The 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race (XXXVI) was a

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

stock car exhibition race that was originally scheduled to be held on May 16, 2020 and was rescheduled on July 15, 2020, at

Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the m ...

Bristol, Tennessee Bristol is a city in the State of Tennessee. Located in Sullivan County, its population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The ...

. Contested over 140 laps, it is the second exhibition race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was the first All-Star Race since the 1986 Winston at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

to be hosted outside

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including th ...

Report

Background

The All-Star Race is open to race winners from last season through the 2020 Quaker State 400 at

Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...

, all previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup champions who had attempted to qualify for every race in 2020, the winner of each stage of the All-Star Open, and the winner of the All-Star fan vote are eligible to compete in the All-Star Race. As part of scheduling changes associated with the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and citing a desire to host the race with fans (which is not currently possible due to current health orders in North Carolina), the All-Star Race was moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Bristol Motor Speedway. While most NASCAR races held since the resumption have been held behind closed doors with no spectators, the All-Star Race admitted 30,000 spectators with

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

. Although this was only 20% of the venue's total capacity of 162,000, the All-Star Race hosted the largest number of spectators at a U.S. sporting event since the beginning of pandemic-related restrictions. A new "choose rule" was used for restarts during the race, where drivers could choose whether they wanted to be in the inside or outside lane. NASCAR experimented with an

underglow In the car industry, underglow or ground effects lighting refers to neon or LED aftermarket car customization in which lights are attached to the underside of the chassis so that they illuminate the ground underneath the car. Underglow has ...

lighting package on vehicles at the All-Star Race, color-coded by manufacturer (with Chevrolet in orange, Ford in blue, and Toyota in red). This package was featured on the vehicles of all drivers who had automatically qualified for the event. At the request of teams, NASCAR also experimented with moving the numbers on the sides of vehicles closer to their rear tires, in order to provide additional room for sponsor logos.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver. * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

=NASCAR All Star Open

=NASCAR All-Star Race

Qualifying (Open)

Michael McDowell was awarded the pole for the open as determined by a random draw.

Open Starting Lineup

Qualifying (All-Star Race)

Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...

was awarded the pole for the race as determined by a random draw.

All-Star Race Starting Lineup

NASCAR All Star Open

NASCAR All Star Open results

All-Star Race

All-Star Race results

* Because of multiple pre-race inspection fails, Martin Truex Jr. was moved to the last starting position during the pace laps.

Media

Television

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

was the television broadcaster of the race in the United States. Lap-by-lap announcer,

Mike Joy Michael Joy (born November 25, 1949) is an American TV sports announcer and who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of Fox Sports' coverage of NASCAR. His color analyst is Clint Bowyer. Counting 2022, Joy has been part of the live broadcast ...

and

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

covered the race from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. Regan Smith and

Matt Yocum Matthew Yocum (born April 8, 1968) is a long-standing reporter in motorsports, best known for being a NASCAR pit reporter. He works for CBS as a pit reporter to cover the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) as of 2021. He most recently worked in tha ...

reported from pit lane.

Larry McReynolds Lawrence Joseph McReynolds III (born January 10, 1959) is a current NASCAR crew chief and current racing analyst on Fox Sports as well as a columnist on Foxsports.com. In the past, he has served as an advisor to Petty Enterprises, and as a mi ...

provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. This was also Fox Sports' last Cup race for their portion of the 2020 season as NBC Sports takes over NASCAR broadcasts for the rest of the season.

Radio

Motor Racing Network Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of N ...

(MRN) continued their longstanding relationship with

Speedway Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, IndyCar Series, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has i ...

to broadcast the race on radio. The lead announcers for the race's broadcast were Alex Hayden and Jeff Striegle. The network also implemented two announcers on each side of the track: Dave Moody in turns 1 and 2 and Kyle Rickey in turns 3 and 4. Winston Kelly and Steve Post were the network's pit lane reporters. The network's broadcast was also simulcast on

Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...

References

{{2020 NASCAR Cup

NASCAR All-Star Race The NASCAR All-Star Race, formerly known as The Winston from 1985 to 2003, the Nextel All-Star Challenge from 2004 to 2007, the Sprint All-Star Race from 2008 to 2016, and the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race from 2017 to 2019, is an annual NAS ...

NASCAR races at Bristol Motor Speedway NASCAR All-Star Race