NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. – Ty Gibbs took the checkered flag, winning Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Gibbs started on the pole and led all 100 laps of the Open NASCAR All-Star Race for the second consecutive year.
The All-Star Open was the undercard event to the NASCAR All-Star Race, where non-qualified drivers attempted to race their way into the All-Star Race by winning the Open, finishing second in the Open, or winning the fan vote.
Gibbs’ No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota to the finish line and into Sunday night’s 200-lap showcase event.
The Fan Vote Winner was Noah Gragson of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford).
Stewart Haas Finish in NASCAR All-Star Open
- Josh Berry (Started 7th, Finished 3rd / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
- Noah Gragson (Started 5th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 3rd, Finished 7th / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 12th, Finished 8th / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
The winner of the NASCAR All-Star Race was Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford). Logano won the All-Star Race by 0.636 second over runner-up Denny Hamlin.
This was Ford’s 14th win in the All-Star Race.
The All-Star Race featured two lead changes among two different drivers. Twenty drivers comprised the field.
The NASCAR All-Star Race was comprised of drivers who won a points-paying race in 2023 or 2024, full-time drivers who have previously won the All-Star Race, full-time drivers who have won a NASCAR Cup Series championship, and drivers who advanced from the All-Star Open.
Stewart Haas in NASCAR All-Star Race:
- Noah Gragson (Started 20th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
This was Gragson’s second career All-Star Race. He finished 23rd last year. He earned his way into the All-Star Race by winning the fan vote for a second straight year.
“I started in the back and went a lap down early, and then got the Lucky Dog and came back to 11th. Just never really got a handle on the balance all weekend,” said Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Mustang Dark Horse. “Pretty loose in. We need to go back and definitely do our homework on this place. It’s tough, it’s a new place, but we’re a better race team than we showed all weekend. Extremely grateful for the fan support to be able to allow us the opportunity to get into the All-Star Race. It was a fun weekend overall, I just kind of struggled all weekend. Soft tires seemed to be better for our car than the hard tire. But, yeah, good time overall and super grateful.”
Josh Berry won last year’s All-Star Open to advance into the All-Star Race.
“I don’t know, we had a really good practice; we were loose in qualifying, and that kind of translated to the first run,” said Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Harrison’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “The boys on pit road had a great pit stop and got us some track position. I think the tire compound tightened us up a little bit and we were better. We still needed to be a little bit tighter. I was doing everything I could, without a doubt. I really found a lot in (turns) one and two. I was fast in (turns) one and two but just couldn’t quite put together (turns) three and four to make a charge at them. From where we started, we knew it would be tough, but all in all it was just a great effort. Everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, Rodney (Childers, crew chief), this whole 4 team, Harrison’s for all they do. I hate to not be in it (the All-Star Race), but we were probably the whole show right there for how it looked. I was doing everything I could. I just couldn’t quite get to the 23 (Bubba Wallace, second-place finisher). The last couple of laps, I got a little bit better, but it would’ve been hard to pass him without really roughing him up.”
“We just didn’t really have the short-run speed,” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “It seemed like once we got single-filed out, it was hard unless you were really, really good to go forward. On the normal tire, we were really, really loose at the start, and on the soft tire, we were really, really tight. I felt like if the race was 100-lap runs, we would’ve been alright. We were pretty good on the long runs. We just didn’t quite have it on the short runs. We’ve just got to do a better job. Especially this weekend, it’s just a little tough having different tires, but I need to do a better job just understanding from practice kind of what I need for the short run versus the long run. Hated it for all of us. We’ve been having really, really good speed here lately, so I hope this wasn’t a momentum killer. But overall, I’m thankful for HighPoint. I wish we could’ve gotten them a little better chance in the All-Star Race, but we’ll just go to the Coke 600 next week and see what we can do.”
“We just needed a better balance, needed better track position, kind of everything,” said Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I don’t know. I guess we just didn’t have what it took to be in the All-Start Race today.”
Next Up:
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to points-paying racing on Sunday, May 26, with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The longest race on the series’ schedule gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
