Joey Logano was forced to fend off Christopher Bell at a tire disadvantage but it was too much to ask and that’s how the NASCAR All-Star Race was decided at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night.
Bell took two tires on the Lap 217/250 caution, the promoter’s caution deployed by Michael Waltrip on the flag stand, as Logano, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Harrison Burton stayed out.
By nine laps to go, Bell had drawn even and drifted up the track to complete the pass. From there, Logano wasn’t going to make up ground on much older tires.
“If I could get back to him, I was going to show him what fair was,” Logano said.
Logano also said he won’t forget and will race Bell the way he was raced.
Some of that was surely in the moment frustration from Logano, who led a race high 139 laps after leading 199 of 200 laps in this race last year, and was driving away when Waltrip waved the yellow flag and then dropped it on the frontstretch.
“Yeah, I’m all about no gimmicks with the caution,” Logano said. “I am all about that. I’m a little — me and Marcus Smith aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, okay? I’ve got to have a word with him.”
For his part, Bell adds his first All Star Race win to a resume that already includes 12 points paying wins in 192 starts and a pair of championship race appearances.
This is one of his favorites.
“It’s pretty high,” Bell said. “I would say this one has to be up there with those Round of 8 wins. Those Round of 8 wins are so valuable that I don’t know how you top that except for that championship event which is eluding me so far.
“But this one, it’s definitely top 3.”
Brad Keselowski led the opening salvo from the lead, with Logano unable to complete the pass because he burned up his tires trying to may hay on the bottom. Keselowski lost the lead on a lap 63 restart, getting swarmed by Kyle Busch and William Byron, and he ultimately crashed out of the race on Lap 175.
Kyle Larson, who qualified 21st in his second Indianapolis 500 earlier in the weekend, took two tires on the Keselowski crash caution, but immediately fell back to third. He drilled the wall just laps before the promoter’s caution.
He finished 21st.
Results
- Christopher Bell
- Joey Logano
- Ross Chastain
- Alex Bowman
- Chase Elliott
- William Byron
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Briscoe
- Chris Buescher
- Carson Hoceva
- Denny Hamlin
- Noah Gragson
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Ryan Blaney
- Josh Berry
- Austin Cindric
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Harrison Burton
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Daniel Suarez
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