NASCAR All-Star Race format, schedule announced for event at North Wilkesboro Speedway

How will the racing at the much-anticipated NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway look?

Fans have a clearer answer now.

NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports officials announced the schedule and format of the race in the Fox studio in Charlotte on Thursday evening.

The race will take place on Sunday, May 21, at 5 p.m. It will be the first time NASCAR has run a race there since 1996.

Here are the highlights of the All-Star Race format:

▪ The All-Star Race on Sunday will be 200 laps with a competition break at or around Lap 100. All laps, caution and green flag, will count. And NASCAR overtime rules are in effect.

▪ Each team will start on sticker tires and have three additional sets to use. After the competition break, only one additional set of stickers can be used.

▪ Earlier in the day on Sunday, drivers not previously eligible for the All-Star Race can compete for a spot in the race during the All-Star Open. That run will be 100 laps. Three Open drivers will advance to the All-Star Race — the top two race finishers and the Fan Vote Winner.

▪ In order to be automatically eligible for the race, drivers need to have either won an event in 2022 or 2023; won an All-Star Race (and are competing full-time); won a Cup title (and are competing full-time).

▪ Drivers in the All-Star Race (who do not need to run in the Open): Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse, Martin Truex Jr. and Bubba Wallace.

▪ All-Star weekend festivities begin Friday with a Pit Crew Challenge. Pit crews will all complete a four-tire stop, and the times of each team will determine the qualifying order for Saturday’s heat races.

▪ On Saturday, the 22 drivers who have already been locked into the field will be split into two 60-lap heat races. The results from Heat 1 will establish the inside row; the results from Heat 2 will establish the outside row.

▪ Also during the week, there will be a CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car Race on Wednesday. Dale Earnhardt Jr. — driving in that iconic No. 3 Sun Drop car — and Kevin Harvick will be among the big names in the pre-All-Star race event.

Earnhardt Jr. was instrumental in bringing this event to North Wilkesboro Speedway — a speedway that was largely abandoned in 1996, the year of the last NASCAR race there.

But his advocacy for the track’s return to NASCAR for the last three years was what ultimately brought it back to life. That advocacy included a magical August night at NWS where he ran in a Sun Drop No. 3 late model stock car. (Earnhardt Jr. said he will race in the stock car again during All-Star race week.)

He reminisced on that summer night on Wednesday and explained how his experience then helped influence how he wanted the All-Star Race to run in a few months: He wants 100 straight laps of green-flag racing. No gimmicks, just talent — sprinkled in with some small-town Americana nostalgia.

“Just see these drivers run around the racetrack,” Earnhardt Jr. told reporters. “Let’s watch these drivers struggle with the racetrack, struggle with the grip on that challenging surface. Let’s watch and see who’s trying to save some tire and who’s maybe trying to take advantage of getting track position early. And let the race play out in a traditional, short-track race style event.”

He added: “It should be a good car and a good program that people are happy with when it’s all said and done.”