The one driver who has really taken the track by storm is rookie Ty Gibbs. The 21-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina is making a name for himself very early on in his career which we all expected. He is 7th in the cup standings, with four top five finishes, and nearly came away with a win last week, losing out to Brad Keselowski.
All-Star Race
17 drivers are locked into the race: Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, William Byron, Michael McDowell, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Daniel Suarez. There are three others who will be gunning for the final spots to round out the 20.
There is an open race on Sunday and then the All-Star race as well. The open is 100 laps, all laps count with overtime. The All-Star race is 200 laps, all laps count with overtime.
And of course, there will be a pit crew challenge with three laps and there will certainly be lots of bragging rights on the line.
NASCAR announces 2025 In-Season Tournament
Like the NBA this past year, NASCAR will have an In-Season tournament beginning in 2025.
NASCAR described it as such, “The winner will receive $1 million in prize money. The seeding of the 32-driver tournament will be established by finishing position in the three previous races, which will be aired by Amazon Prime. Tiebreakers will be determined by the next-best finish, followed by regular season points position.
Drivers will then compete head-to-head with the higher finisher advancing into the next round. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was recently announced as part of the broadcast for TNT/Amazon, so he will be in the booth for these races.