2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge

The 2007 Nextel Open and Nextel All-Star Challenge was a professional auto race held on May 19, 2007, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. North Carolina native and former NBA MVP Michael Jordan was the grand marshal of the event.

NASCAR's All-Star Challenge is an exhibition race which uses a different format. Similarly to the All-Star games in other North American sports leagues, it does not affect the championship standings. Race winners (either drivers or teams) in the 2006 and the first eleven races of the 2007 seasons, plus former Winston/Nextel Cup Champions and All-Star event winners from the past decade, automatically qualify for the main event. On restarts of the race after caution flags, the cars line up in a double file restart, akin to the start of a regulation race. A description of how the race was reformatted for the 2007 running can be found here.

Qualifying for this event is different from qualifying in NASCAR. Those entered for the main event take 3 timed qualifying laps, instead of the usual two laps used in all sanctioned oval races, but they must take a required pit stop for four tires after either the first or second lap, coming in at the pit road speed (in the case of LMS, 45 miles per hour), with no speed limit on exits. Infractions will also incur time penalties. Starting in 2007, the selection of the pit boxes used by teams was made after the annual Pit Crew Challenge event to be held three days earlier at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, won by the Ryan Newman No. 12 team. In the qualifying, Matt Kenseth won the pole. Kevin Harvick was bumper-to-bumper with Jimmie Johnson coming to the start/finish line to win the race.

All other drivers or teams that are in the Nextel Cup Top 50 owners or drivers points that do not automatically qualify for the All-Star Challenge are entered into a 40-lap, a two-half event called the Nextel Open. Only the top two drivers, plus one additional driver on the lead lap that is voted in by fans on the World Wide Web via Sprint/Nextel's website, their customers, and attendees of the race, join the elite field. Standard qualifying rules applied for those in this event, which saw Carl Edwards win "P-1" (a.k.a. the pole position), edging fellow Roush-Fenway teammate David Ragan. The Nextel Open was won by Martin Truex Jr. Johnny Sauter finished second.

Before the All-Star Challenge, a new preliminary race was held between Nextel Cup crew chiefs—the Kobalt Tools Crew Chief Race. The race comprised eighteen crew chiefs driving small Legends Thunder Roadster cars on the quarter-mile oval in front of the main track's grandstand and was televised in the United States on Speed. NASCAR on ESPN color commentator and former crew chief, Andy Petree won the main event, earning a $10,000 donation for any charity of his choice. The charities he decided to donate the race winnings to were Motor Racing Outreach and Mud Creek Baptist Church.

The following drivers qualified after they won at least one race in the 2006 or 2007 seasons, in order of their qualifying win:

The following drivers qualified as a result of driving a car that won a race in 2006 with a different driver:

The following drivers qualified as a result of being a former Nextel Cup champion (since 1997):