For over a decade, NASCAR fans had asked for the event to return in some form, allowing the sport’s Pit Crew Athletes a chance to shine in the spotlight during All-Star weekend. Ahead of NASCAR’s 2023 All-Star Race, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports finally announced the return of the All-Star Pit Crew Challenge.
Unlike prior iterations, this revamped challenge would take place at the track during qualifying, with the fastest time setting the field, and a $100,000 bonus for the pit crew. But, alongside the many changes to the All-Star Race in 2026, this year’s event only set pit stall selection, though the fastest pit stop still scored the $100,000 bonus for the pit crew.
Of course, the pressure is not entirely on the pit crews, as drivers still have to complete three solid laps around Dover Motor Speedway and make the tricky transition from the track’s 24-degree banking and onto pit road.
From there, it was in the hands of the crewmen, with each of the 36 entries required to complete a four-tire stop with fuel.
In this year’s All-Star Pit Crew Challenge, an early surprise came just 14 drivers into qualifying, when Zane Smith’s No. 38 crew set down a blazing 12.612-second pit stop.
While Smith, ailed by a pit road speeding penalty, qualified 25th for the All-Star Race, the pit stop time stood for the next 22 entries, with the team scoring the $100,000 bonus and their choice of pit stall for Sunday’s main event.
The win was a shock to many NASCAR fans and a major milestone for the crew, which Front Row Motorsports leases from Joe Gibbs Racing, whose pit crew program has now won three of the four All-Star Pit Crew Challenges since the event’s 2023 re-launch.
Though, as the team’s Jackman, Nate McBride explained, the in-house contest between Gibbs’ pit crews leading up to the event showed signs that they could be a top competitor ahead of All-Star Weekend.
“We had our own little competition going up against, in my opinion, the best of the best with the 20, 19, 54, and 11 teams,” McBride said. “We ended up winning that during the week.”
For his part, McBride is no stranger to winning on a big stage.
As a four-star linebacker recruit out of Vidalia, Georgia, he took his talents to the home team, committing to the University of Georgia ahead of the 2017 season.
Over his four years playing for the Bulldogs under Coach Kirby Smart, McBride saw the team win an SEC Championship, three Bowl games, and play for a National Championship during his freshman year.
Even when he made the transition to NASCAR in late 2021, McBride found himself in victory lane right off the bat, scoring a Crown Jewel win in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600 in his first Cup Series race as a member of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 team.
But according to McBride, the win in the All-Star Pit Crew Challenge was another level, saying that the wait from the end of their pit stop to the final pit stop of qualifying was stressful for him and his teammates, all of which built up to something they will never forget.
“That time span from doing the stop, being P1 all the way to the end, it was honestly nauseating, to say the least,” McBride said. “But when it happened, you can’t compare it, because you work with those guys every day. Yes, it’s very similar to football in the sense that we just won something crazy. But the fact that it is focused solely on us, not on anyone else. Of course, Zane did his part, but… it was so surreal.”
Even with the prizes, including pit stall selection, $100,000, and one of the most unique trophies in NASCAR, McBride noted that the congratulatory nods from other pit crews in the garage, especially from their fellow JGR-trained pit crews, made the moment all the more joyous.
“Seeing all the Gibbs guys, the other pit crew guys, we’re all good friends with them, so they came by, they congratulated us,” McBride said. “Even though they didn’t win the day, they won the day, because the team motto at Gibbs is ‘One Team’ and it’s so cool seeing those guys come and support us.”
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