NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (May 19, 2024) — Ty Gibbs left no doubt as to who was winning Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Gibbs started on the pole and led all 100 laps of the Open to punch his ticket to the NASCAR All-Star Race for the second consecutive year.
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.
“I think what we saw in the Open was that we have enough to get to the front,” Gibbs said. “We’ve got some good friends here, too. Let’s go win this thing.”
Wallace, who finished second in last year’s All-Star Race, was relieved to have earned another berth. Josh Berry, last year’s Open winner, just missed out on advancing by finishing third. Justin Haley was fourth with Noah Gragson — the Fan Vote winner for the second straight time — fifth, and Alex Bowman sixth.
Wallace, Berry and Bowman fought hard for second place after the scheduled caution period, but once Wallace passed Bowman, he wasn’t challenged for the runner-up spot. Bowman and Berry engaged in a door-to-door duel that saw Berry win out, but come up short in chasing down Wallace.
“We have to earn every right to be in this and we had to go fight for it,” Wallace said. “All in all, we’re in the show. I appreciated (Bowman) and (Berry) pushing hard but being clean. It was a good show. I know how good Josh is on short tracks, but I feel like I’m pretty good at them, too. It’s a good night so far.”
Gragson won last year’s Fan Vote with a partially damaged car. This year, he’ll start the feature race with fewer battle scars.
“The fans are so badass,” Gragson said. “It’s a privilege to be voted in and to race the All-Star Race again. We’re going to continue to work on our car and try to get it dialed in. (We just had) a little 100-lap test and tune, now we’ll see if we can go back and make it better. I can’t say enough about the fans. They pump us up. We’ve got 200 laps to go race for a million bucks.”
