Keselowski, Bell Take Wins in NASCAR All-Star Qualifying Heat Races

Matthew T. Thacker | NKP for Ford Performance

The starting lineup for Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race, aside from the identities of the three drivers who will transfer into the race through the NASCAR All-Star Open, has been set following a pair of Heat Races, which featured vastly different levels of action, at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday afternoon.

STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro

In Heat Race 1, Brad Keselowski was able to back up his performance in Friday's NASCAR All-Star Qualifying Session, which netted the driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse the pole position for Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race.

Keselowski started from the pole in Saturday's race and dominated the event by leading 72 laps to take the win in the 75-lap Heat Race, but it wasn't a breeze by any means. Keselowski found himself in a ton of battles for the top spot, but he utilized the momentum in the high line to keep the race lead and to ultimately take the race win.

"It's definitely not a single groove race track," Keselowski said of North Wilkesboro Speedway, which was repaved heading into last year's All-Star Race weekend. "They were running me real hard, and had good pace. It was a little bit of a dog fight. So, I thought it was great racing."

Under the competition caution near the mid-way point of the race, Keselowski and crew chief Jeremy Bullins opted to remain on the track, while the majority of the nine-car field hit pit road for fresh tires. When the race went back green, Keselowski had to fight tooth and nail to hang onto the race lead.

It wasn't easy, but it was sure fun to watch as Keselowski held off challenge after challenge from Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, and William Byron.

"That's what this is supposed to be, right? It's supposed to be a fun race, and I think I ran beside [Tyler Reddick], [Ross Chastain], and [William Byron] for at least a dozen or maybe two-dozen laps," Keselowski said. "It was a good battle. Glad that we came out on top. That's how it's supposed to be."

Chastain would take home the runner-up spot in Heat Race 1 as he crossed the finish line narrowly ahead of William Byron in a side-by-side race to the finish. Chastain started at the rear of the field, but was able to work his way through the field, and he became the biggest thorn in everybody's side in the closing laps of the race.

Chastain will start Sunday's All-Star Race from the third position, while Byron will start from fifth in the $1-million winner-take-all exhibition event.

Reddick, Austin Dillon, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were the three other drivers in addition to Keselowski, who chose not to pit at the competition caution in Heat Race 1. The decision didn't work out for any of them.

Reddick would finish seventh, Dillon was eighth, and Stenhouse was tail-end of the field in ninth.

NASCAR All-Star Heat Race 1 Results

Fin	Car	Driver	Team	Status
1	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Running
2	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	Running
3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Running
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Running
5	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Running
6	21	Josh Berry	Wood Brothers Racing	Running
7	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Running
8	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Running
9	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	HYAK Motorsports	Running
10	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Did Not Start

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Christopher Bell Claims Second Starting Spot in NASCAR All-Star Race With Heat Race 2 Win

John K Harrelson | LAT Images for Toyota GAZOO Racing

Christopher Bell, like Keselowski, dominated Heat Race 2 from the pole position and took a win to secure the second-place starting spot for Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race.

Bell is excited at the prospect of beginning Sunday's $1 million race with great track position, but he knows strategy and things of that nature will likely jumble the running order all race long in the NASCAR All-Star Race.

"Yeah, it seems like [track position] is really important. We have a really, really good Mobil 1 Camry, and it's about as good as I could ask for right now. It's handling really well, and seems like it's really fast," Bell said. "Got the track position to start. There's going to be a lot of flipping track position throughout the course of the day tomorrow, and I would be really surprised if someone is able to just stay up front and lead the race."

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 69 of 75 laps in Heat Race 2, but took a bit of a different path to the win than the driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Under the competition caution at Lap 30, Bell hit pit road and took right side tires, which won him the race off of pit road, but he would actually lose the lead of the race with the call.

Chase Briscoe and his crew chief James Small were the lone driver/crew chief combo that opted to go with the Brad Keselowski strategy from Heat Race 1, and remained on the track as the rest of the nine cars in the field came to pit road.

As a result, Briscoe inherited the lead, but the call didn't pan out for Briscoe like it did for Keselowski, who won Heat Race 1.

Briscoe immediately lost the race lead to Bell on the restart, and on Lap 42, Briscoe was sent spinning after contact deep in the field as everyone was trying to get around Briscoe's ultra-slow No. 19 Toyota.

Ultimately, Briscoe would go on to record a seventh-place finish in Heat Race 2.

As Briscoe was busy recovering from his spin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bell put his foot down on the floorboard, and pulled away from the competition as he won over Joey Logano by a margin of victory of 2.085 seconds.

After seeing one driver capture a Heat Race win on old tires, and another driver capturing a win with two fresh tires, it begs the question of whether pit road strategy will heavily factor into Sunday's All-Star Race win.

Bell, who won Heat Race 2, thinks if someone is going to stay on track with old tires on Sunday, it will be critical to not relinquish the lead.

"Last year, I know it was a little bit different tire, but Joey [Logano] won the race by staying out. Blaney ran second by staying out. Larson maybe was third by pitting. And I was on the same strategy with Joey, and ended up finishing last," Bell recalled. "So, it seems like if you stay out, you really, really need to keep the lead. And it seems like we saw the first thing in Heat Race 1."

We'll see how much of a difference tires play in Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race, but in Saturday's Heat Races they seemed to truly matter for everyone other than Brad Keselowski, who was able to hang onto the lead on his older tires.

Finishing behind the top-two in Heat Race 2 were Chase Elliott in third, and Kyle Busch, who would end the race in fourth.

NASCAR All-Star Heat Race 2 Results

Fin	Car	Driver	Team	Status
1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Running
2	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Running
3	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Running
4	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Running
5	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Running
6	99	Daniel Suarez	Trackhouse Racing	Running
7	19	Chase Briscoe	Joe Gibbs Racing	Running
8	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Running
9	51	Harrison Burton	Rick Ware Racing	Running
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Running