Hocevar, Nemechek advance to All-Star Race; Gragson wins fan vote

Carson Hocevar, John Hunter Nemechek and Noah Gragson are the final three drivers who will fill out the NASCAR All-Star Race field at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Hocevar and Nemechek were the top two finishers in the All-Star Open, which advanced them into the main event. Hocevar took the lead off pit road under the competition caution. He led until the end of the race – 46 of 100 laps.

“It’s super big for this group, this team,” Hocevar said. “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 were still pretty quick. Hopefully, we can take advantage of it.

“[Kasey Kahne and others have won the All-Star Race] from the Open, so maybe we can take that advantage of having this notebook and move forward early and take this Indiana Fever/Gainbridge Chevy up front.”

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Nemechek worked his way to second place on lap 90. He took the position from Bubba Wallace.

Gragson, meanwhile, finished 17th in the 18-car field with a power steering issue. However, he was voted the fan vote winner for the third consecutive year.

“Heck yeah, we have a shot to go win a million dollars,” Nemechek said. “Hats off to this No. 41 team. We unloaded and we had good two or three lap speed but no long run pace. Proud of them for the effort they put in yesterday and what they were able to find, and pitting there all into the last deal. I knew I couldn’t win from where I was at, and we came and got two tires, and it helped us out.”

Shane van Gisbergen started on the pole for the Open. He led the first 55 laps, but the Kiwi came off pit road in sixth position as the first on four new tires. The top five all took two tires and inherited the track position.

The race restarted on lap 59 with Hocevar ahead of Ty Gibbs. Ryan Preece made a steady charge to the front and was running second, in a transfer spot, when the second and final caution came out on lap 78 when Riley Herbst bounced off the wall after contact from Michael McDowell.

Preece was set to lineup on the front row alongside Hocevar. However, NASCAR penalized him for running over the choose box, and Preece was sent to the rear of the field.

Hocevar maintained the lead on the lap 84 restart and drove away. Wallace quickly moved into second position but could not hold off Nemechek and his teammate, Erik Jones.

The finishing order was Hocevar over Nemechek and then Ty Dillon, Jones, McDowell, Zane Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Wallace, Cole Custer, and Herbst.