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An All-Star Race Format Idea

I was scrolling through Twitter on Thursday afternoon Speedway Motorsports Inc. head honcho Marcus Smith dropped a funny tweet:

If you don’t know who Steve Luvender is, he’s the genius behind several NASCAR-related mini-sites — including the All-Star Race format generator. You can refresh the generator as much as you want and it will spit out unlimited (and mostly ridiculous) format ideas.

But there’s a little truth in everything, so I’m guessing this means Smith and NASCAR and whoever else decides on the All-Star format are in talks to determine how it will go this year.

If they’re open to ideas — maybe not to the extreme of Luvender’s generator — I have one to share.

How about a Battle Royal format?

Here’s how it would work:

— One driver is eliminated every five laps until there are two drivers left. So if there are 20 drivers in the field, it’s a 90 lap-race. The organizers can put mandatory caution breaks into the race if they want (caution laps won’t count), but the bottom line is the last-place car must pull off the track every five laps until there are two remaining.

— When there are two cars left, there will be a caution. The cars will start side-by-side (with the leader picking lane choice) for a two-lap shootout. The driver who was most recently eliminated (the third-place car at lap 90) will be allowed to participate in the shootout because NASCAR will need a backup plan in case the two remaining cars wreck each other. But that car must start the segment on pit road, ensuring it will be a half-lap behind and can only win if the leaders crash (which actually has a decent chance of happening).

So what do you think? It would be much simpler to explain than previous formats and would also be a lot of fun.

Yeah, some big names might go out early and not be around at the finish, but what race fan is going to turn off the TV when a driver is getting eliminated every five laps and there’s constant pressure to stay in front of the cutoff line?