The NASCAR Cup Series will have their All-Star Race at the Dover Motor Speedway this weekend. There will not be any Fantasy Live, FanTrax or Speedway Collective picks for this race since the All-Star Race is not included on their schedules. The Truck Series will race at Dover Friday night and the O’Reilly Series will race Saturday evening. NASCAR eliminated the All-Star Open Race, so the field will be set through qualifying on Saturday. The DFS picks for the Cup Series race will be posted after qualifying Saturday. I will also include the Best Bets and a One & Done pick in the article to be posted Sunday morning.
Here is the schedule for the on-track activity at Dover Motor Speedway this weekend…
Friday (May 15th): Truck Series Practice (12:30 p.m. ET)
Friday (May 15th): Truck Series Qualifying (1:40 p.m. ET)
Friday (May 15th): Cup Series Practice (3 p.m. ET)
Friday (May 15th): Truck Series Race (5 p.m. ET)
Saturday (May 16th): O’Reilly Series Practice (9:30 a.m. ET)
Saturday (May 16th): O’Reilly Series Qualifying (10:35 a.m. ET)
Saturday (May 16th): Cup Series Qualfying (Noon ET)
Saturday (May 16th): O’Reilly Series Race (4 p.m. ET)
Sunday (May 17th): Cup Series All-Star Race (1 p.m. ET)
ALL-STAR RACE PREVIEW
NASCAR really changed the format for the All-Star race this year. The previous All-Star Races had a field of drivers who were locked into the race and then an Open Race to add two or three more drivers to the field. That will not be the case at Dover. All 36 teams will qualify on Saturday. The field for the All-Star Race will be set from the team’s single lap speed around Dover Motor Speedway, combined with their four-tire pit-stop speed. All 36 cars will compete in a 75 laps spring in Segment 1. The field will be inverted (the driver who finished 1st will start Segment 2 last and the driver who finished last will start first). Segment 2 will be another 75 lap sprint. The final Segment will consist of the top-26 drivers. The field for the final segment will include 2025 and 2026 Cup Series race winners, former Cup Series champions who compete full-time, a Fan Vote winner and remaining drivers based on the lowest combined finishing positions among Segments 1 and 2. They will have a 200 lap race to the checkered flag. The winner will earn $1M.
ALL-STAR RACE FIELD
Here is the field for the All-Star Race. The drivers with a star (*) next to their name are locked into the main event (this is from Bob Popgrass).
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR DOVER
The Monster Mile is a high-banked concrete track. There are a handful of drivers who consistently run well at Dover. I used the stats from the Gen-7 car era at Dover (2022-2025) and combined it with the stats from the races at Darlington and Bristol this year. Both of these tracks are high-banked, high-speed tracks. I wanted some of the 2026 speed factored into the rankings.
Here are the best drivers for the All-Star Race, according to the stats…
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