Posted on by Holly Cain

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect penalties issued to two Team Penske entries Monday, bumping Larson from 21st on the grid to 19th.

In one of the most celebrated days on the racing calendar, 34 cars took to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday for the first day of qualifying for the May 25 Indianapolis 500.

NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson turned in a solid performance with a pair of four-lap qualifying attempts, earning him a 19th-place starting position on the 33-car grid.

While that showing doesn’t advance Larson’s No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet into Sunday’s Top 12 qualifying session to determine the polesitter and the first four rows of the race, it does ensure the 2021 Cup Series champion will have a chance at making history for the second consecutive year.

MORE: Scenes from Larson’s Double attempt

A week from Sunday, the 32-year-old Californian will compete in the Indianapolis 500, then fly immediately to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he will race in the Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 — only the fifth driver ever to run racing’s celebrated Memorial Day “Double.”

The late John Andretti, Robby Gordon, three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and former series champ Kurt Busch join Larson on that short list, with Stewart’s 2001 finishes of sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte best among them all.

Larson and his Arrow McLaren team have certainly put in the work toward success this week. He spun out and had contact with the wall during “Fast Friday” practice in anticipation of qualifying. Larson was fine physically, and the team was able to make repairs to his car in time for him to return to the track as the session ended for a shakedown.

He went out early in Saturday’s day-long qualifying session, but it was his second attempt mid-afternoon that boosted his position and safely secured his presence on the grid. He went from 27th in speed on his first qualifying run to 16th-best with three hours remaining in opening day qualifying — but ultimately that speed was bettered in the remaining time.

“We’re in the race,” said a smiling Larson, who started fifth in last year’s Indy 500. “After the first run I was a little nervous we’d be one of the guys battling for the final spots. Obviously, we would have loved to have been in the Fast 12 again but overall, a good day, we got two runs in.

“It was fairly comfortable, just slightly less comfortable than what I felt last year in qualifying. I just got a little bit of a free moment into (Turn) 2 on the last lap but other than that I felt pretty balanced. I was happy with that. Obviously, with the balance it comes with a little bit lack of speed, but I didn’t crash and that was a plus.”

Larson, who now heads back to North Wilkesboro Speedway for Sunday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, certainly didn’t seem overly concerned with this seventh-row position on the grid for this year’s 500.

“I’m sure it will be a bit crazy as the race typically is back there,” he said. “I had a bad restart early last year and fell back to near that position and we were able to fight our way back forward. Just execute some good laps and hopefully we’ll have a good result.”

MORE: Larson leads Cup Series points

Reigning championship leader Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou — who ran the fastest single lap of the week — set the fastest four-lap average speed of the opening day of qualifying, a mark of 233.043 mph in the No. 10 CGR Honda. The effort was only a slight tick better than Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (233.013 mph), last year’s Indy 500 polesitter.

Also advancing to the second round of qualifying were two-time defending Indy 500 winner and McLaughlin’s Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, Larson’s Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward and the 2008 race winner, CGR’s Scott Dixon. Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman was sixth fastest on the day and the only rookie to advance to the Round of 12.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, two-time Indy winner Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Takuma Sato and A.J. Foyt Racing’s David Malukas also advanced with a pair of former Indy 500 winners in Penske’s Will Power and Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson, along with Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard rounding out the top 12.

These dozen drivers will run again Sunday, with the top six advancing to the Firestone Fast Six to determine the most famous pole position of the season.

The importance of the achievement was evident in qualifying. The action started nearly immediately Saturday with Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong in a big crash during the morning practice, followed shortly by another incident involving a perennial championship contender, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, who hit the wall and flipped his car during an early qualifying attempt.

Both teams were able to make repairs throughout the day and Armstrong and Herta each made qualifying attempts in the closing hour.

Herta, a former front-row Indy 500 starter, rallied to a 29th-place qualifying effort with a remarkable run — ironically bumping his teammate, former Indy 500 polesitter Marco Andretti, into the Last Chance Qualifier on Sunday. Four drivers — Andretti, Armstrong, Rinus VeeKay and Jacob Abel — will vie for the final three positions on the last row of the grid at 5:15 p.m. ET.

Sunday’s Top 12 qualifying and Last Chance Qualifying will be broadcast on FOX Sports (4-6 p.m. ET).

NOTE: On Monday, the Nos. 2 and 12 Team Penske groups for respective drivers Josef Newgarden and Will Power were penalized and will drop to the rear of the starting grid for the Indianapolis 500. Larson originally earned the 21st starting spot but instead will start 19th on Sunday.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Corey Heim had offered a thank-you to rival Layne Riggs earlier in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, a note of appreciation soaked in heavy sarcasm after a restart rough-up through Turns 1 and 2 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Many laps later, Heim was not nearly as appreciative under similar circumstances in the same set of corners, but this time with a trip to Victory Lane at stake in a heated overtime dash.

Hard racing with Riggs’ No. 34 Ford sent Heim’s No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota spinning on the final lap, allowing Riggs’ Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith an avenue to slip by for his second victory of the year with Riggs the runner-up. Heim had led a race-best 162 of the 255 laps from the pole position, but had just a 17th-place finish — last on the lead lap — to show for his efforts in the Window World 250.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Heim exited his truck post-race and made his way to confront Riggs on pit road. Their conversation was brief and one-sided, but didn’t escalate to a physical altercation. But Heim let it be known in TV and radio interviews beforehand that he felt Riggs’ tactics equaled “scum racing on his part.” He also made reference to the previous week’s last-lap contact at Kansas Speedway, where Riggs nearly knocked Carson Hocevar from the lead, drawing a middle-finger salute at the checkered flag.

“Just why? More than anything,” said Heim, who entered as the Truck Series’ points leader. “He tried to do it to the 7 (Hocevar) last week for the win, and mission accomplished for him, I guess, this week – and it cost him one, too. I don’t know. We’ve given up so many of them this year after dominating the race. The 38 (Smith) was the only other guy that was rightfully good. I felt like he deserved to win over anyone else, not the 34 (Riggs). I got really loose into (Turn) 3. Just struggled being loose on the short runs, and he had an opportunity, and he wrecked me. Just disappointed.”

Heim had the lead and lane choice for the start of the deciding two-lap dash, and when he drifted high through Turns 3 and 4 with the white flag in view, Riggs saw an opening. Riggs admitted that his attempt at a slide-job pass came up short in the next set of corners, but said he’d have to watch footage of his move before making a final assessment.

When it came to sizing up how he’s made last-lap contact with the leading truck in two consecutive weeks, Riggs was blunt.

“If I have a reputation of going for wins, I’m not going to regret that at all,” Riggs said. “You know, I feel like I came from short-track racing, last-lap battles, and feel like that’s what this kind of racing is made for. I feel like it’s not like we’ve seen at Martinsville in the past, and gotten upset. I feel like it was a strong move, and I thought it was going to pay off. But sadly, didn’t get the win.”

Heim was in a prime position to march away to a series-leading fourth win of the year. A caution flag, though, for Tyler Tomassi’s wall crunch deep in the pack erased a 3.3-second Heim lead and tightened the field with 39 laps left in what was scheduled to be a 250-lap event.

MORE: All-Star Weekend schedule | North Wilkesboro info hub

No. 11 crew chief Scott Zipadelli opted to keep Heim out to retain track position during the yellow, but the Front Row teammates split their strategies — Riggs stayed out, but Smith pitted for fresh Goodyear tires. Heim held his ground as Smith methodically drove from fifth to second, steadily closing the gap until another caution — this time for Ben Rhodes’ contact with Brent Crews — bunched the field again with four laps left in regulation.

Zipadelli said he felt that track position was more important than fresh tires for that final stretch, and that Smith and Riggs both burned up their equipment trying to keep pace. Strategy or not, the veteran crew chief was left to lament a Saturday matinee that got away.

“Oddly enough, it always seems to be the same trucks bringing out these late-race cautions,” Zipadelli told NASCAR.com. “If you look back, the past four or five races, you’ll see the same trucks do it every time. I know they’re not doing it on purpose, but they’ve got to get a hold of their own trucks so we can race clean to the end of the race. But anyways, you know that’s the way the Front Row truck team races. You know, they want to run physical and shove you around. They can’t beat us, so they want to shove us around so they can beat us.

“So you know, what comes around, goes around. It’s not going to deter us from coming back and trying to win next week at Charlotte. But payback’s a bitch. We’ve got to go to the (playoffs), and those guys aren’t making a whole lot of friends because everybody in the garage knows that either one of those kids can’t race clean. That’s just not the way we race. It’s not the way I was brought up. It’s not the way I like to do it. I think it’s kind of embarrassing that they can’t race side by side with professionals, right?”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Chandler Smith owes Front Row Motorsports teammate Layne Riggs a vote of thanks after Saturday’s Window World 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

After Riggs’ Ford slid up into the No. 11 Toyota of Corey Heim in Turn 2 of the final lap, Smith took the lead and held on for the win, his first at the 0.625-mile short track and his second of the season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Heim, who led 162 of 255 laps, left North Wilkesboro with a 17th-place finish and a percolating rivalry with Riggs, his nemesis throughout the race.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos 

Riding on tires that were 68 laps older than Smith’s, Heim had the lead for the overtime restart on Lap 254. He quickly cleared Smith on his inside and Riggs behind him, but Riggs mounted a strong run through Turns 3 and 4 on the white-flag lap and steered to Heim’s inside.

Riggs slid up into Heim’s truck, which turned sideways as Smith claimed the lead and headed for the finish line with Riggs in his wake. Smith’s margin of victory over his teammate was 0.611 seconds.

The final overtime lap was the only one Smith led on Saturday in collecting his seventh career Truck Series win.

“I feel like this place… tires kind of mattered, but they also kind of didn’t,” said Smith, who started from the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments to fix a brake issue in his No. 38 Ford. “I didn’t think we were as good as the 11 — obviously we had a tire advantage on him there.

“That last restart, I did everything but the right thing. My teammate, Layne Riggs, executed perfectly, and we came out on the right end of the stick.”

Heim took exception to the characterization of the “perfect” execution. 

On a Lap 81 restart after the first stage break, Riggs ran Heim toward the outside wall, handing the lead and ultimately the Stage 2 win to Grant Enfinger. Then came the controversy in overtime. 

After the race, Heim briefly expressed his displeasure to Riggs on pit road.

WATCH: Heim, Riggs share brief exchange on pit road | Heim on Riggs | Riggs on incident

“He tried to do it to the 7 (Carson Hocevar) last week for the win, and mission accomplished for him, I guess, this week,” Heim said. “And it cost him one, too. I don’t know. We’ve given up so many of them this year, after dominating the race.

“The 38 (Smith) was the only other guy that was rightfully good. I felt like he deserved to win over anyone else, not the 34 (Riggs). I got really loose into (Turn) 3. Just struggled being loose on the short runs, and he had an opportunity to wreck me. Just disappointed.”

Predictably, Riggs had a different perception of the final lap.

“I feel like he got really loose into (Turns) 3 and 4 and kind of gave the bottom up, and we’re side by side on the frontstretch,” Riggs said. “I had a huge run, and I went bottom. I didn’t fence him. I slid him up the track and gave him one lane there.

“It’s North Wilkesboro on the last lap for a Truck win. I feel like I didn’t really do anything wrong there.”

Tyler Ankrum finished third, followed by Daniel Hemric and Enfinger. Defending series champion Ty Majeski, Giovanni Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt, Kyle Busch and Sammy Smith completed the top 10.

MORE: Truck Series standings | Truck Series schedule

Busch’s efforts were hampered by a pair of pit road speeding penalties in his second start of the season.

Heim retained the series lead by 47 points over Chandler Smith in second heading to next Friday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Chandler Smith as the winner.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series return to action for All-Star Weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: All-Star Open begins Sunday at 5 p.m. ET on FS1 with the All-Star Race following at 8 p.m. ET. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Open race tires: two sets for practice, two sets for qualifying and four sets for the race. Two race sets transfer over from qualifying. Drivers who transfer from the Open race to the main event will be given five additional sets for the All-Star Race. 

All-Star Race tires: two sets for practice, two sets for qualifying and three sets for the heat race. Two heat race sets transfer over from qualifying. Teams will have five sets for the main event on Sunday. 

All-Star format: See how the All-Star race will be run ahead of Sunday’s main event.

Entry list (Open)
Entry list
Qualifying order (Open)
Qualifying order
Practice Results
Qualifying Results (Open)
Qualifying Results
Heat Race Tracker
Pit Stalls (Heats)
Pit Stalls (Open)
Pit Stalls
Race Results (Open)
Race Results (All-Star)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information is available.

Entry list
Qualifying order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages 
Practice Lap Times 
Qualifying Results (CANCELED; LINEUP SET BY RULE BOOK)
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite drivers will pit for Sunday night’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as well as the preliminary All-Star Open on Sunday (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

All-Star Race

NASCAR All-Star Race pit stalls.

All-Star Open

NASCAR All-Star Open pit stalls.

See where your favorite NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit for Saturday’s Window World 250 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Window World 250

A graphic depicting pit stalls for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
See where your favorite drivers will pit in Saturday night’s All-Star Heat races (5:10 p.m. ET, FS2, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to set the lineup for Sunday night’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

All-Star Heat Race 1

All-Star Heat Race 1 pit stalls

All-Star Heat Race 2

All-Star Heat Race 2 pit stalls

Posted on by Staff Report

RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski sped to the Busch Light Pole Award on Friday, setting a blistering pace in a unique qualifying effort that included a four-tire pit stop.

Keselowski will start first in both the opening Heat Race on Saturday night, then the main event itself on Sunday.

The full lineup will be set by Heat Race results. See below for the full qualifying times.

POSITIONCARDRIVERTimeSpeed
16Brad Keselowski87.36377.264
220Christopher Bell88.25376.485
348Alex Bowman88.36176.391
419Chase Briscoe88.64976.143
524William Byron89.1275.741
622Joey Logano89.25775.624
73Austin Dillon89.61975.319
811Denny Hamlin89.92275.065
945Tyler Reddick90.17174.858
109Chase Elliott90.45174.626
1147Ricky Stenhouse Jr.90.47474.607
128Kyle Busch91.22473.994
1321Josh Berry91.24173.98
1451Harrison Burton94.43371.479
155Justin Allgaier94.9571.09
1617Chris Buescher98.27268.687
171Ross Chastain98.88668.26
182Austin Cindric99.05768.143
1912Ryan Blaney100.33867.273
2099Daniel Suarez106.93163.125
Posted on by Staff Report

Michael McDowell’s No. 71 Spire Motorsports crew earned the $100,000 grand prize in Friday evening’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Crew members Brandon Chapman (fueler), Dax Hollifield III (jackman), Luke Bussel (tire carrier), Max Marsh (front changer) and Ty Boeck (rear changer) all contributed to the winning stop at 12.587 seconds.

The No. 71 crew bested Trackhouse Racing’s No. 99 crew (12.600 seconds) and the No. 4 crew (12.669 seconds) from Front Row Motorsports to claim the prize.

RELATED: Live lineup tracker | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro

“Honestly, I’m still trying to pinch myself. I think this is a dream,” said No. 71 jackman Dax Hollifield III. “We’re all rookies. We have half our team, this is our 12th race. So we’ve been working hard for the past year, just doing the little things right, and once you do enough of those, things are going to turn out right, you know? We just work on getting better each and every day, and it showed today.

“It’s super awesome. I mean, these guys have been growing and developing,” said Travis Peterson, crew chief of the No. 71 team. “They’re one of the youngest crews at Hendrick this year and we got them. At the beginning of the year, we had to keep getting better, and these guys get better every week, and we’ve started to see the fruits on the race track, too. We put a lot of effort into this, whether it was our setup and these guys coming to the shop to check it, and all we said was we wanted to repeat what they did in practice, because it was an eight-three (8.3-second stop), and that’s what they did. Awesome on them. So badass for these guys.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nos. 19 (12.695 seconds) and 20 (12.709 seconds) crews rounded out the top five. Christopher Bell’s No. 20 crew entered the day as the two-time defending champions of the Pit Crew Challenge.

On-track action for the Cup Series resumes Saturday evening at 5:10 p.m. ET for the All-Star Heat Races (FS2, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contributing: Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

Posted on by Reid Spencer

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — A flawless entry into pit road during Friday’s time trials propelled Brad Keselowski to the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In a unique qualifying format that features three laps and a mandatory four-tire pit stop, Keselowski and his team posted a total time of 87.363 seconds (77.264 mph) to earn the top starting spot both for Saturday’s first of two heats and for the $1-million-to-win main event on Sunday.

RELATED: Live lineup tracker | At-track photos

In a major upset during the All-Star Open qualifying session that preceded time trials for drivers already qualified for the All-Star Race, Michael McDowell’s over-the-wall crew, composed of ex-football players, won the $100,000 Pit Crew Challenge. The No. 71 Spire Motorsports crew fired off a stop in 12.587 seconds, and that time stood up against the 20 All-Star crews that followed. Daniel Suárez’s crew came closest with a time of 12.600 seconds.

For Keselowski, the pole was a welcome high point in a season that has been difficult so far. He’s currently 33rd in the Cup Series standings, with no top 10s and five DNFs (did not finish) through 12 races.

“This event, this format pushes you to your limits, from a driver perspective, a team perspective, pit crew,” Keselowski said. “I stuck my part — I knew I stuck the entry (to pit road). The exit, I was like, ‘Maybe I left a little on the table’  — it’s really hard to tell.

“But it all came together for an excellent run. The pit crew, they didn’t try to be heroes. They just gave me a really solid stop. (Crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and the team gave me a car that was pretty fast. They just gave me the ball and said, ‘Go play,’ and that’s what we did.”

Christopher Bell and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, the two-time defending winners of the Pit Crew Challenge, qualified second at 76.485 mph (88.253 seconds). Slight trouble on the left-front tire cost Bell’s crew a chance for a third straight $100,000 bonus.

Alex Bowman was third-fastest, followed by Chase Briscoe, William Byron and defending winner and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano.

Though Keselowski is guaranteed to start on the pole for the All-Star Race, Friday’s qualifying session set the order for the two heat races on Saturday. The first heat establishes the starting order for the inside row in the All-Star Race, while the second heat orders the outside row.

RELATED: Full All-Star schedule

Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were seventh- through 10th-fastest, respectively.

Using his road racing prowess to get on and off pit road in the unique qualifying format, New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen won the pole position for the NASCAR All-Star Open, which precedes the All-Star Race on Sunday night.

The top two finishers in the Open transfer to the 21st and 22nd starting positions in the main event.

MORE: Full Open lineup

In his three-lap attempt with a four-tire pit stop, van Gisbergen recorded a time of 88.685 seconds (75.112 mph). That was good enough to edge Carson Hocevar (75.942 mph) for the top starting spot in the Open by 0.199 seconds.

Van Gisbergen’s total time was also 1.109 seconds faster than Logano’s pole-winning time for last year’s All-Star Race, which Logano won decisively, leading 199 of 200 laps.

“I did a decent job getting in and out of pit road,” Van Gisbergen said, “but my guys did a great pit stop, too (13.175 seconds)… It’s been difficult on the left-handed tracks, but I feel like we are getting better, though.

“I guess my actual lap was good, too, so things are starting to look up.”

Noah Gragson was third-fastest among Open qualifiers at 75.338 mph. Michael McDowell was fourth in time trials, thanks in part to his pit crew, which won the Pit Crew Competition and $100,000 bonus. Crew members on McDowell’s team are Dax Hollifield III (jackman), Max Marsh (front tire changer), Ty Boeck (rear tire changer), Luke Bussel (tire carrier) and Brandon Chapman (fueler).

RELATED: Hear from winning pit crew

Practice recap

All-Star racers and Open hopefuls shared the track for a combined 45-minute practice session Friday afternoon with Tyler Reddick pacing the 38-car group with a best speed of 123.640 mph.

Chase Elliott (123.403 mph), Bubba Wallace (123.376 mph), Christopher Bell (123.186 mph) and Erik Jones (123.146 mph) completed the top five. Wallace and Jones are not yet locked into Sunday’s All-Star Race but ranked fastest of the Open cars on single-car speed. Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski, sixth and seventh respectively overall, were the next fastest cars locked into the All-Star Race.

Elliott scrubbed the wall between Turns 1 and 2 late in Friday’s session but avoided any significant damage. Joey Logano, the defending Cup Series champion and 2024 winner of the All-Star exhibition, posted the 10th-fastest lap in practice. Ryan Blaney, the 2022 All-Star Race winner, was 17th on the leaderboard ahead of Denny Hamlin in 18th.

In 10-lap averages, Reddick was fastest at 122.116 mph over Christopher Bell, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Josh Berry, all All-Stars this weekend. The fastest Open car in 10-lap averages was Bubba Wallace in 11th at 121.328 mph. Below are the full results for best single-lap speeds in Friday’s practice session:

POSITIONCARDRIVERTimeSpeed
145Tyler Reddick18.198123.64
29Chase Elliott18.233123.403
323Bubba Wallace18.237123.376
420Christopher Bell18.265123.186
543Erik Jones18.271123.146
61Ross Chastain18.274123.126
76Brad Keselowski18.29123.018
824William Byron18.294122.991
98Kyle Busch18.307122.904
1022Joey Logano18.313122.864
1121Josh Berry18.32122.817
1254Ty Gibbs18.321122.81
132Austin Cindric18.327122.77
1434Todd Gilliland18.349122.622
1599Daniel Suarez18.361122.542
1642J.H. Nemechek18.364122.522
1712Ryan Blaney18.373122.462
1811Denny Hamlin18.39122.349
1935Riley Herbst18.4122.283
2010Ty Dillon18.416122.176
217Justin Haley18.42122.15
2260Ryan Preece18.421122.143
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.18.423122.13
245Justin Allgaier18.434122.057
2519Chase Briscoe18.437122.037
264Noah Gragson18.44122.017
2777Carson Hocevar18.441122.011
2888Shane Van Gisbergen18.447121.971
2938Zane Smith18.471121.813
3017Chris Buescher18.476121.78
3116AJ Allmendinger18.487121.707
3248Alex Bowman18.5121.622
3371Michael McDowell18.512121.543
3451Harrison Burton18.529121.431
353Austin Dillon18.549121.3
3641Cole Custer18.58121.098
3715Cody Ware18.682120.437
3866Chad Finchum19.212117.114

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Zack Albert

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — One day after NASCAR officials levied an L1-grade penalty against them, RFK Racing’s No. 17 team was back to business Friday, the first day of tuning for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The punishment for unapproved reinforcement of its front bumper cover during last weekend’s event resulted in a 60-point deduction for driver Chris Buescher and the team in the Cup Series standings, a $75,000 fine and a two-race suspension for crew chief Scott Graves. RFK Racing indicated Friday that Graves would begin serving his suspension this weekend with veteran Doug Randolph filling in, but that its final determination on what happened and whether to appeal was ongoing.

“There’s been a lot going on,” said Brad Keselowski, in his fourth year as an owner-driver. “I mean, honestly, I was traveling most of the week with media appearances, sponsor stuff, and I haven’t got all of it dialed in yet to fully understand. We have till Monday to do so, and we’re going to exhaust that time period and evaluate everything by then.”

RELATED: All-Star Weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

The penalty knocked Buescher from 14th place in the provisional Cup Series Playoffs standings to a below-the-bubble 24th — 27 points on the minus side. No points will be on the line during this weekend’s All-Star exhibition at North Wilkesboro, meaning the team will have to wait until the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25 to attempt to regroup.

In the meantime, Buescher has his sights on the task at hand — his fifth All-Star Race appearance.

“Yeah, it’s already behind me right now,” said Buescher, who notched his career-best All-Star finish in third here last year. “You know, we’re here at the race track, we’ve been prepping for this race for a really long time already. Nothing’s changing on our weekend. For us, we’ll deal with that during the work week, but it’s race weekend now. So yeah, with the speed we’ve had this year and what we’ve been able to do at a lot of different styles of race tracks, it’s the same opportunity we felt like we had before Thursday. So yeah, I’m ready to go for this one.”

Keselowski, for one, said he had faith in Buescher’s ability to bounce back.

“Oh, they’ve got a lot of great races in front of them, for them,” Keselowski said. “Chris is a phenomenal road-course racer, a great racer in general, but a lot of potential there.”

Buescher has six top-10 finishes through the first 12 races of 2025, including an eighth place at Kansas, where he qualified a season-best second. The Texas native has led just two laps this year, but as Keselowski mentioned, road courses hold a certain level of promise; the most recent of Buescher’s six Cup Series victories came in convincing fashion at Watkins Glen last September.

He’s no slouch on short tracks, either, with Bristol and Richmond among the venues where he’s been victorious. Adding North Wilkesboro to that list this weekend won’t help his points predicament, but the opportunity for some hard-nosed competition and bragging rights is the more pressing goal.

“You’ve got to rough people up for a million dollars, I guarantee it, and that’s the way it should be,” Buescher said. “It’s supposed to be good, hard racing here. We’ve had some great racing through the years here, well before we came back, and we’re trying to be a part of more coming back to this historic raceway here.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen claimed the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open, besting the field in Friday’s unique qualifying.

Van Gisbergen put his No. 88 Chevrolet atop the pylon with a qualifying time of 88.685 seconds. Qualifying includes a four-tire pit stop for this weekend’s All-Star festivities.

See below for the full lineup.

POSITIONCARDRIVERTimeSpeed
188Shane van Gisbergen88.68576.112
277Carson Hocevar88.88475.942
34Noah Gragson89.59675.338
471Michael McDowell89.6175.326
560Ryan Preece89.68875.261
638Zane Smith90.47874.604
77Justin Haley90.49574.59
842John Hunter Nemechek90.84174.306
954Ty Gibbs90.91874.243
1010Ty Dillon91.44473.816
1141Cole Custer92.0573.33
1243Erik Jones95.59770.609
1335Riley Herbst99.6567.737
1423Bubba Wallace99.6967.71
1515Cody Ware99.79167.641
1616AJ Allmendinger110.94260.843
1734Todd Gilliland122.69555.014
1866Chad Finchum144.02546.867