What NASCAR's Sprint All-Star Race Needs to Do to Bring Back the Excitement

For nearly 20 years, the Sprint All-Star Race—formerly known as The Winston from 1985 through 2003—was one of the high points of every NASCAR season.

Sure, the big prize money to the winner (started at $200,000 and eventually grew to today’s standard of $1 million) was a big lure in the non-points race.

But there were also bragging rights, and drivers let it all hang out, not needing to worry much about penalties or retribution that might occur in a points-paying race.

That’s why whenever there’s a highlight reel of the All-Star Race, invariably many of the high points of the exhibition event stem from most of those first 18 annual races:

* 1987’s “Pass in the Grass,” where Dale Earnhardt went into the grass to hold off a hard charge by Bill Elliott to win.

* Rusty Wallace’s memorable spin out of Darrell Waltrip in 1989, prompting Waltrip to quip, “I hope (Wallace) chokes on the $200,000.”

* Davey Allison won the first-ever night race in 1992 but wrecked hard at the finish line, sending him to the hospital rather than Victory Lane.

* Jeff Gordon so dominated the 1997 race with his immortal T-Rex car—winning every segment—that NASCAR made it clear to Gordon and crew chief Ray Evernham to never show T-Rex at a track ever again.

* Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the 2000 Winston as a rookie.

* In 2001, rained caused a multi-car wreck that prompted NASCAR to let teams that needed to do so go to backup cars, a rare move for an in-progress race (red-flagged while the rain continued until it stopped). Jeff Gordon, who was one of those collected in the wreck, drove his backup car back onto the race track and on to the victory.

CHUCK BURTON/Associated Press

Do you see the pattern here? One of excitement, unpredictability and drama?

But since Gordon’s come-from-behind win in 2001, highlights of the race have not been as frequent or as spectacular.

Numerous format changes, seemingly every year, from 2002 on didn’t help. It made it confusing for not only fans, but the media—and even teams themselves.

Looking back, the format was changed six times in an 11-year period: 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012.

I can understand why NASCAR and Sprint want to make the All-Star Race an optimal experience for drivers, teams and fans. Each format change or tweak was designed with the best intentions in mind to do just that.

Which brings us to Saturday’s 31st edition of the All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which has hosted all but one edition (1986, Atlanta Motor Speedway) of the traditional showcase of NASCAR’s best of the best.

Yes, there will be excitement, as is typical. But there will also be some changes: 20 additional laps from last year, as well as more past winners and past Sprint Cup champions (still active) being eligible.

Yes, there will be the Sprint Showdown the night before, where the top two finishers—plus the winner of the fan vote—will transition into the main event on Saturday.

Yes, more people than usual will likely tune in to watch the race because it will mark the return of Kyle Busch (he's missed the last three months recovering from a broken leg and fractured foot).

But something in me keeps saying that, as much as I’ve not been in favor of all of the changes the format has seen over the years, more change still needs to occur to create more and greater excitement, drama and attention that was so prevalent in most of the first half of the All-Star Race’s tenure.

Among the changes I suggest:

* Forgo segments and instead have 20-lap heat races, two on the same night as the Sprint Showdown, with the winners of each race transitioning to the main event.

* With 25 drivers eligible, have three 25-lap heat races on All-Star Race night. The top five finishers in each race (plus the fan vote favorite and the winner of the previous year’s race) would move on to a final 17-driver field for a 50-lap main event.

* Keep that format intact with zero changes for at least 10 years to build continuity.

Now comes the controversial part.

While Charlotte Motor Speedway has done a great job over the last three decades of hosting the All-Star Race, name one other major sport that keeps its all-star event in the same place year after year and decade after decade.

There is none.

To really bring back excitement, NASCAR needs to rotate the All-Star Race at various tracks throughout the sport.

Imagine an All-Star Race at such diverse places as Daytona, Richmond, Chicago, Fontana and maybe even Sonoma.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

By having a different host track each year, it would give fans across the country who can’t come to Charlotte a chance to see such a unique event on their own home turf.

For it to be a true All-Star Race, it has to be one that touches every part of the country. It’s not fair to the other tracks that one track can hold such a long domination.

I’m also a pragmatist. There likely won’t be any changes to the current All-Star Race format until at least 2017, after Sprint’s run as entitlement sponsor ends at the end of the 2016 season.

That would be the perfect time to change the format and allow the new entitlement sponsor—especially if it’s a national company that does business in most, if not all, current Sprint Cup markets—to put its own signature on it and to start a new All-Star Race tradition.

Now it’s your turn: Leave your comments on how YOU would like to see the All-Star Race change to bring back the excitement of back in the day.

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski