The All-Star Race is open to race winners from last season through the 2024 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, all previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup champions who had attempted to qualify for every race in 2023, the top two race finishers of the All-Star Open, and the winner of the All-Star fan vote are eligible to compete in the All-Star Race.
Entry list
(R) denotes rookie driver.
(i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Qualifying for the All-Star Open was cancelled due to inclement weather. The starting lineup was set by owner points. Ty Gibbs started on the pole for the Open. [13]
The 2024 Pit Crew Challenge set the starting lineup for both the NASCAR All-Star qualifying heat races. Joey Logano scored the pole for Heat Race 1 as well as the main event with a time of 1:29.754. Brad Keselowski scored the pole for Heat Race 2 with a time of 1:30.140. Christopher Bell's pit crew won the Pit Crew Challenge with a pit time of 13.223 seconds.[14]
The qualifying heat races were cancelled due to torrential rains and flooding at the speedway. As a result, NASCAR resorted to the morning qualifying session to set the starting lineup.
On the first lap of the race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made it 3 wide in between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch that had Busch hit the outside wall off of turn 2. Upset with that, Busch retaliated and wrecked Stenhouse on the very next lap in the same corner where he hit the wall taking Stenhouse out of the race. Stenhouse parked his car in Busch's pit stall where he had a conversation with Busch's crew chief Randall Burnett. In his interview, Stenhouse quoted "Maybe Richard [Childress] will hold my watch after the race", a reference to an altercation between Childress and Busch in 2011. After the race was over, Stenhouse waited outside of Busch's hauler to confront him and the two had a conversation that got more heated after both began to disagree with what happened on the track. After Stenhouse told Busch to "go back and watch it," he threw a punch at Busch that connected and the two got into a fistfight with Stenhouse's father Ricky Stenhouse Sr. trying to hold Busch back before Busch started attacking him too. The two got separated with both their crew members getting involved as well. The two had another heated conversation while both were getting held back to where Stenhouse said "I'll wreck you at Charlotte" to where Busch replied "Bring it! I don't give a fuck! I suck just as bad as you! Let's go!"[15] Stenhouse Jr. was fined $75,000, Stenhouse Sr. was suspended indefinitely, team mechanic Clint Myrick was suspended for 8 races, and turner Keith Matthews was suspended for 4 races for their involvement in the fight.[16]
Fox Sports was the television broadcaster of the race in the United States. Lap-by-lap announcer, Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and two-time All-Star race winner Kevin Harvick called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled the pit road for the television side. Larry McReynolds provided insight on-site during the race.
Motor Racing Network (MRN) continued their longstanding relationship with Speedway Motorsports to broadcast the race on radio. The lead announcers for the race's broadcast were Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 winner of the All-Star Race Rusty Wallace. The network also have one announcer stationed in turn 4: Dave Moody. Lead Pit Reporter Steve Post, Brienne Pedigo and Chris Wilner were the network's pit lane reporters. The network's broadcast was also simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
