Observe: North Wilkesboro SpeedwayLocation: North Wilkesboro, North CarolinaTrack size: 0.625 milesWhen: Sunday, 8 p.m. ETWhere to tune in: FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR RadioRace purse: $2,421,400Race distance: 250 laps | 156.25 milesCompetition break: At or round Lap 100Defending winner: Joey Logano, Might 2024Starting lineup: Brad Keselowski earns first All-Star pole
All-Stars rise to $1 million problem with no factors, all glory on the road
There aren’t any season-long implications to remove from North Wilkesboro Speedway, no playoff ensures nor factors to realize.
No, the motivation on Sunday night time is a cool $1 million to the winner of the NASCAR All-Star Race, a return to old-school, short-track racing with 250 laps scheduled round one in all NASCAR’s oldest speedways.
MORE: Cup Sequence standings | Full 2025 schedule
All-Star Weekend celebrates the very best of NASCAR Cup Sequence racing. The one 20 racers assured entry into Sunday’s characteristic are winners from the 2024 and 2025 seasons (welcome, Harrison Burton and Josh Berry) along with lively previous Cup champions (hi there once more, Kyle Busch).
Three spots on the grid stay to be decided, although: Two are reserved for the highest two finishers in Sunday’s All-Star Open (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM) and one other for the winner of the Fan Vote, awarded to the very best vote-getter who didn’t already race into All-Star Race.
By way of 40 prior years of the All-Star exhibition, there have been loads of fireworks related to the occasion — Dale Earnhardt’s “Go within the Grass” at Charlotte in 1987; Rusty Wallace’s 1989 bump-dump-and-run on Darrell Waltrip; the Busch brothers’ 2007 tangle all come to thoughts. However in two years of taking part in host to the occasion, North Wilkesboro has established itself with its personal lore, because of the 2024 fracas between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch that lit by means of the storage one 12 months in the past.
Brief tracks spark brief tempers, doubly so when all at stake is chilly exhausting money, penalties be forsaken. So with what might be 23 hungry racers within the subject — and at the very least 15 trying to find their first Victory Lane celebration of 2025 — don’t be stunned if contact determines who takes Sunday’s $1 million prize.
MORE: Full Saturday recap
From atop the pit field …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Sunday’s showdown marks the third All-Star Race version at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Even after an excellent face-lift to tastefully modernize the 0.625-mile observe, it stays a real throwback to an earlier period of stock-car racing.
This 12 months, there’s a pseudo-throwback ingredient to the All-Star format with the addition of an non-compulsory Promoter’s Warning, a yellow flag which will or might not fall earlier than Lap 220 of the expanded 250-lap important occasion. It’s a situation that a number of veterans within the storage have in all probability skilled on the grassroots degree, drawing on an unstated late-race expectation {that a} phantom warning interval for a obscure purpose would possibly jazz up the present. Sunday night time, that might be baked into the race procedures.
“I believe that we in all probability overlook how usually that may have occurred again within the day racing native brief tracks,” says Richard Boswell, crew chief of the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevy pushed by Austin Dillon. “So we at the very least understand it’s coming, and I believe that it’s going to stack us up, proper? It’s going to offer everyone one final probability. I believe it’ll be attention-grabbing to see the fall-off of this tire to see how many individuals, if the warning doesn’t come out until Lap 220, what number of are prepared to surrender that place for an opportunity at one million bucks?
“So yeah, I believe it’s cool. I believe it’ll be enjoyable to see the way it all unfolds. I believe that if I’m the chief of the race, I’m in all probability not going to love it, proper? However in the event you’re not, then I believe everyone else within the subject might be on the lookout for an opportunity to up the ante, so to talk.”
One 12 months in the past, the All-Star format twist was the introduction of softer-compound “possibility” tires, giving groups an extra technique element with their selection of Goodyear rubber — a restricted allotment of possibility tires or the baseline “prime” tires. This 12 months, only one tire choice is offered — the identical setup used earlier this 12 months at Bowman Grey Stadium and Martinsville Speedway.
This tire is just like final 12 months’s possibility tires, with a barely softer left-side compound for this season’s version. The asphalt, too, is comparatively new with a repave going down through the 2023 offseason, which means that the growing older course of continues to be in its early phases.
“It’s going to take extra time, I agree. So perhaps one other 12 months, it’s in all probability going to assist us,” stated James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “And also you’ll see, I believe eliminating the prime tire was a very good step anyway, and this put us all on the choice to take that out of the ingredient, so at the very least it’s a straight-up race now. I believe, like regular, qualifying continues to be going to be super-important, simply attempting to keep up from that time.”
Says Boswell: “I believe anytime you get age in a observe, you get just a little little bit of tempo fall-off, proper? So with tempo fall-off comes cooler tires and hopefully much less blistering of tires. However actually, everyone blistered tires in 30 laps in follow at this occasion final 12 months, however within the race, (Joey) Logano went 100 laps on each units, proper? So it undoubtedly has to do with the repave and the combination of the floor, however I believe the rubber that will get laid down impacts it as properly, in order that helps issues.”
— Zack Albert in North Wilkesboro
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Historical past tells us …
The perfect stay the very best. Every of the final 9 All-Star Race winners are NASCAR Cup Sequence champions. 4 of these drivers — Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney — scored All-Star wins earlier than finally claiming the title.
He is probably not the favourite to win, however be careful for …
BRAD KESELOWSKI. Deciding on the polesitter for this part doesn’t precisely really feel like we’re going out on a limb. Nevertheless, Keselowski continues to be trying to find his first NASCAR All-Star Race win after three runner-up efforts, with two at Charlotte and one at Texas. His previous historical past at North Wilkesboro hasn’t been nice, ending outdoors the highest 15 in each makes an attempt thus far. However the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford was third-quickest on 10-lap averages in Friday’s follow session and was quick sufficient to earn the pole place. Maybe that is the 12 months he takes residence $1 million.
Velocity reads
Our largest items of the week — get coated for race day from all angles.• All-Star hub: Key data, hyperlinks, outcomes by means of the weekend | Learn extra• Tip of the pit-road Spire: No. 71 Spire Motorsports staff rockets to Pit Highway Problem win, $100,000 bonus | Learn extra• Meet the Bells: Christopher Bell, spouse Morgan star in Season 2 of Netflix’s “Full Velocity” | Learn extra• Buescher, RFK Racing penalized post-Kansas: Driver, staff react to L1-level penalty | Learn extra• Turning Level to Wilkesboro: Hidden tendencies from first 12 races of 2025 | Learn extra• All-Star motion: Greatest pictures, scenes from North Wilkesboro | View gallery• NASCAR Classics: Relive the very best moments from historic North Wilkesboro | Watch races• Paint Scheme Preview: All-Star seems by means of the storage | View gallery
