NASCAR Cup Series Notes: 2019 All-Star Race at Charlotte

Kevin Harvick won the All-Star Race in 2019.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Next Race: Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race

The Place: Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Date: Saturday, May 18

The Time: Open Race - 6:00 p.m. ET / All-Star Race - 8:00 p.m. ET

TV: FS1

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Open Format: Stage 1 (20 laps); Stage 2 (20 laps); Stage 3 (10 laps)
All-Star Race Format: Stage 1 (30 laps); Stage 2 (20 laps); Stage 3 (20 laps); Stage 4 (15 laps)

2018 All-Star Winner: Kevin Harvick

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Here’s how it works

The Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (Saturday, 8 p.m., FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) format will look much the same as it did in 2018, with the addition of five extra laps to the final stage of the thriller. The stage lengths will be 30 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps and 15 laps. NASCAR Overtime rules are in effect for all of the stages if necessary and there are no mandatory pit strategy rules.

Fifteen drivers qualified for the race by virtue of winning a race in 2018 or 2019, being a past All-Star race winner or being a past Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. Additionally, the winners of each of the three stages (20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps) in the Monster Energy Open race will move into the feature as well as the driver who wins the NASCAR Fan Vote.

Ryan Newman is the only driver to win both the Open race then the All-Star main event, sweeping the weekend in 2002. Sterling Marlin is the all-time Open race winner – earning four trophies (1988, ‘89, ‘93 and 2004), however he never won the All-Star Race.

For the first time in his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career, Chase Elliott has earned his spot in the All-Star Race by virtue of race wins and not the Fan Vote. He scored his career first, second and third Monster Energy Series race victories in 2018 and already has another (at Talladega, Ala.) this season.

Kasey Kahne is the only driver to earn a spot in the All-Star race (2008) through the Fan Vote and go on to win the All-Star race.

Harvick back to defend

Kevin Harvick shows up at Charlotte Moto Speedway a little more than eager to earn a second consecutive and third overall victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race. His work in the popular $1 million event has been top-shelf – his 11 top-10 finishes are tied with Jimmie Johnson for most among active drivers. His five top-five finishes are third-most as are his 124 laps in front of the field.

In 18 previous All-Star starts – the most starts of anyone in Saturday’s race – Harvick boasts the best average starting position (8.5) of any driver in the field with more than one start. In addition to his two wins – 2007 and 2018 – he has three runner-up finishes tying him for most all-time with Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin.

This weekend, he will debut a “Millennial Pink” No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford – making good on a bet his sponsor Busch Beer made last season that if he didn’t win the 2018 championship (Joey Logano did), he would drive a “v lit paint scheme” in 2019. 

The decidedly new-look car was unveiled at the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this week and Harvick is hopeful to reclaim some of the same mastery he’s shown at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s historically been a good place for the 2014 Monster Energy Series champion. He has three regular season wins there and 13 top-10 finishes in the last 16 races on the track.

Harvick is coming off a strong outing Saturday night at Kansas where he won the Busch Pole position and led a race-best 104 laps, ultimately finishing 13th. He is ranked third in the driver point standings.

New points leader after Kansas

Team Penske’s Joey Logano didn’t have a stellar night at Kansas Speedway but his 15th-place finish in conjunction with Kyle Busch’s season-low 30th place result shifted the top of the points standings.

Logano, the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, took the lead – by nine points over Busch - for the first time since early this season. He’s led the standings twice before – following a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500 and after his only win in 2019, at Las Vegas.

Logano won the All-Star Race in 2016 and his seven top-10 finishes in eight starts is the best such ratio on the field. His average finish of 6.875 is behind only four-time winner Jimmie Johnson’s average finish of 6.824 (17 starts) and Chase Elliott’s 6.000 (three starts) among active drivers with more than one start.

He has only one win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Monster Energy Series – a dominating showing in the 2015 fall race when he led 227 of the race’s 334 laps. He has nine top 10s in 19 starts on the oval.

Kyle Busch looking for redemption after Kansas

Kyle Busch had his first finish outside the top 10 of 2019 last Saturday night at Kansas Speedway and the best medicine for redemption may be to hoist an All-Star trophy and cash a $1 million paycheck. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver tied a 29-year old record set by Morgan Shepherd in earning top-10 finishes in the opening 11 races of the season. Last week, Busch’s streak ended when he placed 30th after a frustrating run at Kansas.

His mark of 11 top 10s, however, is still most among all drivers. Joey Logano – who took the championship lead by nine points with Busch’s uncharacteristic showing at Kansas – and Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin are the only other drivers with six top-fives on the season. Busch and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski lead the series with three wins apiece.

The All-Star Race has been all-or-nothing for Busch. He has four top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 13 All-Star race starts, winning in 2017. Only Jimmie Johnson and the late Dale Earnhardt have more top fives (nine). But Busch has either placed in the top-10 in the race or recorded a DNF.

His 256 laps led is most among active drivers. Only Bill Elliott (267 laps) has led more. The driver of the No. 18 Toyota has won three pole positions and his 5.615 average starting position is tops among active drivers and fourth-best all-time.

He has good juju of recent at Charlotte earning his first Monster Energy Series victory at the track from the pole position in last spring’s 600-miler – leading a dominating 377 of the 400 laps.

All-Star Newbies

The 2018 summer race win at Daytona has earned Erik Jones his first All-Star Race start. He shows up at Charlotte fresh off a third place showing in Kansas, which equals his previous season best coming in February’s Daytona 500.

Joining him on the All-Star roster are Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon, who will each be making his second start. This is the third All-Star race for Ryan Blaney and fourth for Chase Elliott, who has been the Fan Vote selection for the previous three years.

Jones is fresh off back-to-back top-10 finishes in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the second time this season and hopes to bring that good momentum into his All-Star debut. He has only one previous top 10 at the Monster Energy Series level at Charlotte, but a runner-up and two top-five finishes in NASCAR Xfinity Series races.

Almirola is making his second career All-Star Race start. He finished 14th in 2015. Dillon finished 12th in his only previous All-Star race in 2018 but answered that with a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 a week later at the track.

Team Penske’s Blaney has a best All-Star finish of 11th, ironically coming in a DNF in 2017. He finished 15th last year but enjoyed redemption winning the inaugural Charlotte ROVAL race on a last lap pass during the Monster Energy Series Playoffs.

Elliott has three top-seven finishes in his All-Star starts, including a best of fifth last year.

A place where seven-time can shine

Another track, another high mark. That’s the way it is for seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, whose four All-Star Race victories make him the winningest driver in the event’s history.

The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is tied with Dale Earnhardt for the most top-fives (nine) all-time and is tied with Kevin Harvick for most top-10s (11) among active drivers in the race. His four victory total is double that of anyone else in the field this weekend and his 6.824 average finishing position (through 17 starts) is second to Chase Elliott’s 6.000 (three starts) for among active drivers. Among active drivers, only Kyle Busch (256) has led more than Johnson’s 238 laps.

Johnson has eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins at the Charlotte 1.5-miler, including five victories in a six-race stretch from 2003-05. He’s finished seventh or better in four of the last five oval races, including fifth in last May’s 600-miler. He nearly won on the track’s ROVAL course debut in October, crashing out in the final turns while attempting a pass for the win.

A sixth place at Kansas Speedway last week was his fifth top 10 of the 2019 season. His best showing of the season came on Charlotte’s 1.5-mile “sister” track – Texas Motor Speedway – where he won the pole position and finished fifth.

Kyle Larson needing to race for his shot at $1 million

For first time this season, Kyle Larson has earned consecutive top-10 finishes – answering a season-best third place at Dover with an eighth place at Kansas last weekend.

The popular young driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet will have to race his way into the All-Star main show this week after having earned an automatic bid last year thanks to four 2017 regular season wins. But 2018 found him winless on the year, relegating him to the Open event.

He won the pole position for the 2017 All-Star Race and finished second after some tough battles on track.

Who to watch in the Open

The Monster Energy Open race will decide three additional drivers for the All-Star lineup and there are plenty of big names and high hopes on the starting grid.

Only one time – Ryan Newman in 2002 – has the Open winner gone on to win the All-Star race, but there are plenty of talented possibilities this year, in particular. The winner of each of the three segments advances, in addition to the Fan Vote.

Among the current top 16 in the standings entered in the Open, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, and Kyle Larson have all made previous All-Star Race starts. Larson has a best showing of runner-up in 2017 and has a previous win in the Open (2017). Suarez was runner-up last year the best of his two All-Star Race appearances. Bowman has only one start, finishing 21st in 2018.

Veteran Paul Menard earned his All-Star opportunity after winning the 2011 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. He finished 16th in his only All-Star appearance the following year.

Stenhouse has three All-Star starts with an average finish of 16.6. The Roush Fenway Racing driver announced Wednesday that he was prepared to bring back his famous “mullet” haircut should he win the Fan Vote to automatically transfer into Saturday’s All-Star main event.

Parade Laps: Insights ahead of this week’s driver media rotations

Six drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman will be participating in this week’s media rotations at Charlotte Motor Speedway in advance of Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Brad Keselowski, 35, of Rochester Hills, Mich., earned his third win of the season Saturday night at Kansas Speedway, tying him with Kyle Busch for most wins on the year. He has six top-10s in all – half of them the wins and two others within the top three, including a runner-up at Las Vegas in March. He is currently ranked fifth in the Monster Energy series points standings heading into the weekend’s All-Star Race. Keselowski is a four-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner at the track and won the fall Monster Energy Series race in 2013 at Charlotte. He has 10 All-Star race starts finishing runner-up twice. Only three active drivers have led more laps than Keselowski (111 laps) in the race. His average finish is 11.6.

Austin Dillon, 29, of Lewisville, N.C., Dillon will make his second All-Start start this weekend. He heads into the big race having earned a pair of pole positions this season and two top-10 finishes  - including a best of sixth place at Richmond, Va. last month. Charlotte Motor Speedway has been a highlight venue for Dillon, who won his first career Monster Energy Series race there in 2017, leading only the final two laps of the 600-mile race. He’s had a lot of success at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, twice winning a race from the pole position – both 2015 races.

Denny Hamlin, 38, of Chesterfield, Va., is the 2015 All-Star Race winner and has nine top-10 finishes in 12 All-Star starts. This year’s Daytona 500 winner had a strong season start scoring six top-five finishes in the opening nine races. But Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has struggled a bit since with no top-15s in the last three races. The move to the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway may be a good omen for the team. Hamlin’s other win in 2019 came at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, a sister track to Charlotte. He has seven top-10 finishes in the last eight Charlotte oval races, winning the pole position in the fall of 2017 and earning a top-five finishes in the last three races on the oval.

Kurt Busch, 40, of Las Vegas, the 2004 Monster Energy Series champion, is looking to add a second All-Star Race trophy to his mantle. He won the both the All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600 in 2010 while driving for Team Penske and his eight top-five finishes in the All-Star race are second only to Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt’s nine all-time. His 17 starts in the All-Star race are tied with Johnson and Ryan Newman, and trail only Kevin Harvick’s 18. With eight top-10 finishes through the opening 12 races of 2019, Busch is certainly having a strong season start in his first year driving the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. He finished runner-up at Bristol, Tenn. And led seven laps at Kansas last weekend.

Ryan Blaney, 25, of High Point, N.C., Charlotte Motor Speedway is the last Victory Circle he hoisted a Cup trophy. Blaney is the defending winner of the fall ROVAL race at Charlotte and hopeful that winning vibe will carry over to this weekend’s All-Star race on the Charlotte oval. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has only two All-Star starts with a best finish of 11^th in 2017. He has four top-10s through this season’s first 12 races – his best effort winning the pole position and finishing third at Phoenix. He has only one top 10 in the last five races, however, so a good showing in the All-Star race would be a welcome precursor to the Coca-Cola 600 at the track on Memorial Day weekend.

Ryan Newman, 41, of South Bend, Ind., won the 2002 All-Star “Open” Race then the All-Star main event from the pole position. His luck in 17 All-Star starts ranges widely. He has seven top-10 finishes and five DNFs. He’s led 111 laps in his career – one of only five active drivers to lead at least 100 laps. Newman is off to a solid start to the 2019 season since moving to the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford team. He has three top 10s – earning them in consecutive races at diverse tracks in Bristol, Tenn., Richmond, Va. and Talladega, Ala. His best showing is seventh at Talladega and he’s ranked 17^th in the points standings.