The upcoming NASCAR All-Star Race and All-Star Open at Bristol Motor Speedway, as well as the three-day race weekend at Kansas Speedway, will all be run without practices or qualifying, according to schedules released by the sanctioning body.
That continues a practice that has been in effect since racing resumed last month following the coronavirus hiatus. The only exception to that policy has been qualifying that was held prior to the Coca-Cola 600.
The 36th annual NASCAR All-Star Race will be held on Wednesday, July 15. The green flag is slated to fall at 8:30 p.m. ET. The race will be preceded by the All-Star Open, which begins at 7 p.m. ET.
This will mark only the second time in All-Star Race history that the event will not be held at its traditional home of Charlotte Motor Speedway. It has been moved to Bristol due to ongoing restrictions on mass gatherings at events in the state of North Carolina.
On Wednesday, a North Carolina judge ruled against a small track in that state reopening because it had previously violated the ban on mass gatherings.
The only other time the All-Star event has been held elsewhere was in 1986 when Atlanta Motor Speedway played host. The race returned to Charlotte the following year.
Speedway Motorsports President Marcus Smith has previously said that up to 30,000 fans will be permitted to attend the event at Bristol. Speedway Motorsports owns both the Charlotte and Bristol tracks.
As for the Kansas Cup race, it will be held under the lights on Thursday, July 23, with the green flag slated to fall at 7:30 p.m. ET. Two other races will be held at Kansas on the following days: the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series event on Friday, July 24 (7 p.m. ET start) and the NASCAR Xfinity Series event on Saturday, July 25 (5 p.m. ET start).
All races at Kansas will be held without fans, as will be the case for races preceding it including Pocono this weekend, Indianapolis on July 4-5 and Kentucky on July 9-12.
However, Kansas Speedway officials previously said in a statement on the track’s website that it will continue to monitor the situation “to determine if it may be possible to have fans attend our races in July.”