NASCAR All-Star Race starting lineup set after heat races at rainy North Wilkesboro

The NASCAR All-Star Race starting lineup is set.

Daniel Suárez will start on the pole after winning the first heat race on Saturday night, which established the inside line of Sunday’s headline race. Chris Buescher will start on the front row on the outside after winning the second heat race.

Behind them: Joey Logano will be on the inside (P3) with Austin Dillon on the outside (P4).

These drivers are thus the favorites to win the All-Star Race and take home the accompanying $1 million prize.

Saturday’s 60-lap heat races weren’t necessarily the productive learning sessions drivers were counting on. Rain on Saturday afternoon dampened an already slick track and changed the complexion of the runs.

Cars in the first heat race ran on wet-weather tires, which have more grooves and thus have more grip. It also featured a non-competitive pit stop because pit road wasn’t completely dry by the green flag.

Cars in the second heat race ran on “slick” tires (the default tires) for the first half of the race. And then after a few more drizzles, cars were directed to put on wet-weather tires and competed in them in the second half of the race.

Drivers weighed in on competing on the wet track, and they mostly gave positive reviews of the wet-weather tires.

“The tire felt fine,” Chase Elliott told reporters on pit lane. “It was actually going to fall off and stuff. It almost had a better feel than our normal tire deal. So that was interesting.”

He added: “Yesterday in practice I think was probably the most helpful (for learning for tomorrow). But hey, if the race sucks in the first half, maybe we should put on the wet-weathers in the second half and see what happens. I mean, it’s the All-Star Race, so it might be worth a try.”

Denny Hamlin largely agreed with Elliott.

“The slicks are just so hard that they actually didn’t fall off as much as what the rain tires did, and the rain tires ran faster,” Hamlin said. “So we definitely got something. We saw it in Martinsville, and we’re seeing it here: You can run rain-ish tires on dry tracks and eventually have the type of racing that you’re looking for.

“We’re kind of the guinea pigs. But, you know, we think our car is strong in the dry. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll have tomorrow and we’ll show what we got then.”

Hamlin said he is really encouraged that Goodyear “can build a tire that is really fast to start and falls off.”

“We got the blueprint,” he added. “We really should spend the time working on something like this for other short tracks.”

Did Suárez learn anything on his run that he could apply to tomorrow?

“We learned nothing,” he said to a rise of laughs, right after the first heat race and right before the beginning of the second one. “We learned absolutely nothing. I just hope it rains again so these guys can have the same amount of fun that we had and learn nothing as well.”

He got his wish on Saturday.

Will he Sunday night?

Starting lineup for All-Star Race (without All-Star Open results)

Results have been updated with the All-Star Open winner, the All-Star Open runner-up and the Fan Vote.

This story was originally published May 20, 2023 at 8:56 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription