Texas Motor Speedway to host NASCAR All-Star Race in 2021 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Texas Motor Speedway has landed the 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race.

The track made the announcement during an event on Wednesday afternoon at Texas Live. TMS president Eddie Gossage put the All-Star Race in the same realm of NASCAR’s biggest races such as the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

The winning driver will receive $1 million.

“It’s one of those kinds of races,” Gossage said. “I couldn’t be more pleased.”

The All-Star Race will be held on Sunday, June 13. The tripleheader weekend also includes a truck race on Friday, June 11 and Xfinity race on Saturday, June 12.

The All-Star weekend means that TMS won’t have its traditional spring race weekend in late March.

Instead, TMS’ 2021 season will open with an IndyCar doubleheader event May 1-2 followed by the All-Star weekend (June 11-13) and then a NASCAR doubleheader in the fall (Oct. 16-17).

“When I look at the 2021 schedule, all three dates got better,” Gossage said.

It’s unclear if TMS will be home to the All-Star Race beyond 2021. NASCAR hasn’t announced plans for the 2022 race, although signs point toward the All-Star Race moving around the country much like similar events in MLB and the NBA.

The All-Star Race has been held since 1985 and has been run at Charlotte Motor Speedway every year except 1986 (Atlanta Motor Speedway) and 2020 (Bristol, because of the coronavirus pandemic). TMS’ parent company, Speedway Motorsports, also owns the tracks in Charlotte, Atlanta and Bristol.

Gossage and Speedway Motorsports president and CEO Marcus Smith made it clear that the expectation is for Texas to remain a two-race NASCAR track beyond the 2021 season. Whether that means hosting the All-Star Race and one Cup points race going forward or reverting back to two points races is to be determined.

Speedway Motorsports also announced plans to run a NASCAR race at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas track in 2021. That race is scheduled for May 23.

Speedway Motorsports is leasing the track to host the event that weekend and is essentially using one of its NASCAR dates to do so. Again, though, that doesn’t mean TMS is in jeopardy of dropping to a one-race stop in the future.

“I definitely think Texas Motor Speedway is a two NASCAR Cup Series weekend kind of track,” said Smith, who attended the announcement. “I don’t see TMS going to one NASCAR weekend any time.”

Smith described the process of TMS landing the All-Star Race as in conjunction with NASCAR executives. At the end of the day, Texas made sense to host the race, particularly with the track celebrating its 25th season in 2021.

“It’s the perfect place to host an event as big as the NASCAR All-Star Race,” Smith said.

Along with Gossage and Smith, NASCAR driver Kurt Busch attended the announcement. Busch loved the idea of moving the All-Star Race to Texas and feels it’ll be a must-see event for fans across the country.

Busch went on to say he liked the idea of running a NASCAR race in Austin. The sport’s 2021 schedule had a number of changes from the All-Star Race coming to Texas to the race at COTA to a dirt track race at Bristol.

“Today’s a big day all the way around in NASCAR,” said Busch, driver of the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing. “There’s a big shift right now and it’s an exciting week for NASCAR.”

Judging by those on hand, a big week for Fort Worth and TMS too.

“The NASCAR All-Star Race is a worldwide broadcast event,” Smith said. “People will come to Fort Worth, Texas Motor Speedway and the whole region from all 50 states. We’ll have over 100,000 people here that weekend, enjoying everything that is Texas and everything that is NASCAR in Texas. It’ll be a great time to shine.”

TMS’ 2021 major race dates

May 1: Texas Indy 300/NTT INDYCAR SERIES

May 2: Genesys 300/NTT INDYCAR SERIES

June 11: SpeedyCash.com 400/NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

June 12: Texas 300/NASCAR Xfinity Series

June 13: NASCAR All-Star Race

Oct. 16: O’Reilly Auto Parts 300/NASCAR Xfinity Series

Oct. 17: Autotrader EchoPark 500/NASCAR Cup Series

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 6:10 PM.