Hocevar, Nemechek Advance to All-Star Race; Gragson Wins Fan Vote

May 18, 2025; North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) during NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Carson Hocevar captured the victory in Sunday afternoon's NASCAR All-Star Open Race, and the win came with a two-tire pit strategy call during the Lap 50 competition caution during the 100-lap event. The call gave Hocevar the lead of the race, and allowed him to control things the rest of the way.

Hocevar would lead the final 46 laps of the Open on the way to the win, which would secure him a place in the field for Sunday night's NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

RESULTS: NASCAR All-Star Open
STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR All-Star Race

The driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet says the All-Star Open win is a major milestone for his race team, but that they have work to do prior to the start of the All-Star Race.

"Yeah, super big for this group, this team. It's great to win, especially being challenged by tires there," Hocevar said. "I had my hands full. We definitely have to go to work here on our race car because I didn't really like it, but it's a good sign that we didn't like it and we were still pretty quick there."

While it's a longshot, as he'll start from the 21st position, Hocevar hopes he can pull off a win from the Open on Sunday night.

"Hopefully we can take advantage of it. I've seen Kasey Kahne win and Dale and others win from the Open and stuff," Hocevar explained.

John Hunter Nemechek, who showed plenty of aggression on his way to the front of the field, was able to claw his way to a second-place finish in the Open. Nemechek came up just 0.697 seconds shy of the win, but the runner-up effort was enough to advance the driver of the No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota into the NASCAR All-Star Race as well.

Now, the driver of the No. 42 Toyota gets to battle it out for $1 million.

"Heck yeah. We have a shot to go win a million dollars," Nemechek said after climbing from his car. "Hats off to this 42 team. We unloaded and we had good two or three lap speed but no longer on pace. Proud of them for the effort they put in yesterday and what they were able to find, and pitting there at that last deal, I knew I couldn't win from where I was at. We came and got two and helped us out. Hats off to the whole 42 team. Proud of the effort."

Noah Gragson, who finished 17th in the event after suffering from power steering issues, will be the final driver to advance to the NASCAR All-Star Race, as he was revealed to be the fan vote winner for the third consecutive season.

Gragson expressed his gratitude to his loyal fans, and says they have a great car if they can cure the power steering issues before the All-Star Main Event kicks off.

"Well, you guys are the GOATs," Gragson said to his fans. "It's awesome to be a part of this All-Star Race.

"I feel like we have a pretty good car," Gragson admitted. "We struggled yesterday really hard in practice. Qualified well. The pit crew did an unbelievable job, but really struggled with the balance. Thank God for open race power, because I feel like we got the balance pretty good. But we ran into power steering issues. Hopefully, we get that cleaned up for the race. But the car actually feels pretty fast."

Ty Dillon, the driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, narrowly missed out on making it into the All-Star Race with an impassioned third-place run. Dillon was followed across the line by Erik Jones and Michael McDowell, who rounded out the top-10 finishers of the NASCAR All-Star Open.

Two drivers suffered heartbreaking defeats in the Open.

Shane van Gisbergen, who started from the pole, and led the opening 54 laps of the race, lost the lead when his team chose to take four tires on their pit stop during the competition caution.

Once SVG was mired in sixth, he could never really recover, and after a last-ditch effort to move forward, van Gisbergen was caught up in some late-race scuffles, which led to a disappointing 13th-place finish.

"Yeah, I don't know whether to smile or cry," van Gisbergen said after the race. "It's been a dismal year for us, but I feel like we're getting better every week, and this shows it. It was awesome to lead some laps. WeatherTech Chevy was really good. And I was out front and driving like a grandma. It felt like, it was easy. But still I felt like the tires were going to go off. So [crew chief] Stephen [Doran] discussed it. We took four [tires]."

While van Gisbergen's race was derailed during the competition caution pit stop, Ryan Preece found himself in the second position late in the race. However, on a restart following a Lap 79 caution for Riley Herbst being turned into the Turn 3 wall by Michael McDowell, Preece found trouble.

When it was time to choose a restart lane, Preece clipped the choose cone box, which is painted on the track. That is a violation, and it resulted in Preece being sent to the rear in his No. 60 RFK Racing Ford. As a result, Preece would finish 11th.

"I mean, it's really non-existent from inside the car," Preece said of the choose box. "You can't see it. So, I just hooked a hard left going across the line, figuring it was in that area. And then I started getting to cleaning my tires, because as you can see, there's a lot of rubber caked up here. What are you going to do? I'm frustrated."