It’s here! Last-minute guide to the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro

This week has already seen a Pit Crew Challenge and a Truck Series race and a visit from the North Carolina governor and several drenching doses of nostalgia.

And even still: The premier act remains ahead of us.

The NASCAR All-Star Race will descend on North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday at 8 p.m., punctuating a week that racing fans have waited on since it was announced in September 2022 and that Wilkes County residents have waited on for decades.

Fans can catch the action on FS1 and can follow it on the radio on MRN or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

Here are 10 questions that encompass everything you need to know ahead of the headlining race.

1. When was the last time NASCAR ran at North Wilkesboro? September 29, 1996. You’ll hear that date a bunch Sunday night. That Cup Series race was won by Jeff Gordon, with Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett filing in right behind him. That’s not the last time other forms of stock car racing have been here. Among other events that have been hosted here since that 1996 date: In 2010, Chase Elliott won a PASS (Pro All Stars Series) race, and in August 2022, Dale Earnhardt Jr. headlined a CARS Tour Late Model Stock race that helped fuel the racetrack’s revival. (There were also a bunch of race events this weekend leading up to Sunday.)

2. What is the format for the NASCAR All-Star Race? Fans will see 200 laps with a competition break at or around Lap 100. No stage breaks. Each team will start on sticker tires and have three additional sets to use.

3. How did North Wilkesboro land back on NASCAR’s schedule? This is a brutal question to answer in a few sentences considering all the moving pieces that made this happen, but here’s a quick summary: In 2019, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a documentary crew out to the dilapidated track to get it cleaned up and scanned to be put on the iRacing platform. Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith tagged along. Momentum for the racetrack’s return surged thereafter — but it wasn’t until millions of dollars of federal funding post-pandemic (earmarked by the state legislature to help renovate the track) came in that this all became a reality. The influence of Dale Jr. and the decision-making power of Smith took over from there. NASCAR officials and N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper officially announced that the All-Star Race would descend on North Wilkesboro in September, not far from the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh.

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4. What is at stake in the NASCAR All-Star Race? This…