All-Star Race Event Info:
Track Info: North Wilkesboro Speedway, .625-mile short track
Date: Sunday, May 21
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Format: 200 laps, 125 miles
TV: FS1
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)
Weekend Schedule:
Friday: 4 p.m. ET, Practice (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Friday: 5:45 p.m., Qualifying/Pit Crew Challenge (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 7:35 p.m. ET, Heat No. 1 (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 8:15 p.m. ET, Heat No. 2 (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 8 p.m. ET, All-Star Race (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe)
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Fastenal
The No. 17 features another new Fastenal scheme, a mostly white look for the All-Star Race under the lights.
Pace Laps:
- The annual NASCAR All-Star Race returns this weekend in its traditional slot – pre Coca-Cola 600 – for the revival of North Wilkesboro Speedway.
- North Wilkesboro hasn’t hosted a NASCAR event since 1996 when both the Truck and Cup Series were there. The Cup Series first competed at NW in 1949 and ran 93 races up until 1996, while the Xfinity Series had just four races there from 1983-85, and trucks ran twice in 1995-96.
- With the All-Star Race brings a unique format to the table, with both RFK drivers locked into the field. The format for this weekend is as follows:
- Friday: One of the all-time fan favorites of All-Star Race festivities – the pit crew challenge – returns for Friday night with a four-time pit stop (no fuel), with results determining the starting lineups for the All-Star Heat Races and All-Star Open.
- Saturday: Each heat race will run 60 laps each, with the results of Heat Race 1 setting the All-Star Race inside row, and the results of Heat Race 2 setting the All-Star Race outside row.
- Sunday: The All-Star Race field is set with the following qualifying automatically – 2022 and 2023 NASCAR Cup Series points race winners, past All-Star Race winners and NASCAR Cup Champions, All-Star Open Top-2 finishers, and the winner of the NASCAR Fan Vote
- The All-Star Race will run 200 laps with all laps counting, with a competition break scheduled on or around lap 100
Keselowski in the All-Star Race
Starts: 14
Wins: —
Top-10s: 9
Poles: —
- Keselowski makes his 15th start in the All-Star Race this weekend. He has three second-place finishes in the exhibition event, first in 2012, then in 2016 and most recently in 2021. Last season he finished ninth at Texas Motor Speedway.
- Overall he has nine top-10s, four inside the top five, in the All-Star event.
- Keselowski will also compete in Wednesday’s CARS Late Model Stock Car event alongside many NASCAR stars. The star-studded event will span 125 laps Wednesday night, as this marks the second-straight year for Keselowski to enter a marquee late model event after competing in the Vermont Governor’s Cup at Thunder Road last season, and entering the Snowball Derby last December.
Buescher in the All-Star Race
Starts: 2
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his third start in the All-Star Race this weekend, and is automatically locked in via his win in the 2022 Bristol Night Race.
- Last season at Texas Motor Speedway, Buescher raced his way in from The Open after winning stage two of that race. He went on to finish eighth in the All-Star Race, with his only other appearance coming back in 2017 where he finished 17th.
RFK Historically in the All-Star Race
Wins: 4 (Mark Martin, 1998, 2005; Matt Kenseth, 2004; Carl Edwards, 2011)
- All-Star Victories: RFK has earned four victories in NASCAR’s All-Star Main Event with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. Martin, who is a two-time All-Star race winner, first went to Victory Lane in 1998 for RFK before taking the checkered flag again in 2005. Kenseth earned the victory in the 2004 running of the event and Edwards visited the winner’s circle in 2011.
RFK Historically at North Wilkesboro
Cup Wins: 2 (Mark Martin, 1990, 1995)
- Tale of the Tape: Back in the early days of racing at North Wilkesboro, Jack Roush entered 30 Cup races at the track with two wins – both from Mark Martin – with 14 overall top-10s as four drivers combined competed in Cup for Roush at the historic track.
- Roush Wins One of the Last: Jack Roush shares a couple of pieces of history at the last time NASCAR competed at North Wilkesboro, as Ted Musgrave put the No. 16 on the pole for the last-ever race there in 1996. A day earlier, Martin won the Truck Series race there.
RFK All-Star Wins
1998 Martin
2004 Kenseth
2005 Martin
2011 Edwards
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Darlington: Both RFK drivers again finished inside the top-10 last weekend at Darlington for the third time this season. Keselowski never left the top-10, earned stage points in the opening two stages and finished fourth, while Buescher dug out of an early hole to finish 10th.
Points Standings (6: 9th, 17: 13th): With the All-Star Race being a non-points event this weekend, the field will sit idle for a week with Keselowski back in ninth, with Buescher not far back in 13th.
By the Numbers at North Wilkesboro
