2022 NASCAR All-Star Race


The 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race was a NASCAR Cup Series stock car exhibition race that was held on May 22, 2022, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Contested over 140 laps, extended from 125 laps due to overtime finishes in two stages, it was the second exhibition race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Report

Background

The All-Star Race is open to race winners from last season through the 2022 AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, all previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup champions who had attempted to qualify for every race in 2022, 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.

Entry list

' denotes rookie driver.
  • ' denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
    NASCAR All Star Open
NASCAR All-Star Race

Practice

Open Practice results

Tyler Reddick was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 29.059 seconds and a speed of.

All-Star Race Practice results

Denny Hamlin was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 28.838 seconds and a speed of.

Qualifying (Open)

Tyler Reddick scored the pole for the race with a time of 28.880 seconds and a speed of.

Qualifying (All-Star Race)

Kyle Busch scored the pole for the race by beating Ryan Blaney in the final round of the Pit Crew Challenge.

NASCAR All-Star Race

Overtime controversy

At the race's original final lap, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hit the wall coming out of turn two. NASCAR brought out a caution moments before race leader Ryan Blaney passed the finish line. This meant the race would go into overtime, as the NASCAR All-Star Race rules for that year required the race end under green. Blaney was unaware of the caution and lowered his window net shortly after crossing the finish line. Driving without a secured window net is considered a safety violation and would typically result in a black flag. Blaney attempted to secure the window net by himself, but was unable to do so properly. NASCAR did not allow Blaney to come to pit road in order for his team to securely install the window net. Instead, Blaney retained his lead for the overtime restart and drove with a half-secured net. He would claim afterwards that his window net was secured during the overtime laps. Denny Hamlin, as well as fans, later criticized NASCAR for the timing of the caution and allowing Blaney to drive and keep his first spot with a blatant safety violation. NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller admitted the caution was called prematurely and they had "no way for to know" if Blaney managed to securely install the window net after he originally lowered it.
In response to the controversy, NASCAR pledged to increase the amount of communication between the race control, Race Director and Senior Vice President of Competition in calling cautions to prevent inconsistent calls from reoccurring.

Media

Television

Fox Sports was the television broadcaster of the race in the United States. Lap-by-lap announcer, Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Larry McReynolds called the race from the broadcast booth. Actor Frankie Muniz joined Joy, Bowyer, and McReynolds in the booth for the Open. Jamie Little and Vince Welch handled pit road for the television side.

Radio

Motor Racing Network continued their longstanding relationship with Speedway Motorsports to broadcast the race on radio. The lead announcers for the race's broadcast were Alex Hayden and Jeff Striegle. The network also had two announcers on each side of the track: Dave Moody in turns 1 and 2 and Mike Bagley in turns 3 and 4. Steve Post and Kim Coon were the network's pit lane reporters. The network's broadcast was simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.