Last Updated on May 20, 2024 7:15 am
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (May 19, 2024) — If two or three drivers could hang with Joey Logano in Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, there were none who could out-run him.
Logano started Sunday's 200-lap race from the pole and withstood challenges from Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin en route to his first NASCAR Cup Series win of any kind since March 19, 2023, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The result capped off a dream Sunday for Team Penske, who qualified 1-2-3 at the Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon and added a million-dollar All-Star Race winner's prize at night.
Hamlin finished second with Buescher third and Kyle Larson fourth. Larson flew to North Wilkesboro after he qualified fifth at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier in the day. The defending All-Star Race winner had to start last in the 20-car field and wasn't a factor until the final 50 laps, when he pitted for the soft, red-badged Goodyear tires brought to the event to give teams an additional strategy option.
Larson gave up seventh place to take on a set of soft tires, and needed only six laps to jump from 12th to third. His bid for an unexpected victory fell short when he couldn't clear Hamlin for second, and ultimately lost third to Buescher in the closing laps. Larson and defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney completed the top five.
Logano led an All-Star Race-record 199 of 200 laps in securing his first All-Star Race victory since 2016.
Bubba Wallace finished sixth with Ross Chastain seventh and Chase Elliott eighth. Martin Truex Jr. and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10. Bell, whose Toyota slid up into Logano's Ford as the two raced side-by-side for the lead on Lap 113, faded from contention soon after and ended up 17th at the finish.
The race was slowed by two organic caution periods: on Lap 2 for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s crash after contact with Kyle Busch, and on Lap 117 — when Busch nudged Ty Gibbs into a spin in Turn 2.
Sunday's race marked the first night-time race on North Wilkesboro's brand-new pavement. The zMAX CARS Tour and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will race on the 0.625-mile oval prior to the return of the NASCAR All-Star Race May 16-18, 2025.
JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 TEAM PENSKE FORD (RACE WINNER): “It feels good. It's funny, because the first thing going through your mind is, ‘Gosh, I wish this counted for points.' But a million bucks, that's a lot of money. We had a great weekend. We learned a lot at the test (in March) I ran 800 laps over two days. I thought when we got here this weekend, that it'd be a single-groove track like most repaves, but they did a fantastic job with this one. You could race all over the race track. The fact they made a race track that's not a single-groove is a major success. To see guys racing three-wide was crazy.”
PAUL WOLFE, NO. 22 TEAM PENSKE FORD (WINNING CREW CHIEF): “You had to have a really well-balanced car to make (the soft tires) work for the whole race, and we had a well-balanced car. Hopefully, tonight was a good boost for everybody. It wasn't a points race and it didn't lock us into the Playoffs, but it showed we could put together a weekend like this from qualifying through the race. We didn't do anything super-fast (in qualifying), but Joey did a good job, the pit crew had a solid stop and that's what it took to get that track position today and control the race from there.”
DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 JOE GIBBS RACING TOYOTA (RUNNER-UP): “It would've been really tough to get around (Logano) without really just knocking him out of the way (on the final restart). Maybe it's coulda-woulda-shoulda, but I thought I'd have a little more time. I thought the tires would fall off a little bit more to give us an advantage late in the run, but we just kept hanging on there. I think we ran, on the last lap, an 18.60. It's incredible how well the tires hold up. It's live and learn. Certainly, coming in second, I don't think it pays anything, but at least we had some fun today.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 17 RFK RACING FORD (THIRD PLACE): “There at the end, it just took too long to get around (Larson). It's a good night on a night where only one position matters. I'm proud of the group. I'm pumped for the Coke 600 next week. Last year we led laps there and had a stage win at a time when we weren't hitting our stride. Tonight, we needed two more (positions), but we've got good momentum. It was a really strong night for us overall.”
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