The 2024 All-Star Race set the remaining spots on the grid with the All-Star Open. After heat races were cancelled on Saturday due to rain and flooding, 20 drivers battled it out for the final three spots in the million-dollar event. Big names such as Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, and Noah Gragson made up the open field as they journeyed on their quest for a chance to compete in the All-Star Race.
Austin Cindric competed in the All-Star Race in 2022 and 2023, yet made his Open debut in the race this year. Chase Briscoe makes his second appearance in the Open, his first since his rookie season in 2021. Austin Dillon is another driver who looked to return to the main race with a strong performance in the open, along with Erik Jones, Wallace, and Ty Gibbs. Who secured the final three spots in the All-Star Open? Here is everything that took place in the preliminary race!
You need to know:
Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace quickly pulled away at the drop of the green flag. While third on back traded positions in the first half, the 54 and 23 cleared the field, with Gibbs leading the first 50 laps of the All-Star Open on his way to the All-Star Caution. Gibbs gapped Wallace by over two seconds, but Bubba was able to cut the gap to under two seconds before the caution flag flew.
With every driver coming onto pit road, multiple chose to move to the softer tire, but faced issues with the tires they received. Wallace believed to have mix and matched the red and yellow tires. Wallace actually had all four soft tires on, but the color of the tape on them caused an optical illusion believing that they mixed and matched. Wallace fell to 3rd during pit stops but worked his way back to second in the race.
Austin Cindric found himself sandwiched between Briscoe and Hocevar coming off of turn four and onto the straight. The three-wide battle ended quickly as Cindric was squeezed right into the front of Briscoe’s Mustang, causing him to turn into the outside wall and bring out the second caution of the day. Cindric was not happy with the racing, as he quickly tracked down Hocevar when the yellow was brought out. Cindric was brought to pit road for repairs, going multiple laps down and taking him out of a chance to race his way into the All-Star Race, ultimately missing it for the first time in his career.
Ty Gibbs had little to no competition in the Open, as he drove away on every restart and never looked back. The driver of the 54 led every lap in the Open to take the checkered flag by over two seconds from Bubba Wallace, who took the final transfer spot in the Open for a Toyota sweep of the top two places. It marks the second straight year Gibbs has raced his way into the All-Star Race.
Noah Gragson was the winner of the All-Star Fan Vote, taking home the third and last spot in the All-Star Race over names such as Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman. This marks the first time Noah Gragson has made the All-Star Race.
While this may be the end of the All-Star Open, this is only the beginning of the night. With the grid now set, its time to see who will win the million dollar prize in the All-Star Race!
Stay tuned to DailyDownforce.com for the recap for the All-Star Race, along with all the latest news in the NASCAR world!
Two stages are now complete at Circuit of the Americas for the NASCAR Cup Series. In the first stage, the cream rose to the top in Austin, Texas as the entire top 5 finishers were all former winners in the Cup Series on road courses. Ross Chastain earned top honors in the opening stage with his Trackhouse teammate, Shane van Gisbergen, right behind him. The second stage crown went to Ty Gibbs. Here’s things to note as we gear up for the final stage through the finish.
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For the third round of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, the greatest drivers in the world head down to the Lone Star state of Austin, Texas, to take on the renowned road course of Circuit of the Americas (COTA). 23XI Racing and Tyler Reddick are riding a wave of momentum heading into the third race of the season. No team has ever gone three in a row to start the year. Can they get it done? Well, a certain driver named Shane van Gisbergen might have something to say about that. Here’s what you need to keep an eye on in today’s race at Circuit of the Americas.
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Tyler Reddick won the pole on Saturday’s qualifying session at Circuit of the Americas, his 3rd at the track in just the 6th race there, extending his record of most poles at the road course, as no one else has won more than one, in a pretty straightforward session, in which there were no major incidents, crashes, or huge surprises.
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