Chase Elliott Drives Away With All-Star Race Victory and $1 Million at Bristol
It was an All-Star kind of day for NASCAR on Wednesday night as the annual All-Star Open and All-Star Race took place. In a rare non-points race day where all that was at stake was bragging rights and a cool $1 million, it was a nice opportunity for drivers to get a breather and have some fun before the stretch run to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs get underway in early September. After the All-Star Open took place on Wednesday evening, the field for the All-Star Race was set and the second race of the night was ready to get away.
After being held in Charlotte at Charlotte Motor Speedway all but one year since the concept was created in 1985, this year’s event came to you from the World’s Fastest Half Mile of Bristol Motor Speedway. The decision was made to move the race this year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic because the Tennessee government allowed the track to sell some seats. Up to 30,000 seats were available in the 140,000-seat venue and it was estimated that at least 20,000 people were in attendance in the most highly-attended sporting event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just having fans in the grandstands was something that the drivers seemed to appreciate, even though it was nowhere near a capacity crowd.
Aric Almirola, William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto won the three stages in the All-Star Open to punch their tickets to the All-Star Race. Clint Bowyer also earned his way into the field by winning the fan vote to round out the 20-car field that had 16 drivers who had won in the previous calendar year. That included Cole Custer, who earned the win at Kentucky Speedway in the Quaker State 400 last week as a massive 500-1 longshot.
Once the All-Star Race got going, there was plenty of close quarter driving on the narrow, short track of Bristol. As it played out, only four drivers held the lead in the 140 laps of the race. Stage 1 was a 55-lap sprint, while stages 2 and 3 were comprised of 35 laps. The final stage was a 15-lap sprint with $1 million on the line. There were only five cautions in the race spanning 13 laps with three of those coming as the breather between the stages. All 20 drivers finished on the lead lap with surprisingly only one accident, which came when Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski tangled on lap nine. The other non-stage caution came when Ryan Newman spun out on the backstretch, bringing out the yellow between laps 58 and 61.
When all was said and done, it was Chase Elliott taking the checkered flag by .418 seconds over Kyle Busch to earn the million bucks. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Of the four drivers who were running their second race of the night, Almirola was the top finisher as he logged a ninth-place showing. Alex Bowman led the opening two laps before Ryan Blaney took command for the early part of the race. He held the lead for the next 53 laps to earn the stage 1 victory. At the start of stage 2, Harvick held the lead for the first six laps before things swung toward Elliott.
Elliott took the lead for the first time on lap 62 and led the next 29 laps to cruise to the stage 2 win. Blaney regained the lead as stage 3 got underway and held it for 19 laps from lap 91 to 109. However, Elliott surged back in front on lap 110 and held the lead through the end of stage 3 for back to back stage wins. Over the final 15 laps that comprised stage 4, Elliott didn’t give up the lead and ended up cruising to victory lane. His victory marked the sixth time in the last seven years that the winner of the All-Star Race was a first-time winner of the event.
This marked the second time that the All-Star Race has taken place outside of Charlotte. Oddly enough, both those races have been won by Elliotts. Bill Elliott, Chase’s father, won the 1986 All-Star Race, then called The Winston, when it was held at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Chase took Wednesday’s run. The Elliotts now join Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the lone father-son combinations to win the All-Star Race. After learning of that fact, Elliott said: "Anytime you can join the Earnhardts in anything in racing and to join Dad in winning this event, that's not just special. That's a lot of years and a lot of history. For everything to come full-circle like that is pretty dang cool."
The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series comes to you from Texas Motor Speedway with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday. Green flag time is scheduled for 3 pm ET with television coverage provided by the NBC Sports Network and the Performance Racing Network.