Kyle Larson shines in NASCAR All-Star Race

Kyle Larson seems to have a knack for winning the NASCAR All-Star Race in odd-numbered years. After winning in 2019 and 2021, he scored his third triumph on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway in complete fashion as he started sixteenth but went on to lead 145 of 200 laps including the last for the victory.

Larson took the lead from pole-sitter and Heat #1 winner Daniel Suárez on lap 55 and held it through the halfway point, leading a Drive for Diversity alumni 1–2–3 with Bubba Wallace and Suárez in tow. Had the race stayed green instead of throwing a caution flag for the midway point, Larson probably would have developed a much bigger gap than the already astounding advantage of nearly thirteen seconds on Wallace by the break.

“Friday, we were really bad,” Larson recounted in his post-race press conference. “Yes, I ran the fast lap in practice, but if you look at the thirty-lap average, I was like second to last; we were really bad on Friday. Saturday, we were really bad in the heat race as well: I was super loose in the heat race, like loose everywhere, no grip. So I had not great expectations for tonight. I just didn’t think there was enough that they could do to make me better. I thought we’d run around fifteenth tonight.

“Being a short race, starting where we did, I was like, ‘You can’t pass here.’ But then we fired off, I dropped anchor, I got stuck in the outside lane, kind of settled into second to last or whatever, and just trying to feel my car out, and I’m like, ‘I think I’m alright here,’ like I’m not bad. I just can’t pass, but I was like, ‘My entry is more stable, I can get through the middle all right, my drive-off seems better than yesterday.’ Never did I think we would drive to the lead.

“[…] Once I was picking people off, I was like, ‘Is my car this good or is the tyre disparity the reason why I’m driving through the field?’ So I asked, ‘Is anybody else passing like I am that were on new tyres?’ And they didn’t really say that anybody was. I was like, ‘Wow, shoot, our car is really good here.’

“Then we got to the lead, and I was like, ‘I want to lap as many cars as I can so we don’t have to deal with as many for the final segment.”

Save for Suarez briefly leading during pit stops, Larson never relinquished the top spot for the rest of the race. Although Wallace was able to narrow the margin, he still lost to Larson by more than four and a half seconds. Wallace’s 23XI Racing team-mate Tyler Reddick followed.

“Came off the leader off pit road, and then knowing how good my car was, I wanted the second segment to play out exactly like it did,” Larson continued. “I just wanted a long run to the end, no drama, and that’s what happened. I was able to kind of manage my stuff throughout the entire—really, the whole run, but my car felt good enough, I could look in my mirror and stretch away from Bubba and push it when I needed to see if I still had lap time in the car, and continued to manage my stuff.

“That last segment went by so fast. Honestly, when I took the checkered flag, I was thinking, ‘Is the format just 200 laps? That was so fast.’ Just cool to dominate like that, and to do it kind of like how you saw people dominate races back in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Larson also won the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday, marking a weekend sweep in NASCAR’s first action at North Wilkesboro since 1996.

Ty Gibbs was the highest finisher of the four who advanced to the All-Star Race after not being locked in prior in ninth. He had won the Pit Crew Challenge on Friday, which allowed him to start on the pole for the All-Star Open where he finished runner-up. Josh Berry, winner of the Open, was one spot ahead in fifteenth. Fan Vote winner Noah Gragson was twenty-third.

Chris Buescher, who won the second heat, placed sixteenth.

The lone race-related caution came on lap 17 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun after a bump from Erik Jones. Jones recovered to finish eighth while Stenhouse was last and four laps down.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	16	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
2	10	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	200	Running
3	20	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	200	Running
4	5	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
5	13	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
7	1	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	21	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	23	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
10	3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
11	18	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	7	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
13	9	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	199	Running
14	12	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	199	Running
15	22	48	Josh Berry*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
16	2	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	199	Running
17	4	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
18	15	29	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	198	Running
19	8	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	198	Running
20	6	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
21	17	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	198	Running
22	14	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
23	24	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	197	Running
24	19	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points

All-Star Open results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	48	Josh Berry*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	100	Running
2	1	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	100	Running
3	9	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	100	Running
4	8	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	100	Running
5	10	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	100	Running
6	16	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	100	Running
7	15	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	100	Running
8	12	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	100	Running
9	3	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	100	Running
10	11	78	Josh Bilicki*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	100	Running
11	4	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	100	Running
12	14	51	Ryan Newman	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	97	Running
13	6	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	97	Running
14	5	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	58	Accident
15	7	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	52	Accident
16	13	13	Chandler Smith*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	49	Accident