Heat lineups for NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro

With the Pit Crew Challenge won by Ty Gibbs and his crew, the heats are set for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro. The heat results are going to decide the starting order for the inside and outside lanes, respectively. Heat 1 will feature 11 drivers while Heat 2 will have the remaining 10.

With such a unique qualifying process, we are sure to get some talented drivers starting near the rear. If you come out on top and win your heat, you don’t have to worry too much. But have an issue early on and see how far you can fall back within 5/8ths of a mile.

Some notable names in the first heat include Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and of course, Kevin Harvick back in the No. 29. Meanwhile, the second heat will feature William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, and Kyle Busch.

Heat lineups for Saturday night. Heat results will determine all-star starting lineup: pic.twitter.com/Z0I3pcbWul

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 19, 2023

The NASCAR All-Star Race is a fun event and doing it at North Wilkesboro adds to that. Already we have had some great late-model racing this week at the track. Then we saw an amazing pit crew challenge that put a lot of pressure on these teams.

When you revive a track, no one knows what to expect. Because it really hasn’t been done before. NASCAR has been pulling it off pretty well so far. The main event is yet to come.

All-Star Race drivers will get plenty of laps

On top of practice today and the heats and the All-Star Open and the main All-Star Race, there is a lot of driving and racing this weekend. But we can’t forget the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tyson 250. This is a real points-paying race that will be very interesting to watch.

Not only will we have Truck Series action, but we will also see Cup Series drivers competing as well. Larson, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Ross Chastain are all suiting up in the trucks. That is a ton of talent to throw at the full-timers in the series.

We didn’t see a lot of interesting moments during practice. However, we did see Akinori Ogata’s truck burst into flames. The G2G Racing No. 46 Toyota Tundra doesn’t look like it will be able to compete this weekend after the incident.

For now, it seems that Larson is the driver to beat in the NASCAR All-Star Race. I’m sure that there are a few drivers planning on making sure that the No. 5 doesn’t end up taking the lift ride to Victory Lane. Should be a weekend of action at North Wilkesboro.