Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski Score All-Star Heat Race wins at North Wilkesboro

North Wilkesboro, NC-Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell each achieved dominant wins in Saturday’s Heat Races in North Wilkesboro Speedway and will start on the front row for Sunday night’s All-Star race.

The Heat Races set the series for Sunday’s exhibition race. Keselowski was already the no. 1 -starting point ensured by placing the fastest time in the qualifying Friday.

Keselowski led 74 off 75 rounds to win his heat race. Ross Chastain finished second, William Byron was third, Ryan Blaney finished fourth and Alex Bowman finished fifth.

Keselowski was the only car in the top five of the nine-car race that ran the same set of tires for the entire distance.

“The guys who made tires were very difficult to keep off,” Keselowski said. “I had the preferred gray and just tried to use it to my advantage. We will see if this is the case (Sunday). ‘

Keselowski said the track is a lot.

“It’s definitely not a single groove run,” he said. “They ran me very hard. We had a good pace and it was a bit of a dog fight, so I thought it was a good racing. “

Keselowski finished second in the All-Star race three times. It is linked to the most runner -up without winning the event, paying $ 1 million to the winner.

Bell led 69 of the 75 rounds to win the second heat on Saturday.

“I (Friday) knew in practice that if they could get a back grip in it, I felt like I had a lot of car potential,” Bell said. “The guys did an incredible job to make the car better overnight and it was really refreshing to get out there and just sail the first 30 laps.

“Then I didn’t know how it was going to work with Joey (Logano) behind me, but this thing was on rails. I am very happy and excited about the event (Sunday). ‘

The only rounds that Bell did not lead were when Chase Briscoe did not hit the rest of the field, and tried the same strategy that Keselowski used to win the first heat. Briscoe said it was his call to stay out.

It didn’t work. He did not get a good restart, hung three wide and fell outside the top five in the 10-car race before the contact spun him on the front.

Logano finished second, Chase Elliott third, Kyle Busch fourth and Chris Buescher fifth.

All-Star Race Begin Team

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 (will move to the back since Justin Allgaier qualified car)

20. Denny Hamlin

21. Winner of All-Star Open

22. Runner-up of All-Star Open

23. Fan Vote Winner