From a NASCAR Fan’s View
The All Stars go for the million dollars at Texas Motor Speedway tonight. It is amazing how much work all of the teams that can compete in this one will put into a chance to win a million dollars. Just one of them will win and the rest will just chalk it up as another race they didn’t win. There’s nothing but the grand prize available and of course the prestige that goes along with winning the All Star Race.
Probably the most important question that can be asked for tonight’s race would be, “Which of the drivers and teams actually will win and take home the million (and of course split it fairly with those that helped them win.”) Of course, I really don’t know how the payoff works and I really have no idea of how much each person could get out of such a deal but, a million dollars can be split up many ways and still make a good payday for each one on the winning team.
Since I cannot tell the future and would rather watch the race be run rather than try to name a winner right off the bat, I can only do what many others have done and are doing. I can only speculate on which of the drivers and teams might have at least a slight advantage over some of the others. I won’t do that this time. You already know the format and the way things were supposed to go for the qualifying for both the Open and the All Star race. Of course that is a relative assumption on my part and, I admit, I’m not very comfortable with all the nuances myself, at least not to try and plainly explain it to someone.
Honestly, the easiest to explain was what the All Star Open drivers went through. It was be pretty much a regular qualifying format in reverse order based on owner points for 2022. Then they will run a three-stage race with two stages of twenty laps and the third stage of 10 laps. To shorten this a little bit, the winners of the stages advance to the All
Star race along with the fan vote favorite. There are other details but I won’t go into them here. (Actually, I think it would be better if we all just watch the Open take place. It will be well worth it anyway.)
Of all that was be going on, the hardest to explain was what the drivers already qualified had to do to determine their qualifying order. They started off with quite simply running a qualifying lap in reverse order of the 2022 owner points and then the top eight of those qualifiers ran a lap each, head-to-head to determine the first part of their qualifying order. Then the pit crews went to work and then it got a little complicated as to how they would line up from that point. It’s another one of those things that this fan thought it would be better to watch than try to explain. I could’ve explained it but then again, I asked the question of myself, why explain something that is easier to let NASCAR figure out and tell us about. Besides, by the time this hits the web, the lineup will already be set except for the results from the All Star Open.
First of all, let me just say at first glance of those drivers already in the All Star race, any one of them could walk away with a million dollar paycheck. There are just a lot of good drivers already qualified and it would be very difficult for me to pick one of them out from amongst the rest. Add to that the fan favorite and the results of the Open and it looks like just about any of them could win, especially with the prize that waits for the winner.
So far, it does look like the Toyotas have finally found a little speed. But this is being written before the running of the Open and it is this fan’s opinion the Toyotas and the Chevys will be up front when it counts BUT this is also for no points and a million dollars and that could make for some very interesting twists and turns by the time it is all over.
Now, you may be asking if I have one or more favorites and the answer to that question is, yes, I have several. Most of them drive Chevys but that’s not the only manufacturer I support. You may also ask it I have some I would rather not see win and the answer is once again, yes, there a few but I’ll just keep those to myself for the moment…
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
© May 22, 2022 – all rights reserved
Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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