The fate of the NASCAR All-Star Race largely rests on the whims of Marcus Smith, who is giving few hints about how he’ll deploy a new “Promoter’s Caution.”

It’s the latest goofy gimmick in an event defined by annual format changes designed to goose the competition in the name of fender-banging fireworks. At a randomly selected point tonight during the first 220 of 250 laps at North Wilkesboro Speedway, a yellow flag will fly and possibly wipe out a big lead while bunching the field for a race-altering restart.

The decision on when to throw the yellow rests solely with Smith, the president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, which owns the 0.625-mile track in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

“I’ll have a very special mystery guest with a little All-Star Race history of his own to help me out when it’s time to drop the yellow,” Smith said. “Hopefully, we’ll create a little chaos for the teams and some fun for the fans at the same time.”

It’s an attempt to restore some luster to the All-Star Race, which has lost touch with its no-holds-barred origins. The past two events at North Wilkesboro produced runaway victories for Kyle Larson and Joey Logano, who led 199 of 200 laps in 2024.

The most memorable event last year came after the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch engaged in fisticuffs after tangling for a mid-pack position. It was a far cry from the furious last-lap battles that once sent an All-Star Race winner to the emergency room (Davey Allison sustained a concussion in 1992 after crashing from contact with Kyle Petty at the checkered flag).

The Promoter’s Caution won’t guarantee a slam-bang ending, but it’s in the vein of an exhibition race with $1 million but no points at stake. While other pro sports have struggled to keep all-star events relevant, Cup Series drivers pride themselves on competing as hard as they would in a race with championship implications — and sometimes harder.

“The All Star Race is not just another race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell said. “Everybody is more aggressive than a normal Sunday Cup race. Everyone has that win it or wear it attitude, and it races differently because of that.”

Palou, Penske set pace at Indy 500 qualifying: Three familiar faces were at the top of the Indianapolis 500 qualifying board after the first round of time trials, with two-time defending IndyCar series champion Alex Palou holding the provisional pole.

Palou, winner of four of the first five races this season, qualified at 233.043 mph in a Honda-powered entry Saturday to top the Team Penske drivers of Scott McLaughlin and two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden.

“It was an amazing day for us,” Palou said. “In practice we were not able to finish a full qualifying run. It was tough conditions. But we had a ton of speed in the car.”

McLaughlin went 233.013 and Newgarden was third at 233.004 in Chevrolets. A year ago, all three Penske cars swept the front row at the Indianapolis 500 and Newgarden used a last-lap pass to put himself in position to become the first driver to win the Indy 500 three consecutive years in next Sunday’s race.

That trio took the rest of the day off after their initial qualifying runs. It was a far more stressful session for some other top stars, including Marco Andretti, who failed to lock himself into the field of 33 on the first day of qualifying. Andretti will now have to prepare for a Sunday shootout against Marcus Armstrong, who crashed in morning practice but got a backup on track as the minutes ticked down on Saturday’s session.

“We just need to do four solid ones (laps today) and we should be OK,” Andretti said. “But just even running (today) is a bummer. We have speed problems. I’ve seen it across the garage with big teams. It’s just how it is. I drew that straw this year.”

The famed Andretti family has only won the Indianapolis 500 once — a 1969 win by Mario Andretti.

Piastri wins pole for F1 race: Oscar Piastri fought his way through traffic to take pole position in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as Ferrari had a terrible session, with neither car in the top 10.

Piastri admitted he “thought it was going to unravel” when he approached slower cars toward the end of his final qualifying lap but it proved enough as Max Verstappen fell just .034 of a second short of the Australian’s time. That gave standings leader Piastri a big advantage in today’s race at a track where overtaking was notably difficult. George Russell took third for Mercedes, pushing Piastri’s McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris down to fourth. Norris was left to rue another underwhelming result in qualifying this year.