Keselowski, Bell split All-Star heat wins at North Wilkesboro

The NASCAR All-Star Race is nearly set after a pair of heat races Saturday evening at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Brad Keselowski starts from the pole in the main event. A win in his heat race continues to give Keselowski and his team a boost going into the $1 million race. Christopher Bell will join Keselowski on the front row for the All-Star Race after winning the second heat race.

Both heat races were the only on-track activity Saturday.

Heat No. 1

Keselowski won the first heat race from the pole and led 74 of the 75 laps.

The RFK Racing driver went largely unchallenged through the first half of the race, leading until the competition caution on lap 31. The field split on strategy under caution. Keselowski stayed on track along with Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, and Josh Berry.

Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were nabbed for speeding on pit road and put at the rear of the field. Blaney quickly made his way through the field and was in contention at the end.

The race restarted on lap 38 and went green until the end. However, Keselowski faced challenges from Reddick, Byron, and Chastain, but held strong in the preferred outside lane while the others failed to make the bottom lane work.

Chastain led the only lap Keselowski didn’t. He prevailed on lap 54 as the two spent multiple laps battling side-by-side.

Once he cleared Chastain for the lead, Keselowski pulled away for the win. Keselowski pulled Chastain and Byron across the finish line. Blaney finished fourth, with Alex Bowman finishing fifth.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Keselowski said of the small victory for his team. “It’s been a good two days for everyone on this No. 6 crew and hopeful the other two cars can have good runs – the heat race and the Open so that we can get a great day for tomorrow. It’s good to be starting up front with the Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang and to be running fast. This is fun.”

Berry finished sixth, Reddick seventh, and Austin Dillon eighth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished ninth among the teams that competed in the race. The one team that did not was Kyle Larson’s No. 5 team, which was not eligible to run in the event with Justin Allgaier as his backup driver.

The finishing results for the first heat race determined the starting lineup for the inside row of the All-Star Race. It puts Chastain in the third starting spot for Sunday night’s event.

Keselowski had already won the pole for the All-Star Race.

“That’s what this is supposed to be,” Keselowski said. “It’s supposed to be a fun race, and I think I ran beside the No. 45, the No. 1 the No. 24 for at least a dozen or maybe two dozen laps. It was a good battle. I’m glad that we came out on top, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be, right?”

Heat No. 2

Bell dominated the second heat and led every green flag lap. He started from pole and drove away from the field in the first 31 laps before the competition caution. He was almost 2s ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe at the caution.

Briscoe then stayed out under caution. He was the only driver who did so.

Bell and Austin Cindric took two tires and were the first two drivers off pit road. The race restarted on lap 40, and Bell quickly reestablished himself at the front.

Briscoe found out that being the only driver without fresh tires was not the way to go when he spun on lap 42. Once he was stuck on the outside, Briscoe was going backward when he was tagged in the left rear by Daniel Suarez off Turn 4.

It was the second and final caution of the race.

The race restarted on lap 47, and Bell again drove away by nearly 2s. Bell went unchallenged to the finish ahead of Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, and Chris Buescher.

“Maybe the Mobil 1 Camry is a million-dollar Camry,” Bell said. “It’s feeling really good. I knew yesterday in practice that if they could get some rear grip in it, I felt like it had a lot of car potential. The guys did an amazing job on making the car better overnight, and it was really refreshing to get out there and cruise those first 30 laps, and then I didn’t know how it was going to work out with Joey having four tires right behind me.

“But this thing was on rails. So, I’m really happy and excited about the opportunity tomorrow.”

Suarez finished sixth and Briscoe finished seventh. Cindric finished eighth, Harrison Burton ninth and Denny Hamlin 10th. Hamlin struggled throughout the race with an ill-handling car that his team will be diagnosing overnight.

Bell led 69 of 75 laps. He will start second in the All-Star Race on Sunday night alongside polesitter Brad Keselowski.

All-Star Race starting lineup:

1.     Brad Keselowski

2.     Christopher Bell

3.     Ross Chastain

4.     Joey Logano

5.     William Byron

6.     Chase Elliott

7.     Ryan Blaney

8.     Kyle Busch

9.     Alex Bowman

10.  Chris Buescher

11.  Josh Berry

12.  Daniel Suarez

13.  Tyler Reddick

14.  Chase Briscoe

15.  Austin Dillon

16.  Austin Cindric

17.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18.  Harrison Burton

19.  Kyle Larson

20.  Denny Hamlin

Larson will start from the rear because he did not qualify his car. The final three spots in the race will be determined in the All-Star Open, where the top two finishers will advance and then the fan vote winner will be announced.