Christopher Bell had the stars and fireworks victoriously bursting above him and he outdueled Joey Logano to win in the 41st running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Sunday, May 18.
The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 champion from Norman, Oklahoma, led four times for 28 of 250 scheduled laps in an All-Star event where he started alongside pole-sitter Brad Keselowski and raced upfront throughout the event’s entirety. After assuming the lead for the first time on Lap 104 following a stellar pit service from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team during a competition caution period, he would engage in a race-long, heated battle with Logano for the top spot that surpassed the event’s halfway mark.
Then following the event’s newly formed Promoter’s Caution period that flew with 35 laps remaining, mixed pit strategies ensued that involved Logano being only one of five competitors to remain on the track on worn tires while Bell led the rest of the field to pit for fresh tires. Despite making contact with Noah Gragson while exiting pit road, Bell restarted towards the front during the following restart with 28 laps remaining. After reeling in Logano for the lead with his four fresh tires with approximately 20 laps remaining but not having enough momentum to muscle ahead of the latter, Bell bumped and spent nearly a full lap rubbing against Logano to assume the top spot for good with 10 laps remaining. From there, Bell was able to muscle away and cruise to his first triumph in the All-Star Race.
The starting lineup for the 2025 All-Star Race was first determined through a combined session of on-track qualifying and a mandatory pit stop as part of the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge that occurred on Friday, May 16.
Each competitor eligible for both the All-Star Race and Open events took the green flag, ran a full lap at speed around the North Wilkesboro circuit, made a four-tire pit stop within a designated pit stall with no fuel delivery during the second lap, exited pit road under pit road speed and raced back to the checkered flag once returning to the track.
The overall qualifying time was evaluated by the total time elapsed from the green flag to the checkered flag, where the fastest All-Star qualifier would start on pole position for both the first of two Heat Races and the overall main event.
The event’s two 75-lap Heat events that would determine the rest of the starting lineup for the All-Star Race aside from the pole sitter occurred on Saturday, May 17.
At the conclusion of Friday’s qualifying session, Brad Keselowski notched his first All-Star career pole position after he posted a three-lap qualifying trial run at 77.264 mph in 87.363 seconds while also receiving a 13.081-second pit service from his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing Ford team. Keselowski would proceed to win the first All-Star Heat event and he shared the front row with Christopher Bell, the latter of whom won the second Heat event.
Keselowski and Bell were among 20 competitors who were automatically eligible for the 2025 All-Star Race based on winning a Cup Series points-paying event between the entire 2024 and early 2025 campaigns and being both former Cup Series champions and All-Star Race winners. The remaining 18 competitors who also met the criteria included Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Josh Berry, Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.
Prior to the All-Star Race, the All-Star Open occurred. It allowed 18 registered competitors who did not automatically transfer to the All-Star Race to do so by contesting for the top-two finishing spots in a 100-lap qualifying event. In addition, a third competitor revealed to be the Fan Vote winner would both transfer and claim the final starting spot to the All-Star Race.
At the conclusion of the All-Star Open, Carson Hocevar and John Hunter Nemechek transferred by finishing first and second, respectively, while Noah Gragson was awarded the final spot for being named the Fan Vote winner for a third consecutive year.
The remaining Open competitors who did not qualify for the 2025 All-Star Race included Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell, Zane Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer, rookie Riley Herbst, Ryan Preece, Todd Gilliland, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Cody Ware and Chad Finchum.
When the green flag waved and the All-Star Race started, Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell dueled for nearly a full lap against one another as the field behind jostled for early spots. As Joey Logano tried to make a three-wide move beneath both Bell and Keselowski for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, Keselowski managed to retain the top spot and lead the first lap.
Over the following four laps, Keselowski maintained an early, steady advantage while Chase Elliott and Logano aggressively muscled their way into second and third, respectively, on the track. By then, Bell dropped to fifth as William Byron moved up to fourth. Logano would then reel in and duel with Keselowski for the lead by the sixth lap, but the latter maintained the lead through the Lap 10 mark while Byron and Elliott closely pursued in the top-four mark.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Keselowski and Logano remained dead even for the lead in front of Byron and Elliott while Bell, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman pursued in the top 10. Behind, Tyler Reddick was scored in 11th place ahead of Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry while Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek and Harrison Burton rounded out the 23-car field.
Fifteen laps later, Keselowski, who had managed to muscle ahead of Logano earlier, retained the lead over the latter while Byron, Elliott and Bell continued to race in the top-five mark. Despite having Logano continually reeling him in his rearview mirror, Keselowski maintained the lead by the Lap 45 mark.
On Lap 56, the event’s first caution flew when Suarez, who was racing just outside the top-15 mark, blew a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall just past the first two turns. During the caution period, the field led by Keselowski peeled off the track to pit for the first time. Following the pit stops, Keselowski, Byron and Kyle Busch exited pit road first through third, respectively, after the trio opted for a two-tire pit stop. They were followed by Logano, the first competitor with four fresh tires, along with Bell, Elliott, Blaney, Bowman, Chastain and Cindric.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 63, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Keselowski tried to fend off Busch through the first two turns. Byron then made the battle at the front a three-wide battle as he went beneath both Keselowski and Busch through Turns 3 and 4. With the trio remaining dead even during the following lap in front of Logano, they continued to duel by Lap 65 before Byron muscled his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet entry ahead through Turns 3 and 4. As Byron muscled away with the lead in his sole possession by Lap 66, Logano and Busch moved up to second and third while Keselowski was trying to fend off Bell and Elliott for fourth place.
By Lap 75, Byron retained the lead over Logano, Bell, Elliott and Blaney while Busch, Keselowski, Cindric, Chastain and Reddick were racing in the top 10. Both Logano and Bell would then reel in on Byron over the following three laps before Logano assumed the top spot from Byron by Lap 78. Logano would proceed to lead just past the Lap 80 mark while Byron, who was fighting loose conditions, was being pressured by Bell for second.
Within the Lap 90 mark, Logano was leading Bell while Elliott was scored in third place. Behind, Byron had fallen back to fourth place ahead of Blaney, Cindric and Busch while Keselowski was mired back in eighth place ahead of Chastain and Bowman.
At the Lap 100 mark, a scheduled competition caution flew. At the time of the caution period, Logano was scored the leader by a second ahead of Bell, Elliott, Blaney and Byron while Busch, Cindric, Keselowski, Chastain and Berry were ranked in top 10. During the caution, the field led by Logano returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell exited pit road first and he was followed by Logano, Elliott, Blaney, Byron, Busch, Keselowski, Cindric, Berry and Chastain.
The start of the following restart on Lap 108 featured Bell, who restarted on the inside lane, muscling his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead and maintaining the lead for a full circuit. He would proceed to lead the following lap ahead of Logano while Elliott and Blaney battled for third place. With the field behind fanning out and making contact against one another, Bell proceeded to lead just past the Lap 110 mark.
The caution then returned on Lap 112 when Austin Cindric, who was racing within the top-15 mark, made contact with Chastain exiting Turn 2. With Chastain getting sideways, both he and Cindric then went down the track and made additional contact with Bowman. While Bowman kept his damaged No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry racing straight, Cindric and Chastain made further contact as Chastain slid his No. 1 Busch Chevrolet entry sideways down the backstretch while Cindric nursed his damaged No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to pit road.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 120, Logano challenged Bell for the lead from the outside lane and both dueled against one another for half a lap. They continued to duel back to the frontstretch and for the following lap. During the process, they both leaned against one another and refused to give each other an inch of space for racing. With both also making minor contact against one another, Blaney and Elliott battled for third place in front of Byron and Busch. Amid the battles within the field, Logano and Bell continued to duel at the event’s halfway mark on Lap 125.
At the Lap 150 mark, Logano, who earlier muscled ahead of Bell and had both lanes under his control, was out in front over Bell while Blaney, Elliott and Bowman pursued in the top five. Behind, Busch was mired in sixth place ahead of Larson, Byron, Keselowski and Berry while Briscoe, Gragson, Austin Dillon, Reddick and Hocevar were in the top 15, respectively.
Ten laps later, Logano continued to lead by a second over Bell while Blaney trailed in third place by two seconds. By then, Chevrolet competitors Elliott, Bowman, Busch, Larson and Byron trailed in the top-eight mark ahead of Keselowski and Berry while Logano maintained the lead by a second by Lap 175.
Then on Lap 175, the caution flew when Keselowski wrecked hard against the outside wall entering Turn 3. As Keselowski limped his damaged No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry with flat-spotted tires back to his pit stall, the field led by Logano pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson, who entered pit road in seventh place, opted for a two-tire pit stop and exited pit road first. He was followed by Logano, Bell, Elliott, Blaney, Bowman, Briscoe, Busch, Byron and Austin Dillon, respectively, the latter nine of which opted for a four-tire pit service.
During the following restart on Lap 182, Larson, who started the All-Star Race at the rear of the field, briefly rocketed his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry ahead from the outside lane through first two turns before Logano got underneath the latter and challenged him for the lead. With Bell trying to thread the needle between both in Turns 3 and 4, Logano led the following lap by a hair before Larson challenged back from the outside lane.
Both continued to duel over next three laps before Larson went wide in Turn 1, which allowed Logano to muscle ahead from the inside lane. As Logano cleared Larson and led on Lap 186, Bell drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Larson for the runner-up spot before the former cleared the later by Lap 187. As Bell started to pull away, Larson, who was trying to run strong on his two fresh tires, was being challenged by teammate Elliott for third while Blaney closed in from fifth place.
At the Lap 200 mark, Logano was leading by half a second over a hard-charging Bell while Larson, who trailed the lead by two seconds, was also trying to fend off teammate Elliott and Blaney for third place. Hendrick Motorsports’ Bowman and Byron trailed by three seconds in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Austin Dillon, Briscoe and Busch, the latter of whom trailed the lead by five seconds, were in the top 10.
Ten laps later, Logano retained the lead by half a second over Bell while Larson trailed by one-and-a-half seconds in third place. As both Elliott and Blaney retained fourth and fifth, respectively, on the track, Logano continued to lead by half a second for another five laps.
Then on Lap 215, the event’s newly formed Promoter’s Caution period, which needed to be executed prior to Lap 220, was displayed by Michael Waltrip as the fireworks lit above the skies. The caution flew after Larson had made contact with the wall, which caused him to drop from third to sixth in the leaderboard, while Logano remained in the lead ahead of Bell.
During the Promoter’s Caution period, Logano along with teammate Blaney, Chastain, Hocevar and Burton remained on the track while the rest led by Bell pitted their respective entries. Following the pit stops, Bell, who made contact with Gragson exiting pit road, exited pit road first and he was followed by Elliott and Byron. Meanwhile, Larson, who also pitted, dropped both out of contention for the lead and out of the lead lap category due to the damage sustained on his No. 5 entry.
With the event restarting with 28 laps remaining, Logano, who restarted on the outside lane, managed to fend off teammate Blaney for nearly a full lap before he muscled ahead entering the frontstretch and rocketed ahead to lead the following lap. With the field behind bumping and jostling for late spots, Chastain reeled in on Blaney for second while Bell battled with Hocevar for fourth place. Blaney then got sideways entering Turn 3 with 27 laps remaining, but Chastain, Hocevar and Bell barely managed to get by Blaney as Blaney was jumbled up in a bevy of three- and four-wide actions. With Blaney plummeting below the leaderboard, Logano retained the lead with 25 laps remaining.
Then with 22 laps remaining, Bell, who spent the previous three laps reeling in Logano on his four fresh tires, went beneath Logano for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Using the inside lane, Bell would lead with 21 laps remaining, but Logano drew back alongside the latter from the outside lane. They then rubbed fenders in Turn 1, but both managed to race straight as Logano, who was still holding strong on his four worn tires, rocketed back ahead. With Bell going up the track and into the path of a hard-charging Chastain in Turn 3, Logano would pull ahead by nearly half a second with 19 laps remaining.
With 15 laps remaining, Logano maintained the lead over a hard-charging Bell while Chastain, Bowman and Elliott trailed in the top five, respectively. As Bell started to reel back toward Logano’s rear bumper over the following four laps, Logano went up the track to block Bell’s gained speed exiting the turns and entering the straightaways.
Then with 10 laps remaining, Bell seized an opportunity by going underneath Logano entering Turn 1. He then proceeded to rub against Logano towards the outside wall while giving him no room through the backstretch. Bell then bumped and ran Logano up the track in Turn 3. This allowed Bell to storm back to the lead while Chastain challenged Logano for the runner-up spot. Logano would manage to retain second place over both Chastain and Bowman while Bell retained the lead over the following four laps.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Bell maintained a steady advantage over Logano while Chastain, Bowman and Elliott pursued in the top five. Using his advantageous outside lane and his four fresh tires, Bell would remain atop the leaderboard over Logano over the next four laps.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell, who was starting to approach the lapped competitor of Larson, remained in the lead over Logano. With Larson remaining on the inside lane and not interfering with the lead lap competitors, Bell was able to smoothly navigate his way around the North Wilkesboro venue for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch victorious and a million dollars richer with his first checkered flag in the event.
With the victory, Bell, a three-time Cup Series points-paying race winner in the early stages of the 2025 season, became the 37th competitor overall to win the NASCAR All-Star Race. He also became the third to win the event at North Wilkesboro Speedway and the third Toyota competitor to achieve the feat. The 2025 All-Star Race victory was the third overall for Joe Gibbs Racing and the first for the organization’s No. 20 team.
“North Wilkesboro, how about that one?!” Bell exclaimed on the frontstretch on FS1. “That, right there, is absolutely incredible. North Wilkesboro – best short track on the schedule. Let’s go! Man, [the No. 20 pit crew]’re the best. There’s nothing else to say. This sport can be so humbling because behind the car, behind the wheel, you’re just a small part of success. These [No. 20] boys right here, [crew chief] Adam Stevens on the pit box, all the mechanics, all the engineers that put this thing together. They’re the big picture. I’m the guy that gets to sit up here and talk to you and take pictures, but without them, I’m nobody and I owe it all to these guys.”
As Bell celebrated with his team on the frontstretch, Logano, who led a race-high 139 laps compared to Bell’s 28, was left dejected on pit road after falling short of defending his All-Star Race victory from a year ago.
“I’m pissed off right now,” Logano said. “Dang it, we had the fastest car. The Shell/Pennzoil Mustang was so fast. I felt like the [tire] falloff wasn’t too bad as the sun went down. We had six cars or so stay out with us [during the final caution period]. I thought maybe we can hold them off, but [Bell] had a good enough restart to clear too many of [competitors] too fast and I couldn’t get away in time.
“It took me six, seven laps to get my car up and rolling again. I did all I could do to [Bell] off and he got under me and just released the brake, gave me no option and he just ran me up into the wall. If I could have got to him, he was going around after a move like that. I just couldn’t get back to him. It was just too much to try to make [the deficit] up with the tire deficit. Just frustrated after you lead so many laps and [the] car’s so fast and you don’t win. It hurts quite a bit.”
Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman rallied from their early multi-car wreck to finish third and fourth, respectively, while Chase Elliott finished in the top five. William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, the Chevrolet nameplate emerged as the inaugural Manufacturer Showdown winner of the event. This occurred due to the manufacturer’s competitors Chastain, Bowman, Elliott, Byron and Kyle Busch finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively, on the track. Meanwhile, the race winner Bell, seventh-place finisher Reddick and ninth-place finisher Briscoe represented Toyota while runner-up finisher Logano and 10th-place finisher Buescher represented Ford.
There were 18 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 20 of 23 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
1. Christopher Bell, 28 laps led
2. Joey Logano, 139 laps led
3. Ross Chastain
4. Alex Bowman, one lap led
5. Chase Elliott
6. William Byron, 12 laps led
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Kyle Busch, two laps led
9. Chase Briscoe
10. Chris Buescher
11. Carson Hocevar
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Noah Gragson
14. Austin Dillon
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. Ryan Blaney
17. Josh Berry
18. Austin Cindric, one lap led
19. John Hunter Nemechek
20. Harrison Burton
21. Kyle Larson, three laps down, five laps led
22. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, 62 laps led
23. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 25, and air at 6 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
