From the North Wilkesboro Speedway

The NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 18, added two first-time participants – winner Carson Hocevar and runner-up John Hunter Nemechek – through the All-Star Open on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Noah Gragson qualified for his third All-Star Race start by winning the Fan Vote for the third consecutive year.

Hocevar, though, felt like the real winner. The Spire Motorsports driver assumed the point after pole winner Shane van Gisbergen dominated the opening 50 laps, but pitted for four tires under a caution period and never recovered the track position.

Hocevar used a quick two-tire stop, clean air and a strong car to keep all comers at bay, while a slew of contenders fought it out for the second transfer spot. Nemechek’s Legacy Motor Club team opted to take four tires under a late caution for Riley Herbst’s spin, and used the improved grip to catch and pass Bubba Wallace for second. Wallace faded to eighth on old tires.

Ty Dillon ended up third with Erik Jones fourth and Michael McDowell fifth. Gragson advanced after finishing 17th.

CARSON HOCEVAR, NO. 77 SPIRE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (Race Winner): “Super big for this group, this team. It’s great to win, especially being challenged by tires there. 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.”

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, NO. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB TOYOTA (Runner-Up): “We have a shot to go win a million dollars. Hats off to this No. 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 (tires) and that helped us out. Hats off to the whole 42 team. Proud of the effort.”

NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 4 FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS FORD (Fan Vote Winner): “The fans are the GOATs. It’s awesome to be part of this All-Star Race. Thank God for that Open race, because I feel like we got the balance fixed.”

All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers currently sit inside the top eight of the Cup Series standings, thanks to their consistent runs and trips to victory lane. That form seemed to take some of the pressure off heading into the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, which the team treated more as a tune-up than a must-win event, according to Alex Bowman.

Three of the HMS cars cracked the top six by the end of the night, though Kyle Larson faded to a P21 finish after showing early pace and leading five laps.

Bowman led the charge for the team, bringing his #48 home in fourth after starting ninth. Reflecting on the performance, he credited his crew for digging deep. “We were so bad yesterday and the guys made the right adjustments,” Bowman said. “Our hands are pretty tied on what we can or can’t change, and they made a lot of really good calls to take us from struggling pretty bad to at least having a shot at it there at the end.”

Though a fourth-place result in a non-points race doesn’t move the needle in the standings, Bowman acknowledged the improvement was a step forward. “I think we certainly came here just to try to learn things. It pays $1 million, but honestly, winning a regular Cup race, with the playoff implications and everything, it adds up to more than that. So yeah, just came here to learn.”

Chase Elliott, who crossed the line right behind Bowman, admitted he wished he had been in the mix for the win, calling it a strong race for track position.

He noted the event ran smoother than last year’s edition and felt his #9 Chevy was competitive, just a tick off the pace needed to win. “We were in the mix, but we just needed a little bit more [pace] to be there with Joey [Logano] and Christopher [Bell],” Elliott said.

William Byron also tipped his cap to the entire HMS lineup but pointed out that his #24 team needs to keep chipping away. “We were good to start the weekend and good to start the race, but it just seemed like it kind of went away on us,” Byron said. While he admitted he didn’t expect to walk away with the win, he felt they were at least in the ballpark. Overall, he was content with the performance but knew there is more work to be done.

The checkered flag is out for the NASCAR All-Star Race, featuring the best Cup Series drivers in the sport.

Joey Logano is the winner of the All-Star Race on May 18 North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. This is Bell’s first All-Star Race victory in five attempts. Bell has three regular season victories in winning three-straight races earlier this season.

Advertisement

Bell passed defending race winner and Cup Series champion, Joey Logano, with 10 laps to go and drove away to secure the victory.

The All-Star Race had five cautions for 32 laps and 18 lead changes.

Bell and Brad Keselowski won their respective heat races on May 17 and started on the front row, with Keselowski starting on pole position.

Carson Hocevar won the All-Star Open on May 18 to transfer into the main event. John Hunter Nemechek finished second in the Open and Noah Gragson won the fan vote for the final transfer spot.

Here are the results from the NASCAR All-Star Race.

LEGEND OF L.W. WRIGHT: The long Talladega con: After getting a black flag, would LW Wright outrun the law?

Advertisement

LW WRIGHT PART TWO: The long Talladega con: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk?

LW WRIGHT PART ONE: The long Talladega con: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR’s fastest track

HOW IT HAPPENED: NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro: Live updates, highlights, leaderboard in Cup Series

Who won NASCAR All-Star Race? Winner, race results for North Wilkesboro Cup Series race

The unofficial full running order, results from NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

1. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

2. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford

3. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

4. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

5. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

6. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

7. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota

8. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

9. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

10. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

11. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

12. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

13. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford

14. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 HYAK Motorsports Chevrolet

16. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford

17. Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford

18. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford

19. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota

20. Harrison Burton, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford

21. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

22. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

23. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR All-Star Race results: Christopher Bell is winner Sunday

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A rookie driver for a brand new team won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 on a strange day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Team Penske was disqualified before the final two rounds of qualifying.

Robert Shwartzman, a 25-year-old with dual nationality in Israel and Russia, became the first Indy 500 rookie to qualify on the pole since 1983 when he did it for Prema Racing.

The last rookie to qualify on the Indy 500 pole was Teo Fabi. Coincidentally, he was an Italian — just like Prema, which also was founded in ’83. Prema is established in Europe and races in the Formula 2 series. It made its IndyCar debut this season.

Shwartzman initially raced under the Russian flag until the start of the war with Ukraine. He now races under the Israeli flag, which makes the Tel Aviv native the first driver from Israel to make “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Prema is the first team making its debut in the Indy 500 to land on the pole since Mayer Motor Racing put Tom Sneva there in 1984.

Shwartzman, who has never before raced on an oval, was mobbed by a sea of red-clad team members as soon as his pole-winning run became official.

“Honestly it feels like I’m dreaming. I just had it in my dreams when I was going how would it feel to do such a good job in quali,” he said. “It’s the Indy 500. It’s the main race of the year. Honestly it feels unbelievable.”

Shwartzman had been pursuing a career in Formula 1 and was part of the Ferrari development program as well as its reserve driver from 2021 until the end of last season — when Prema nabbed him for its two-car team.

He was the fourth of six drivers to make their qualifying attempt and took the pole from Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan. But he still had to wait for Pato O’Ward of McLaren and Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing to make their runs, and he nervously watched from pit lane.

O’Ward went first and landed in the third spot and Rosenqvist dropped to fifth, sandwiched in the second row between Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Alex Palou. It was a strange finishing order as the Ganassi cars were expected to battle each other for the top starting spot in next Sunday’s race.

“Rookie on pole with Shwartzman — how wild does that get? New team. I didn’t see that coming at all,” said 2008 winner Dixon.

The pole was wide open for the taking first when Team Penske was disqualified from qualifying for an illegal modification on the cars of two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin destroyed his car in a Sunday morning crash during practice.

The three Penske drivers all started on the front row last year, but will be 10th, 11th and 12th in the fourth row together next weekend. That put the odds in Ganassi’s favor, but they had a surprising drop in speed from Saturday to Sunday.

So then Sato, in his first race in nearly a year, sat atop the scoring pylon until Shwartzman’s shocking run.

“I don’t even know what to say. The car felt amazing,” he said, “Coming here for my first oval race, I couldn’t even expect to be in this position. Big thanks to everyone. Big thanks to the fans cheering for me. It’s unbelievable.”

Shwartzman’s engineer is Eric Leichtle, who spent a season with Team Penske as the engineer for Newgarden in 2022. Leichtle left motorsports and spent the past two years working for SpaceX as a senior structures engineer.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Carolina Handling Partners With Spire At Talladega Race

Earlier this afternoon, David Ragan made a demonstration run for fans at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the Ford Mustang Mach-E NASCAR Prototype.  It marked the first time this demonstrator vehicle appeared on an oval in front of fans.  Ragan completed a handful of laps that included a standstill start using the car’s ‘launch mode and a brief pause with braking to help recharge the battery.  He ended the session with a burnout down the frontstretch.

This is the ninth vehicle in the Ford Performance EV Demonstrator portfolio, which includes the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck that won last year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  The Ford Mustang Mach-E NASCAR Prototype has the same chassis and safety components as the current NASCAR Cup Series Mustang.  It’s equipped with three motors, one in the front and two in the rear, and is capable of producing 1360 horsepower.

DAVID RAGAN, Driver, Ford Mustang Mach-E NASCAR Prototype – HOW DID THAT DEMONSTRATION RUN GO?  “It was really a quick test session for this Ford Mach-E NASCAR Prototype.  The first time here at North Wilkesboro Speedway and this thing has over 1000 horsepower, so it’s incredible the amount of power that this car has.  It stops really well.  I was trying to get a good burnout at the end without shredding the tires all the way, so that was fun.”

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOW THIS CAR DRIVES VERSUS A CUP CAR?  “The cars really drive similarly in the middle of the corner.  This is the same chassis that the current Cup cars are running with in the Next Gen race car, so the steering, the side force, the handling feels very similar.  Where the Mach-E just outperforms the other car is that pure acceleration.  The amount of torque that it has is incredible and it’s instant torque because being an all-wheel drive car, you’ve got a lot of torque when you’re on the throttle.  When you hit the brakes, it stops on a dime and it’s quiet.  I can hear myself thinking and it’s really weird to hear some of the rubber banging off the inside of the car.  You can hear the tires squealing a little bit, so you don’t have that loud noise to drown yourself out.”

YOU STARTED THE RUN IN SOMETHING CALLED ‘LAUNCH MODE’.  HOW DOES THAT WORK?  “You need to take a look inside the car at the steering wheel.  There are a lot more buttons than I even know what to do with, but there’s a launch mode that revs the electric motor up to a really high RPM and when I release that button the car just instantly goes.  With this being an all-wheel drive Mach-E that has traction control, it sets you back in the seat so you better make sure you’re pointed and you’re going exactly where you want to go.  There’s a lot of acceleration and a lot of bells and whistles on the steering wheel that the driver can play with.”

THIS IS ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF EV DEMONSTRATORS FOR FORD PERFORMANCE.  HOW DOES THIS COMPARE?  “We’re really scratching the surface with the power and the potential with these full EV demonstrators at Ford Performance.  I’ve been a big fan of some of the Pikes Peak Hill Climbs with the SuperVan and F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, so there’s always a lot of new technology rolling out and it’s changing really fast.  I’m really thrilled to see the Mach-E as a part of this because that’s my daily driver.  I love driving it around town, so to see the power on a NASCAR style race car is exciting.  Keep in touch because over the next several months, and certainly later this year, I think we’ve got some really cool things up our sleeves.”

Ford Performance PR