NASCAR All-Star Race Returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway for Third Consecutive Year – Speedway Digest
North Wilkesboro, NC – The NASCAR All-Star Race, one of the sport’s most prestigious exhibition events, returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18, 2025, marking the third straight year the historic short track hosts the 41st running of the $1 million spectacle. As the eighth time the All-Star Race ventures outside its traditional home […]
North Wilkesboro, NC – The NASCAR All-Star Race, one of the sport’s most prestigious exhibition events, returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18, 2025, marking the third straight year the historic short track hosts the 41st running of the $1 million spectacle. As the eighth time the All-Star Race ventures outside its traditional home at Charlotte Motor Speedway, anticipation is high for a thrilling showcase of NASCAR’s top talent.
A Star-Studded Field
Twenty-three drivers are set to compete in the 250-lap main event, with 20 already qualified based on their status as 2024 or 2025 race winners, past All-Star Race winners, or full-time NASCAR Cup Series champions. Three additional drivers will transfer from the 100-lap All-Star Open, including the top two finishers and the winner of the fan vote, a title claimed by Noah Gragson in 2023 and 2024. Harrison Burton stands out as the only driver making his All-Star Race debut, adding a fresh face to the high-stakes competition.
The field boasts six past All-Star Race winners: Kyle Larson (2019, 2021, 2023), Joey Logano (2016, 2024), Ryan Blaney (2022), Chase Elliott (2020), Kyle Busch (2017), and Denny Hamlin (2015). Larson, with three wins in the last six years, is tied for the second-most All-Star victories behind Jimmie Johnson’s four. Logano, fresh off his 2024 triumph, carries momentum with a record-setting streak of 10 consecutive top-10 finishes in the event.
Hendrick and Penske Dominate
Recent history favors Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske, who have split the last five All-Star Races. Hendrick’s 11 victories lead all organizations, with Larson and Elliott contributing to their recent success. Penske’s Logano and Blaney have kept pace, securing Ford’s three wins in the last seven races. Meanwhile, Toyota remains winless since 2017, with Chevrolet claiming four victories in the same span.
Format and Storylines
The 2025 All-Star Race format features 250 laps with a mandatory caution around lap 100 and a promotional caution option before lap 220, ensuring strategic pit stops and restarts. Qualifying for both the All-Star Heat Races and the Open includes a unique three-lap session with a four-tire pit stop on lap two, doubling as the Pit Crew Challenge. Christopher Bell’s No. 20 crew, winners of the $100,000 bonus and trophy in 2023 and 2024, are favored to three-peat, having posted times of 13.012 and 13.223 seconds, respectively.
Two 75-lap Heat Races set the All-Star Race starting lineup, with Heat 1 determining the inside row and Heat 2 the outside. The All-Star Open offers a 100-lap path for non-qualified drivers, with cautions around lap 50 and overtime rules in play. The pole position has proven advantageous, producing seven All-Star Race wins, including Logano’s 2024 victory and Larson’s 2021 triumph.
Championship Implications
The All-Star Race has become a harbinger of championship success, with the winner capturing the Cup Series title in three of the last five years and 13 times overall. All nine winners since 2016 are Cup champions, raising the stakes for drivers like Larson, Logano, and Blaney. Brad Keselowski, however, remains a driver to watch. With 16 All-Star starts and three runner-up finishes—tied for the most without a win—he’s due for a breakthrough.
North Wilkesboro’s Revival
North Wilkesboro Speedway, revitalized after years of dormancy, has embraced its role as the All-Star Race host since 2023. The track’s gritty, short-track racing style has produced memorable moments, though rain canceled the 2023 Heat Races, where Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher claimed victories. Fans and drivers alike praise the facility’s blend of nostalgia and modern upgrades, making it a fitting stage for NASCAR’s showcase event.
As the 2025 All-Star Race approaches, all eyes are on whether Larson can add a fourth win, if Logano can extend his top-10 streak, or if a new face like Burton can steal the spotlight. With a $1 million prize, a passionate fanbase, and championship implications, North Wilkesboro is poised to deliver another unforgettable chapter in NASCAR history.
Blaney looking for another win at Pocono – Scranton Times-Tribune
James Gilbert/Getty Images Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Wabash Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.com at Pocono Raceway on July 14, 2024 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) Ryan Blaney stands atop his car and celebrates with the […]
Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Wabash Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.com at Pocono Raceway on July 14, 2024 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
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Pocono Raceway will always hold special meaning for Ryan Blaney.
It was the site of Blaney’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory in 2017. And then he won again there last year.
“I love the area, I love the race track. That place means a lot to me,” Blaney said in a telephone interview. “Places where you have your first win, success, stuff like that, they always mean a little more. So I look forward to getting back there.”
That happens this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Pocono for The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM. It is part of a tripleheader at the 2.5-mile triangular track in Long Pond that includes the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Miller Tech Battery 200 on Friday and the NASCAR Xfinity Series Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 on Saturday.
Last year, Blaney started eighth in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, used pit strategy to gain track position and led the final 44 laps to take the checkered flag.
“We had great speed all weekend and our strategy was incredibly good to where we could just focus on how do we get to the front, how do we stay there,” Blaney said. “We did a great job of that. That part is always super important. We just hit it right and hopefully we can hit it right again.”
Besides the two wins, Blaney also has one pole, a fifth-place finish, two sixths and two 10ths in 15 Pocono starts. He ran two Truck Series races there as well with a win in 2013 and a fifth-place in 2014.
With its three different corners, Pocono presents a unique challenge to drivers. Blaney said you are not going to be fantastic in all three, so it’s a choice of where you want to be your best.
He puts his focus on Turns 1 and 3.
“I want to be really good (there) and then I’ll just kind of deal with the tunnel (turn),” Blaney said. “Everyone’s a little different, but those two corners are most important because they lead to some really good passing zones.
“It’s hard to be good in (Turns) 1 and 3 . (Turn) 1 is pretty banked and a little sharper than Turn 3. Turn 3 is long, flat, got a gradual corner. Turn 3 has always been No. 1 important to me, then Turn 1 is second-most important and then the tunnel (turn) third. With that long front straightaway, you need to be good off that corner because it can really bite you if you struggle over there to be able to pass or maintain a position if you’re battling somebody.”
Restarts at Pocono also are key. The front straightaway is the longest in NASCAR at 3,740 feet and is 60 to 100 feet wide. On restarts, drivers will fan out four-, five-, even six-wide, then have to quickly funnel in line heading into turn 1.
“When you have a lot of room, guys just try to find the best way to try to navigate through there and get the clean air or the best position possible,” Blaney said. “The restarts are always important. You’d better make sure you’re on the offensive. If you’re on the defensive, you’re kind of going backwards. So it’s a lot of timing your runs on the restarts. And then, do you try to push somebody? Do you try to get somebody behind you to push you? It just kind of all depends. But they get pretty wild and you hope you’re going forward and not get swallowed up.”
This season has been up and down for Blaney. He ranks fourth in laps led with 346, but has endured crashes and engine failures that led to five finishes of 32nd or worse. He does have a victory — three weeks ago at Nashville — along with six top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 16 races.
“Some of the finishes that we’ve not been able to get definitely stink,” Blaney said. “But that’s just kind of the way it goes. You focus on the positives and the positives are we’ve been really fast. That’s the toughest thing to find – the speed in the car. Hopefully it smooths out for us. It was nice to get that win at Nashville. It’s been a rocky year, but I feel really good about it because our speed is there. Hopefully we can keep that through the year and when the playoffs start.”
Practice and qualifying for The Great American Getaway 400 is Saturday. The 160-lap race gets the green flag Sunday at 2 p.m. It will be televised on Amazon Prime.
NASCAR AT POCONO SCHEDULE
Friday: Craftsman Truck Series practice, 12:35-1:30 p.m.; qualifying, 1:40-2:30 p.m.; Miller Tech Battery 200, 5 p.m.
Saturday: Xfinity Series practice, 10-10:55 a.m.; Xfinity qualifying, 11:05 a.m.-noon; Cup Series practice, 12:35-1:35 p.m.; Cup qualifying, 1:45-2:30 p.m.; Xfinity Explore the Pocono Mountains 250, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday: Cup Series, The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM, 2 p.m.
Candy Dynamics Continues NASCAR Partnership With Brennan Poole
Indianapolis, IN — Candy Dynamics is continuing its partnership with NASCAR driver Brennan Poole for the 2025 season. The company’s Toxic Waste Hazardously Sour Candy brand will be featured on the driver’s car for three races during the season. The company says Poole is a sour candy […]
Indianapolis, IN — Candy Dynamics is continuing its partnership with NASCAR driver Brennan Poole for the 2025 season. The company’s Toxic Waste Hazardously Sour Candy brand will be featured on the driver’s car for three races during the season.
The company says Poole is a sour candy fanatic and has been a fan of the brand since his youth.
The Toxic Waste brand will be featured on the car at these 2025 races:
The Loop 110 in Chicago, IL (July 5, 2025)
Pennzoil 250 in Indianapolis, IN (July 26, 2025)
NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Race in Martinsville, VA (October 25, 2025)
“This is the biggest partnership with Toxic Waste yet,” says Poole. “To me, it’s more than a sponsorship. I feel so close to the Toxic Waste brand.”
The company will also sample at racetracks across the country.
“We have always dreamed of seeing a Toxic Waste car on track at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” says Laura King, president of Candy Dynamics. She notes the dream became a reality in 2023 when the brand partnered with Poole for a single NASCAR race in Indianapolis. In 2024, Candy Dynamics sponsored Poole for The Loop 110 as part of the Chicago Street Race. “The atmosphere at this race was electric, and we knew we needed to pursue it further,” King adds.
NASCAR in Pocono: Key information, links, results throughout race weekend
The NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck series are in action this weekend for a tripleheader at Pocono Raceway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more. NASCAR Cup Series Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The […]
The NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck series are in action this weekend for a tripleheader at Pocono Raceway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
NASCAR Cup Series
Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
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Tires: Seven sets for the race (six race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying).
Entry list Qualifying Order Practice Results Practice Lap Averages Practice Lap Times Qualifying Results Pit Stalls Stage 1 Results Stage 2 Results Race Results
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race day: Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Five sets for the event.
Entry list Qualifying Order Practice Results Practice Lap Averages Practice Lap Times Qualifying Results Pit Stalls Stage 1 Results Stage 2 Results Race Results
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Race day: Friday at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Five sets for the event
Entry list Qualifying Order Practice Results Practice Lap Averages Practice Lap Times Qualifying Results Pit Stalls Stage 1 Results Stage 2 Results Race Results
Big Rigs & Long Trips — NASCAR’s Real Road Warriors
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — After last Sunday’s inaugural Viva Mexico 250 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, NASCAR Cup Series crew members were back in their respective homes by Monday night, most in time for dinner. Chris Avery, meanwhile, had just crossed back into the United States. Home was still another 20 hours away. […]
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — After last Sunday’s inaugural Viva Mexico 250 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, NASCAR Cup Series crew members were back in their respective homes by Monday night, most in time for dinner.
Chris Avery, meanwhile, had just crossed back into the United States. Home was still another 20 hours away.
Avery drives the 18-wheeler for Rick Ware Racing that carries the team’s No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to all 38 races on the Cup Series schedule. He departed Mexico City a few hours after the checkered flag dropped to begin his 1,974-mile trek back to RWR’s NASCAR facility in Concord, N.C.
“Time-wise, this was our longest trip of the season,” Avery said. “When we go out to Sonoma, California, that’s actually our longest trip mileage-wise, but this one was more involved because of the border crossing and just traveling in another country.”
The Cup Series’ race in Mexico City was its first international points-paying event in 67 years. There was some teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing when it came to the logistics of moving NASCAR’s small city to and from Mexico City in between the June 8 race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and this Sunday’s race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, a route which will total nearly 5,000 miles.
Avery, however, already had a good idea of what to expect. He drove racing transporters internationally, specifically, all across Europe for teams competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“I’ve been driving for about 25 years,” Avery said. “I’ve done a lot of work in sportscar racing, and I had the chance to travel all over the world. Matter of fact, 20 years ago, we won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
Avery was the transporter driver for Champion Racing, which won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans with drivers J.J. Lehto, Marco Werner and Tom Kristensen in an Audi R8.
Ironically, Champion Racing was the last customer team to win the twice-around-the-clock endurance race until this past weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, AF Corse, stood atop the podium with its No. 83 Ferrari and drivers Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Philip Hanson.
Chris Avery (RWR photo)
“We started with right-hand drive trucks, and that was a little bit interesting and took some getting used to. Eventually, we got left-hand drive trucks and that definitely felt more natural,” Avery said.
How does one break into the world of hauling millions of dollars of racing equipment to events in the United States and abroad?
“As a kid, I watched races with my dad, and he was always a Bill Elliott fan, and a big Ford fan,” said Avery, who grew up in New Bern, North Carolina. “With that always in my head, I eventually got a job hauling showcars for a motorsports marketing agency, Cotter Promotions. Starting in 1997, I drove a big dually pickup all over the country, and one of the cars I hauled was for Cale Yarborough Motorsports. I was able to work with the team at some of the races. I worked my butt off and proved myself to them, and they invited me back to help some more and I became their hauler driver in ‘98.”
Driving a show car hauler while operating with an always-on mentality earned Avery the nickname “Showtime.” He eventually transitioned away from Cale Yarborough Motorsports and pivoted to sportscar racing, where he did more than just drive.
“My wife and I created a trucking logistics company that specialized in motorsports,” Avery said. “For European teams coming to the U.S. to race, we operated their haulers. From the paperwork needed to get their equipment into the states to actually driving their trucks to races, we did it all.”
Avery returned to NASCAR in 2022, driving the Wood Brothers Racing transporter. He moved to Spire Motorsports in 2024 and joined RWR ahead of the 2025 season. His worldly background prepared him well for this Michigan-to-Mexico-to Pocono journey.
“The prep for Mexico started in January,” Avery said. “There were numerous – more than I can even explain – emails between NASCAR and the teams just to make sure that we had all of our paperwork and all of our manifests. And the paperwork was probably the single largest endeavor, which took months to get through, making sure everybody had passports, making sure everybody was cleared through customs, not only going into Mexico, but getting back into the United States too.
“Then, about a month out, we were looking more at the individual logistics of everything we needed to do. We put plans in place to make sure that when we got to Michigan to do our swap out, everything that needed to go on the hauler to Mexico actually made it onto the hauler, that every ‘T’ was crossed and every ‘I’ was dotted, so that we could be as efficient as possible, because there truly wasn’t any time to waste. We had to get on the road as quickly as we could out of Michigan and focus on the logistics of physically getting to Mexico.”
Avery and his hauler-driving counterparts made it to Mexico City on time, just like they manage to do week-in and week-out during the longest season in all of professional sports. With experience in their back pockets, returning to the United States was even quicker.
“As soon as we hit the U.S. border, it was standard operating procedure,” Avery said. “We have a day-and-a-half turnaround at the shop and we’ll be back on the road to Pocono on Thursday.”
The long hours, exacting details and tight timelines don’t faze Avery. After all, it is the routine of a NASCAR hauler driver.
“We’re the first ones to leave the shop. We’re the last ones to get back to the shop. Every morning when we’re at the race track, we’re the first one in the gate. I’m the one at the hauler every week. I make sure that the generator’s on, the coffee pot’s got fresh coffee in it, and I try to be standing at the back door to greet the guys as they show up to walk in the door every single week, every day of every weekend, that we’re out racing,” Avery said.
“Here in the Cup Series, the level of professionalism that these guys have, all of these hauler drivers, is second to none. I’ve never worked with a better, close-knit group of guys that are willing to do what they can to help you, regardless of what team you’re affiliated with.”
Avery has already driven more than 22,000 miles this year as the season hits its halfway mark this weekend at Pocono. There are still many more miles ahead of him, with an estimated year-end tally of 68,000 miles.
“You’ve got to love racing to do this and make a career out of it,” Avery said. “I’m also lucky in that I have a very supportive wife who knows racing and understands its demands, especially as it relates to trucking. Gina keeps me grounded and organized at home so I can do my job seamlessly out here on the road.
“I love what I do and I’m going to do it until I get to the point that either I can’t or I’m not good at it.”
26-year-old Justin Haley hoping to break long NASCAR drought at Pocono this weekend | Sports
LONG POND, Pa. – Ten races remain before the playoffs as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend. Justin Haley drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 26-year-old Haley earned his lone Cup Series win in 2019 driving the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet at […]
LONG POND, Pa. – Ten races remain before the playoffs as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend.
Justin Haley drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 26-year-old Haley earned his lone Cup Series win in 2019 driving the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway.
Haley has gone 157 races since winning a Cup race, the longest streak among active drivers who have won in the series.
“I think we all like Pocono,” Haley said. “I think its a fun racetrack for us and we just kind of drive it. The three corners, the engineers and crew chief can worry about, on how to make it drive good. It’s tough, but when you have good cars there, its a pretty good place.”
The main event for the four days of racing at the Tricky Triangle is scheduled for Sunday when the 160-lap Great American Getaway 400 NASCAR Cup Series Race gets underway at 2 p.m.
CONCORD, N.C. — Margins in NASCAR have never been smaller. Whether it’s the leveling effect of the Next Gen car or the evolving technological arms race among teams, the Cup Series has never been tighter. And as parity grows, so does the need to uncover even the slightest competitive advantage. That’s where artificial intelligence comes […]
CONCORD, N.C. — Margins in NASCAR have never been smaller.
Whether it’s the leveling effect of the Next Gen car or the evolving technological arms race among teams, the Cup Series has never been tighter. And as parity grows, so does the need to uncover even the slightest competitive advantage.
That’s where artificial intelligence comes in.
From performance analysis to data visualizations, AI is playing an increasingly pivotal role in how race teams operate across the NASCAR garage. Teams are using AI not just to crunch numbers, but also to make quicker decisions, generate strategic insights — and even rewrite the way they approach race weekends.
“It just builds a little bit more each year,” said Josh Sell, RFK Racing’s competition director. “We’re doing more now than we were a year ago. And we’ll probably be doing more a year from now than we are sitting here right now. It just continues to evolve.”
ASK BETTER QUESTIONS
The rise of AI in NASCAR mirrors the broader tech world.
Early large language models — or LLMs — were trained to answer basic questions. But now, they can cite sources, detect tone and reason through complex decisions. That opens up a new world for how teams evaluate everything from strategy calls to post-race feedback.
For example, a full race’s worth of driver and crew radio chatter can be fed into an AI model that not only identifies which calls worked and which didn’t, but also interprets tone and urgency in real time.
“Information is speed in this game nowadays,” said Tom Gray, technical director at Hendrick Motorsports. “He who can distill the information quicker and get to the decision quicker, ultimately, is going to have the race win. “
FINDING THE TIME
AI is also helping teams develop talent and streamline operations.
Even if someone on the team isn’t an expert in a particular field, AI can help them learn new skills faster. That’s especially important in the highly specialized Cup Series garage — and it could help smaller teams close the gap with bigger operations.
RFK Racing, now a three-car Cup Series team, is already seeing those benefits.
AI helps reduce the hours team members spend manually analyzing photos or videos. Instead of having a crew chief sort through everything, the software flags the most relevant material and delivers it quickly. On the technical side, the team is also using tools like ChatGPT to assist with software development, solving coding problems in various languages and freeing up engineers to focus on execution.
“It’s trying to figure out ways where, instead of having a crew chief spending three hours studying whatever it might be — photos, videos — if we can shorten that to an hour of really impactful time,” Sell said. “Looking at things that are important to them, not searching to find those things. That’s the biggest gain we see, and certainly whether it’s through the week or on race weekends, time is our limiting factor.
“You have a finite amount of time from the time practice ends to when the race starts. What you’re able to do to maximize the efficiency of that time is kind of a race in and of itself.”
VISUAL DATA
At Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in Cup Series history, AI is being used both to look ahead and to look back.
The team now works closely with Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a relationship that began after Prime Video sponsored one of its cars. The partnership has accelerated Hendrick’s use of AI across several key areas.
One of those is visual communication. Engineers are now generating images to help share ideas, whether they’re pitching a new part or breaking down a technical strategy. That ability to visualize complex concepts instantly helps everyone stay aligned and efficient.
Hendrick is also leveraging its four decades of data. The team can now go back and test old strategies, setups and decisions using AI to predict how past insights might inform future success.
“We’ve had a long history in the sport,” Gray said. “Not only can we look forward, but we can also look backward, back-test all the information we have, and see how that predicts the future.”