Posted on by Nate Ryan

INDIANAPOLIS — After a few minutes of politely answering questions from a throng of reporters contorting themselves around riot barriers a few feet from his No. 17 Dallara-Chevrolet, Kyle Larson smiled.

“Everything about Indy is a great atmosphere,” he said. “Now I’m ready to go drive a stock car. So I’ll talk to you guys later.”

And with that, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was on the move.

Tossing a brief hello to his parents, Mike and Janet, Larson made a hard left into the base of Victory Circle while being ushered by a few Indianapolis Motor Speedway security officers. He signed a few autographs while barely breaking a brisk stride to meet up with a Hendrick Motorsports contingent that included Jeff Gordon and Jeff Andrews.

PHOTOS: Kyle Larson at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

With fans screaming their approval from atop the Tower Terrace grandstands (“We love you, baby! Let’s go Larson!”), Larson and his entourage took a few more dozen steps to the entrance of the media center where two Suburbans conveniently were waiting with engines idling.

Larson and Gordon climbed into the red SUV, which began rolling through the infield to a helipad on the Brickyard Crossing golf course outside Turn 2.

From the time he exited his race car to when he effectively began leaving the property, the entire process took less than 20 minutes. It was another moment of peak efficiency at the Brickyard for Larson, who is attempting to become the fifth driver to race the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day.

His bid at history has been going quite swimmingly.

“I’m just happy because it’s really cool,” he said. “It’s gone much better than I ever could have anticipated or ever hoped. Just proud of everybody at Arrow McLaren. Proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Thankful for Rick Hendrick and Linda Hendrick for allowing me to do this.

“Yeah, it’s been a great week so far. So we’ll look forward to now switching to race mode and see if I can learn there to get ready for the race.”

Larson could have been talking about where he was heading — the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he was hustling to defend his win in the $1 million event.

But he actually meant the 108th Indy 500, which he will start fifth as a rookie after advancing to the final round of qualifying Sunday.

After the All-Star Race, Larson was heading straight back to Indianapolis for an 11 a.m.-1 p.m. practice Monday on the 2.5-mile oval as the focus shifts toward getting comfortable in traffic at 230 mph. Larson will have one more opportunity Friday in the two-hour Carb Day final practice.

He was eager to work on his racecraft with practice being truncated by a couple dozen hours this week because of rain. But Larson also was ready to say goodbye to the nerve-wracking experience of Indy 500 qualifying, which constitutes the speed average of four white-knuckle laps around the 2.5-mile oval.

Kyle Larson's No. 17 Chevrolet spits up smoke as it pulls away
Photo courtesy of IndyCar

“I’m happy to not have to run another qualifying run,” said Larson, who made four 10-mile runs over the past two days. “I’ll be honest, it wasn’t that stressful (at first), but then each time you go out, it gets more stressful because you know they’re going to turn the (turbo boost) more. You know you’re trying to find that extra bit of speed.

“In my mind of someone who doesn’t have experience, you think it’s going to be harder to drive. So just the nerves going out each time is more and more every time. I’m glad we made it through it, I’m glad I don’t have to run another four laps in qualifying trim.”

A weekend crowd of nearly 90,000 — the largest for Indy 500 qualifying in more than a decade — was on hand to watch as Larson never put a wheel wrong — though he did have a big moment between Turns 1 and 2 on a practice lap Sunday.

Two hours later, Larson drew one of the largest ovations from the crowd during the Fast 12 when he topped Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward and Indy 500 winners Takuma Sato and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

“People used to ask me or say to me, ‘Can you believe Kyle Larson?’ and I used to think the same way, but I don’t anymore,” Gordon said after Larson advanced to the pole shootout. “He just always steps up, and it’s fun to watch, fun to be a part of this whole experience.”

Now the question will turn to whether Larson can win the May 26 race — amid increasing belief that perhaps he could.

“Well, so far he’s shown that he’s very comfortable,” Mario Andretti said. “That young man has the ability to really converge, and I think he’ll be a factor for sure in the race. He’s a racer. That’s it. He didn’t come here just to drive. He came here to win, and he’s going to put his best foot forward for sure.”

That’ll be while he’s trying to win a couple of races in North Carolina, too, starting with Sunday night’s All-Star Race. NASCAR helped out by pushing back the green flag by 16 minutes, allowing Larson to arrive nearly an hour ahead to prepare for a race that will feature an option tire, a fresh asphalt surface and many other unknowns.

Larson has been on the phone from Indy with Kevin Harvick (his substitute driver Friday) and crew chief Cliff Daniels to get his bearings.

“I actually look forward to the challenge of having zero laps there and trying to figure it out quickly,” he said. “So it should be a good time.”

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is the host of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast and also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Kyles show of speed Sunday wasn’t limited to his qualifying performance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fresh from scoring a second-row starting position for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500, Larson threaded a tight timing window to arrive for Sunday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Larson, the NASCAR Cup Series points leader, strapped into his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and finished fourth in his Sunday night bid to defend last year’s All-Star Race win. NASCAR officials moved the green-flag time back 16 minutes to 8:30 p.m. ET to add a slight cushion to Larson’s travel logistics, but he flew in with plenty of time to spare, landing on the speedway grounds more than an hour before the start.

Larson was among the fastest six drivers advancing to the final round of Indy 500 qualifying Sunday afternoon, claiming the fifth starting spot for next Sunday’s race after making his last attempt at 5:30 p.m. ET. Then it was off to Wilkes County for his full-time ride, having completed his mission of locking into the Indianapolis 500 field for the first leg of his Sunday double attempt, with the May 26 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the NASCAR nightcap.

RELATED: All-Star Race results | At-track photos

Larson missed the All-Star Race preliminaries, with former Cup champ Kevin Harvick coming out of retirement from the FOX Sports booth to drive the No. 5 Chevy in Friday’s practice and Saturday’s qualifying. With the team making a driver change, Larson dropped to the rear of the field for the start of the All-Star Race but charged back up into the hunt.

He briefly made advances up to third place in the final 50-lap segment of the main event on a fresh set of softer “option” tires, but its effectiveness faded down the stretch.

“Yeah, I thought we were in great position there,” Larson said post-race. “Got to fourth pretty quickly; got to third pretty quickly. I thought I could just be patient. I built really loose for a little while, and then they started kind of inching away from me. I moved up and I was kind of hanging on from there. I was surprised that the guys that didn’t pit were as strong as they were. I thought we were going to be in the best position there to win.”

Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports’ Vice President of Competition, said during a pre-race availability that had Larson not arrived in time, the No. 5 team would not have participated in the All-Star Race. The only driver who met the eligibility criteria for the invitational event and who was not already entered was Shane van Gisbergen, last year’s winner of the inaugural Chicago Street Race.

Knaus said that his team discussed a plan with NASCAR officials that could have potentially placed Xfinity Series regular Justin Allgaier in as a substitute, but that he would have to reach the main event by advancing from the All-Star Open qualifying race. That plan, Knaus said, was scuttled after running through the potential hurdles and hypotheticals.

“It’s going to sit there and look pretty. We’ll save it for another event,” Knaus said about the team potentially withdrawing if Larson did not arrive in time. “… The way things are working out, all of our cards are in getting Kyle here, and that’s the plan. To put Justin in and have him run the Open, we went down that road, we thought about it, we spoke with NASCAR, we came to a collective decision, that’s not the best route for all of us. We get pretty messy pretty quickly. Where is it fair? Is it fair to the people that are in the Open or not fair to the people in the All-Star. All of that stuff just gets kind of crazy, so better off just to make sure that our helicopters, our planes light off and we get him on the ground, and we get him on a golf cart and get him here.”

Larson dominated last year’s All-Star Race, leading 145 of the 200 laps as NASCAR’s top division returned to North Wilkesboro for the first time since 1996. Knaus, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, was the grand marshal for this year’s second All-Star edition at the 0.625-mile track.

Posted on by Staff Report

The 2024 All-Star Race Weekend is back in North Carolina at the cherished 0.625-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway, with Sunday’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) acting as the festive finale to the weekend celebration.

RELATED: North Wilkesboro schedule | At-track photos

Twenty NASCAR Cup Series drivers will attempt to leave their mark with an All-Star-worthy victory. And with the All-Star Race comes the challenge of beating NASCAR’s best to a $1 million prize.

Here’s how setting the lineup works:

— The All-Star Open lineup was set per the rule book after rain forced the cancellation of the qualifying session.

— Seventeen drivers were locked into Sunday’s All-Star Race via points-race wins in either the 2023 or 2024 Cup seasons, past All-Star Race victories or Cup championships. Two spots on the starting grid were filled by the top two finishers in the preliminary All-Star Open, with the final entry taken by the All-Star Fan Vote winner, awarded to the highest vote-getter who did not already race their way into the show.

— The 17 eligible drivers for the All-Star Race competed in Saturday’s qualifying and Pit Crew Challenge. Their elapsed time from qualifying and the Pit Crew Challenge determined the starting lineup for the All-Star Race due to Saturday’s All-Star Heat races being canceled due to severe weather at the track.

We’ll keep this page updated with results, filling in the full All-Star Race lineup along the way.

All-Star Open: Results

FINISHING SPOTCAR NUMBERDRIVER
154Ty Gibbs
223Bubba Wallace
34Josh Berry
451Justin Haley
510Noah Gragson
648Alex Bowman
714Chase Briscoe
841Ryan Preece
93Austin Dillon
1077Carson Hocevar
1115Kaz Grala
127Corey LaJoie
1321Harrison Burton
1442John Hunter Nemechek
1538Todd Gilliland
1631Daniel Hemric
1771Zane Smith
1843Erik Jones
1966Timmy Hill
202 Austin Cindric

FULL STARTING LINEUP FOR ALL-STAR RACE (Sunday, 8 p.m. ET, FS1) 

STARTING SPOTDRIVERHOW DETERMINED
1Joey LoganoQualifying pole winner
2Brad KeselowskiSet by qualifying time
3Christopher BellSet by qualifying time
4Daniel SuárezSet by qualifying time
5Chris BuescherSet by qualifying time
6Tyler ReddickSet by qualifying time
7Ross ChastainSet by qualifying time
8Martin Truex Jr.Set by qualifying time
9Michael McDowellSet by qualifying time
10AJ AllmendingerSet by qualifying time
11Denny HamlinSet by qualifying time
12Kyle Larson*Set by qualifying time
13William ByronSet by qualifying time
14Kyle BuschSet by qualifying time
15Chase ElliottSet by qualifying time
16Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Set by qualifying time
17Ryan BlaneySet by qualifying time
18Ty GibbsAll-Star Open winner
19Bubba WallaceAll-Star Open second place
20Noah GragsonFan Vote winner

* = Kyle Larson to the rear for driver change. Kevin Harvick qualified Larson’s car.

Posted on by Staff Report

Noah Gragson, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford, won the All-Star Race Fan Vote on Sunday and transferred into the main event at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Gragson will join Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who finished first and second in the All-Star Open, respectively, as the final entries into Sunday’s race for the $1 million prize.

RELATED: All-Star Fan Vote winners | North Wilkesboro schedule

“It means a ton to me,” Gragson said on pit road post-race. “Being a kid, I never would have thought I’d ever see somebody wearing a shirt with my name on it or having one of my die-casts. It’s just awesome to be able to have people to support you, and I’ve got great fans. All the fans out there are awesome, but I’ve got some really great fans that support me, and they’re diehard. They’re diehard, and we feed off that energy as a race team and they keep us going. So, it’s exciting stuff. It’s exciting to be a part of the All-Star Race two years in a row, and it’s all part for the race fans. They’re the ones that give us the opportunity to go out there. So just, big thank you.”

This is the second time Gragson has won the fan vote (2023), an All-Star Race tradition that stretches back to 2004. Ken Schrader won that first vote, with Martin Truex Jr. taking the honor in 2005. Other notable fan-vote winners include Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Danica Patrick.

Kasey Kahne is the only fan-vote winner who also went on to win the All-Star Race, doing so in 2008.

Posted on by Brandon White

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Although he dominated Sunday’s Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200 at Riverhead Raceway, the final laps were anything but smooth for Ron Silk.

From running over a muffler to fending off a hard-charging Austin Beers, nothing came easy for the defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. Silk still managed to withstand every obstacle in his path to obtain his third victory of the 2024 season.

RELATED: Complete results from Riverhead

Silk’s paramount concern during the closing laps was how his car would handle after hitting the loose muffler off Turn 4. The only damage on Silk’s car was superficial, which was crucial in helping him fend off the rest of the field behind him.

“[The muffler] kind of went under [the car], and I felt it come out the back,” Silk said. “This was just a great job from my entire crew. The car was awesome, and [the speed] lasted right until the end. We’ve got another win on the season, and we’re just going to keep trying to pick them off.”

Silk considered himself fortunate the muffler did not derail what had been a hard-fought battle to obtain and then maintain the top spot.

A rainout of qualifying on Saturday would have normally given Silk the pole according to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rulebook. Instead, Silk ended up starting in the sixth position following a redraw of the top 10 starters, which allowed Trevor Catalano to lead the field to the green flag.

Silk did not let the circumstances deter him; he utilized the speed of his silver No. 16 Haydt-Yannone Modified to pick off his fellow competition. After only 30 laps, Silk had already worked his way into the lead after passing Craig Lutz.

Despite holding steady at the front of the field, Silk faced relentless pressure from Lutz, who was eager to obtain his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory since 2022. When Lutz’ car began to fade, Silk then encountered challenges from championship rival Justin Bonsignore and Austin Beers.

An overtime restart provided Beers the perfect opportunity to steal a victory. The young Modified competitor attempted a crossover on Silk in Turn 4 coming to the checkered flag but could not get the run he needed to make the race-winning pass.

Beers, who won two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events last year, knew it would be tough to usurp Silk with how strong he was on the bottom line. He was still proud of his overall effort at Riverhead and hopes two consecutive second-place finishes provide him the necessary momentum to earn another win soon.

“[Silk] just had a little bit better drive,” Beers said. “Being on the bottom really helped, and that’s where our car really worked. We were stuck on the top, but my spotter did a great job clearing me down and giving me a shot to get Ron.

“It was bumper cars at the end, but we made it across the line for another good points day.”

(Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)

With his triumph Sunday, Silk has now won twice at Riverhead over the past two seasons after previously being unable to visit the track’s Victory Lane since making his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut in 2003.

Being so competitive on a regular basis is something Silk attributes to the hard work that is prevalent at Haydt-Yannone Racing. It took time for everyone within the program to build cohesion when Silk first joined in 2022, but the chemistry and leadership were instrumental in Silk breaking a 12-year championship drought last season.

Now with three wins on his resume through five races this season, Silk knows he and Haydt-Yannone Racing can end the year as NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champions once again with the speed and determination they possess every week.

“I have all the confidence in the world,” Silk said. “We haven’t gone anywhere where we haven’t had a chance to win. Crew chief Phil Moran and car chief Bob Tulipani work a lot on these things to get them just right. The commitment is certainly appreciated.”

Following Silk and Beers in the running order was Justin Bonsignore, with J.B. Fortin and J.R. Bertuccio completing the top five. Jake Johnson, Lutz, John Beatty Jr., Patrick Emerling and Mark Stewart were the rest of the top-10 finishers.

The next race up for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be the J&R Precast 150 at Seekonk Speedway on Saturday, June 1. FloRacing will provide live coverage of all the on-track action.

Posted on by Staff Report

Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200

Riverhead Raceway

  • Race results:
Pos. Car No. Driver Sponsor Laps Diff.
1 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 208  –
2 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric 208 0.434
3 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 208 0.492
4 34 JB Fortin A&R Material/CYA Screen Print/Johns Fuel Oil 208 0.705
5 2 J.R. Bertuccio Gershow Recycling 208 0.809
6 3 Jake Johnson Propane Plus/Lin’s Propane Trucks 208 1.143
7 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 208 1.388
8 5 John Beatty, Jr. Elite Sound Studios Inc. 208 1.436
9 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 208 1.584
10 81 Mark Stewart* Cromer’s Market/Keith Grimes 208 1.7
11 49 Chris Young* Earth’s Splendor 208 1.911
12 24 Justin Brown Kennedy LI Realty/Motorcycle Mike Esq. 208 2.056
13 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 208 2.245
14 84 Tyler Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 208 2.415
15 7 Doug Coby Baldwin Automotive 208 2.456
16 88 Roger  Turbush Rheem 208 2.827
17 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 208 3.019
18 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 208 3.546
19 45 Jack Handley, Jr.* Hydro Action/Suffolk Precast 208 4.224
20 26 Gary McDonald Lakeland Avenue Landscape Supply 208 7.531
21 0 Tom Rogers BNP Machine/SSRP 207 1 Lap
22 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprara 201 7 Laps
23 19 Anthony Sesely Franzosa Trucking Co/Karchner Warehousing 172 36 Laps
24 56 Trevor Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 146 62 Laps
25 66 Timmy Solomito USNE Power/Kennedy Realty 140 68 Laps
26 32 Tyler Rypkema Musco Lighting/Northeast Drilling 105 103 Laps
27 96 Matthew Brode* Peter Clark Motorsports 97 111 Laps
28 2 Allan Pedersen* Checker/Won Manufacturing 97 111 Laps
29 1 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 76 132 Laps

 

Posted on by Zack Albert

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen heard the cheers perk up from the rugged front grandstand at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He figured the commotion was for Corey Heim, his Tricon Garage teammate and Sunday’s winner of the rain-delayed NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Instead, the 26-year-old CARS Tour star was the deserving recipient. Upon realizing it, he egged the crowd on.

Queen was the darling of a stellar Truck Series debut, rallying his No. 1 Toyota for a fourth-place finish in the Wright Brand 250 after sustaining a mid-race speeding penalty on pit road. The top-five result came on the same 0.625-mile track where he scored a CARS Tour victory last year, and the partisan Wilkes County crowd has since adopted the short-track hero and fan favorite as one of their own.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro

Sunday’s outcome followed the mold of respectable national-series efforts in recent years from other Late Model standouts, such as Josh Berry, Carson Kvapil and Bubba Pollard in the Xfinity Series. Queen added his name to that list Sunday.

“It’s just special, man. It just shows how important Late Model stock-car racing is and how important the CARS Tour is,” Queen said. “Just the support around our series, they want to see these guys that they’ve watched at the short tracks get these opportunities to go toe-to-toe with the big names. So I can’t believe it. I won here last year, so I think that’s where I gained a lot of the Wilkesboro crowd, and so many people came out and watched me tonight. I’m just super-blessed.”

Queen drove through the field twice to find the field’s upper reaches, starting 26th on the 36-truck grid after rain washed away Saturday’s qualifying. He made it to 12th place when a downpour halted the event Saturday afternoon after 81 of the 250 laps.

Queen kept climbing when the race resumed Sunday morning, making it to seventh place before he sped entering the pit lane on Lap 119. “I screwed us,” he radioed his Tricon Garage team, which told him to stay focused, even as he fell back to 29th for the restart. Almost prophetically, Queen replied: “Sorry, I’ll make up for it.”

Queen cracked the top 20 by Lap 148, then forged back into the top 10 on Lap 167. “Fastest truck on the race track right now,” his team told him, just before he arrived in the top five with 57 laps remaining.

Brenden Queen's No. 1 Toyota races inside the No. 13 of Jake Garcia and the No. 19 of Christian Eckes.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com

The final stretch included some tenacious racing with Craftsman Truck Series points leader Christian Eckes, who clanged his No. 19 Chevrolet into Queen’s side in retaliation on the back straightaway after an aggressive move through Turns 1 and 2. “Oh, yeah. Shove that finger up your tail, buddy,” Queen said over the No. 1 radio after Eckes showed his displeasure.

“I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong,” Queen said later. “We were racing hard, I got loose under him, and I didn’t wreck him. He did more damage down the backstretch than I did in the turn there.”

MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings

Queen lined up fifth for the last restart with 32 laps to go, but made a point to thank his crew for the opportunity, no matter how the final stretch turned out. The team was just as grateful, lauding his ability to slice through the field and finish with a relatively clean race. The fan reaction was a bonus.

“I mean, I’m a Late Model guy myself, so to me, it’s awesome,” No. 1 crew chief Seth Smith told NASCAR.com. “The kid has an incredible following, and a lot of it is to do with his attitude and the work he puts in. Just very appreciative of any opportunity he gets to do anything, so he’s a very humble kid and just super cool to have the fan support that he does. Like I said, I think a lot of that’s because how humble he is.”

Queen said he will turn his season-long aspirations back to the CARS Tour schedule but was hopeful for more Truck Series opportunities, should they arise. Whatever the future holds, he’ll take away special memories backed by solid support from the team and the crowd.

“That’s awesome when your team believes in you,” Queen said. “And that’s why this 1 group is so special, is when you all believe in each other, you run good. If you don’t believe in somebody, that’s when the mistakes start happening, and so just everybody on this 1 team is special, and I hope I can be here with them next year.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Corey Heim dominated Sunday’s weather-delayed Wright Brand 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but the driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota had to share the spotlight with his teammate, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, who finished fourth in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut.

Heim grabbed the lead from Jake Garcia after a restart on Lap 186 of 250 and held it the rest of the way to win for the third time this season, the first time at North Wilkesboro and the eighth time in his career.

RELATED: Official race results | At-track photos 

Crossing the finish line 2.474 seconds ahead of runner-up Grant Enfinger, Heim trimmed the series lead of sixth-place finisher Christian Eckes to four points in a race that was halted on Saturday by extreme weather after 81 laps and resumed on Sunday after a red-flag period of 21 hours, six minutes, 14 seconds.

When five inches of rain fell during a 90-minute stretch on Saturday, Heim’s truck was all but submerged at the legendary short track, which experienced drainage issues during the deluge.

“Of course, we hoped for no water damage,” Heim said. “The truck was submerged in almost three feet of water — we picked probably the worst pit box in that scenario, but obviously you can never really intend on something like that happening.

“I’ve never seen so much rain come down in an hour in my life. That was crazy, but eventually we were able to wipe it down and make sure there was no damage, and I was able to recover from that, for sure.”

Layne Riggs came home third, holding off Queen in the late going, but Queen enjoyed the raucous support of “Bean Nation” as soon as he climbed from his No. 1 Toyota. To finish fourth, Queen had to overcome a pit road speeding penalty incurred under caution on Lap 118.

“Oh, man, I can’t believe it,” said Queen, who restarted 26th on Lap 124 and worked his way back through the field. “We got that speeding penalty. I thought I was conservative on the lights, and it just got us — rookie mistake.

“But I told the team I was going to get ‘em back in position, and we did.”

The season-best second-place finish was a welcome result for Enfinger, who leaves the 0.625-mile short track eighth in the series standings, 170 points behind Eckes.

“We haven’t been performing to our ability or our standards,” said Enfinger. “I feel like last week at Darlington was the turning point in our season (despite a 16th-place finish). I’m standing by that.

“Very, very proud of this truck. Proud of our pit crew all year long. Finally, we have a little bit of a result to show for it.”

Riggs got his first top-five finish of the season in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

“We really, really needed this finish,” Riggs said. “It was a great day for us, and I hope we can continue to build on this momentum.”

Varying pit strategies produced considerable movement with the field throughout the race. Heim restarted 13th on lap 124 but methodically worked his way up the running order. On Lap 175 he passed Riggs for second place, and after Conner Jones spun in Turn 4 to cause the sixth of seven cautions on Lap 177, Heim shot past Garcia on the Lap 186 restart.

Staying out on older tires, Ty Majeski won the first stage of the race. Using the same strategy, Tyler Ankrum triumphed in Stage 2. But Heim had the fastest truck and quickly proved it after the second stage break.

Moonlighting from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Sammy Smith finished fifth, followed by Eckes, Nick Sanchez, Ankrum, Daniel Dye and Stewart Friesen to complete the top 10.

The Truck Series will next race on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Truck Series garage at North Wilkesboro Speedway without any major issues, confirming Heim as the race winner. Officials found the runner-up No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet of Enfinger with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check. The infraction will likely result in a fine for crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz this week.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Daniel Suárez took two minutes and 23 seconds out of his drive home from last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway to make an impassioned plea to his supporters to stick with him. The reel he posted to Instagram offered an apology after his 24th-place finish that Sunday, expressing his frustration during this recent rough stretch of performance for his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing team.

Suárez is virtually assured of a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs based on his three-wide victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second event of the season, but his subpar results in most of the races since had clearly taken a toll. That all fueled his social-media address to his fans.

RELATED: All-Star weekend schedule | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro

“The way I see it, there is a lot of people that come from very far away, and I see them every week because I go to the merchandise hauler to sign our autographs for them for 30 minutes,” Suárez said Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, after his arrival for All-Star Weekend events. “And I see people that come from many different places around the country with Mexican flags to support me, and I don’t feel like I’ve been doing good lately. If my driver is running 30th, that sucks. You know, that’s not good. And I feel like they deserve better, and I’m not saying that I’m not doing the work, because actually I am putting the work and my team is putting in the work.

“We just are in a point right now where we are not fast, and we have to figure it out, and I just wanted to let them know that is not going unnoticed. I feel that they deserve better, and I would like to see people with Mexican flags in the grandstands and people support me with their kids, and me running like that, that’s just not me. Like, if this was my normal, I would retire tomorrow because this is not … I’m not designed to be running like this.”

Suárez missed the postseason cut last year, and the organization juggled its crew chief lineup, bringing in Matt Swiderski from Kaulig Racing as a replacement for Travis Mack on the No. 99 team. His Atlanta victory in February sealed a playoffs return, but Suárez has just one top-10 finish — a fifth at Texas — in the 11 races that followed. Six of the last eight races have netted results outside the top 20, leaving the 32-year-old driver 18th in the overall Cup Series points.

That placement in the standings won’t change after this weekend’s All-Star festivities, where no points are on the line. But Suarez says his No. 99 Chevrolet team is striving to gain some short-track knowledge this weekend at North Wilkesboro, as the organization redoubles its efforts for the second half of the regular season before the 10-race playoff stretch begins.

“It’s not a secret the last few weeks, we’ve been a 30th-place car, and we’ve been finishing 25th with it, so we have some work to do,” Suárez said. “This is what I told my team: We have two months to figure it out. Two months to figure it out, and I say two months because I would like to have one month before the playoffs, to have the mentality of playoffs. Because if we think that we’re going to go into the playoffs and flip a switch and just be great, that won’t happen. No matter who it is, that doesn’t exist. So we have to just be ready when the time comes.”

Posted on by Brandon White

Mother Nature emerged victorious Saturday at Riverhead Raceway.

Persistent rainfall during the afternoon and into the evening forced NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour officials to postpone the Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200 to Sunday.

Qualifying had already been canceled by the precipitation earlier in the day, forcing the Modified Tour to set the field by the rule book. Defending champion Ron Silk would have started on pole, but a redraw moved him to sixth on the starting grid with Trevor Catalano claiming the top spot.

Live coverage of the rescheduled Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200 begins at 12:15 p.m. ET on FloRacing with the support features at Riverhead. The green flag for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race waves at 2:30 p.m. ET.