One of the oft-forgotten events in the jam-packed sports month known as May is the Artist Formerly Known as The Winston, aka the NASCAR All-Star Race. It's easy to miss, especially since the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend--with the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo, followed by the Indy 500, and capped by the Coca-Cola 600--is the greatest single day on the calendar for auto racing fans. But The Winston, held on Saturday night the week prior, is one of NASCAR's best events.
The winner gets $1 million. Second place gets nothing. And there are no points at stake, so everyone's going all-out for the million. And it's only the best of the best. None of those random guys you've never heard of that are at the back of the typical field. They have a chance to get in via the qualifying race before the main event, but, for the most part, this is only the big boys. And they have introductions where they all walk out on stage with their pit crew, which is the only time all year that happens.
During the prerace coverage on FS1, they were having a discussion about whether they'd want to win the All-Star Race or a random regular season event. They all chose the All-Star Race and that million. They also argued that NASCAR has the greatest event in sports. It's pretty good, and that $1 million sure gives the drivers plenty of incentive. But the best? That's debatable.
As they said, each sport has its All-Star event. Some of them are great. Some are definitely in need of improvement. But where does NASCAR rank in the grand All-Star scheme? Pretty high actually.
7. Pro Bowl: You know it's bad when even the Commissioner doesn't want to do it. Although, a lot of the reasons why the Pro Bowl sucks can be blamed on the Commissioner. It was his idea to try all those stupid experimental rules. It was his idea to hold it the week before the Super Bowl and make players on the two best teams in the league ineligible. It was his idea to move the game out of Hawaii, where it was always a sellout. Seriously, the only good thing about the Pro Bowl in Orlando is the dodgeball game. I'm glad they didn't discontinue the Pro Bowl (like the Commissioner was threatening a few years ago). But it pales in comparison to the other All-Star Games.
6. NBA: In the Pro Bowl, nobody is allowed to play defense. In the NBA All-Star Game, they simply choose not to. And the result is basically a skills competition where guys are chucking up threes or driving one-on-one. After the West scored nearly 200 points a few years ago, they made some changes that only made things worse. The NHL and NFL both tried that ridiculous "pick your own team" garbage and both realized it was incredibly stupid. Not too stupid for the NBA, though.
5. WNBA: When the NBA changed their all-star format, the WNBA changed theirs, too. So now we're stuck with two "pick your own All-Star team" matchups. Although, since a majority of the better WNBA players and teams are in the West, that change actually resulted in a more competitive game. I still hate the fantasy draft element, though. They don't have a WNBA All-Star Game in Olympic years, so maybe they'll only do it one more time before going back to East-West in 2021.
4. MLS: At first, the MLS All-Star Game was East vs. West. Then they played the U.S. National Team one year, and since 2005, it's been MLS vs. a top team from Europe. This year they're playing Atletico Madrid. That has certainly helped the game's appeal and credibility (so what if it won't be Atletico's A team). And by limiting it to one team covering the entire league, the MLS team only features the absolute best players to that point. Although, with 24 teams (soon to become 27), there's enough talent in MLS for it to go back to showcasing the league's best exclusively. They no longer need the European team to sell tickets. This format has been successful, though, so I'm not sure there's much desire to change it among MLS higher-ups.
3. NASCAR: There are a lot of things that are great about NASCAR's All-Star Race. For starters, they hold it under the lights, which always makes for a better race to watch. And since they have nothing to lose, everybody goes all out, and the result is some exciting racing. I also like that they give the non-All-Stars a chance to qualify through the earlier race (Kyle Larson only got into the All-Star Race through the qualifying race, and he went on to win the $1 million). My only issue with it, though, is that NASCAR's the only sport where you see all of the best go against each other every week regardless of event. So, in that regard, the All-Star Race is just another regular event against the same guys they always see.
2. MLB: I know I'm biased, but I think the original All-Star Game is still pretty close to perfect. It isn't. But it's pretty darn close. Baseball's the sport that lends itself best to the All-Star format, and it's still the greatest showcase the game has. Nothing else is going on in mid-July, so the Midsummer Classic gets the stage to itself. It'll never have the intensity it had during the 60s and 70s again, but that's OK. It's a celebration of the game. And, even though there's nothing at stake now that they've dropped the World Series tie-in, the players always play to win. I know I'm in the minority about this last part, but I like it that every team is represented, too.
1. NHL: It was the NHL that started the whole "pick your own team" nonsense, which pushed the NHL All-Star Game towards the bottom of these rankings for a while. Then in 2017, they got rid of that terrible format and turned it into the best All-Star event in sports. Four teams, one for each division, playing a 3x3 tournament for $1 million. It was one of the smartest things the NHL ever did, and it breathed new life into the event. Throw in the Skills Competition, which has always been the best All-Star showcase event, and you've got an All-Star Weekend that's pretty close to perfect.
Of course, these rankings are entirely subjective. And fans are going to turn out for these events (both in person and on TV) regardless. And isn't that the point? All-Star Games are for the fans. So, from that perspective, they're all great. Flaws and all.
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