Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at the newly-resurfaced North Wilkesboro Speedway was pretty straightforward for Joey Logano.
A two-time champion of the NASCAR Cup Series, the 33-year-old driver started from the pole, placed his No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at the front of the pack, and pretty much left it there, leading 199 of 200 laps.
It’s the second victory in the $1-million-to-win exhibition event for Logano, who becomes just the second driver in the race’s 40-year history to win at two different racetracks — Charlotte and North Wilkesboro.
“A lot of fun when you’ve got a car this fast,” said Logano after the race. “The Shell/Pennzoil Mustang, it’s just so great to get in Victory Lane. All of our sponsors and everyone who stuck with us to get a win, it feels nice. It’s been a while. I wish it was for points, but a million bucks is still a lot of money and I feel great about that.”
While the talk of All-Star Weekend was surrounding the multiple tire compounds that Goodyear was bringing to the racetrack — the usual ‘prime’ tire, and a softer ‘option’ tire – the impact it had on Sunday’s race was minimal.
“Well, we did the first 100, so why wouldn’t it last the second 100,” Logano quipped when asked about the choice to run the soft tire for the final 100 laps. “That was our thought, so it was definitely an aggressive strategy, but it worked out good.”
With the softer tires providing an advantage in lap time, most teams elected to keep those tires on their racecars for the majority of the 200 laps, as the falloff would be nowhere near what was expected before the weekend.
After the second and final competition caution was displayed on Lap 150, the majority of the leaders chose to stay on track with 50-lap old ‘option tires. That proved to be the correct strategy — with four of the top five finishers staying on the racetrack.
Following a short battle with Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin managed to hold onto second place, with Chris Buescher continuing a strong run of finishes in third place.
Kyle Larson, who hours before the start of the All-Star Race managed to qualify inside the top five for the Indianapolis 500, started at the rear of the field and drove to a fourth-place finish.
Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five, in fifth. Bubba Wallace finished just behind in sixth, advancing after finishing second place in the All-Star Open. Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, and Kyle Busch completed the top-10.
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Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, had a bit of a problematic aura to him on Sunday night, after the Richard Childress Racing driver was the cause of both of the cautions during the race for an on-track incident.
After Ricky Stenhouse made an aggressive three-wide move on the opening lap, Kyle Busch made contact with the outside wall — even though there was nowhere near contact with the No. 47. Busch didn’t like that move because a half-lap later he dumped the JTG Daugherty Racing entry in the second corner, destroying his racecar and his evening.
Stenhouse had about an hour to think about his next steps, and after all that time, he chose confrontation, going to the hauler of the No. 8 to have a conversation, which eventually, turned into a boxing match, and eventually a mob.
Later in the night, Ty Gibbs was the second victim of the driver nicknamed ‘Rowdy’, after his predecessor got into the first corner too deep, and made contact with the rear bumper of the All-Star Open winner.
Luckily for everybody involved, Sunday’s All-Star Race didn’t pay points, and only paid $1 million. But, the next stop for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Coca-Cola 600, which, technically speaking, is worth more points than any other race on the schedule.
