NASCAR
Christopher Bell outduels Joey Logano for first career NASCAR All-Star win
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Fireworks lit up the sky, and smoke billowed from the tires of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Christopher Bell celebrated his first victory in the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
On Sunday night, Bell climbed from his car to a standing ovation. Scratch that—virtually everyone in the packed grandstands already had been standing for the final 28 lap green-flag run, as Bell battled Joey Logano side-by-side and finally cleared last year’s winner for the lead on Lap 241 of 250.
At that point, Bell had better right-side tires than Logano, who had stayed out under the promoter’s caution signaled by unofficial flagman Michael Waltrip on Lap 215.
Bell pitted for two tires under the yellow, restarted sixth on Lap 223 behind five cars that stayed out and quickly advanced to second with a pass of Ross Chastain on Lap 227.
From that point, it was game-on for Bell, who pursued Logano relentlessly. On Lap 241, Bell pulled even with Logano, drifted out toward the wall, taking Logano with him and completed the decisive pass. His winning margin was 0.744 seconds.
“North Wilkesboro, how about that one?” Bell shouted after climbing from his car with the smoke still lingering from his celebratory burnout. “That right there is absolutely incredible. North Wilkesboro, best short track on the schedule.”
The victory was the first for a Toyota driver since JGR’s Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in 2017.
Logano, who led 199 of 200 laps in last year’s All-Star Race victory at the historic 0.625-mile short track, led a race-high 139 laps on Sunday to 28 for Bell. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford held a comfortable lead when the yellow flag for the promoter’s caution—a new wrinkle introduced by Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith—slowed the action, forced a pit stop choice and bunched the field.
“I’m pissed off right now,” Logano said. “Just dang it, we had the fastest car. The Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was so fast. You get to… I’m trying to choose my words correctly on the caution situation. Obviously, I got bit by it, so I am the one frustrated, obviously….
“I’m all about no gimmicks with the caution. I am all about that. I’m a little… me and Marcus Smith aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, OK? I’ve got to have a word with him.”
The caution and the tire disadvantage ultimately prevented Logano from winning his second straight All-Star Race and third overall.
“Thought maybe we could hold him off, but the 20 had a good enough restart, cleared too many of them too fast,” Logano said. “I couldn’t get away in time. It took me six, seven laps to get my car up and rolling again.
“I did all I could do to hold him off, and he got under me and released the brake and gave me no option. Kind of just ran me up into the wall, and if I could’ve got to him, he was going around after a move like that. I just couldn’t get back to him. Just too much to try to make up with the tire deficit.
“Just frustrated after you lead so many laps and the car is so fast and you don’t win, it hurts quite a bit.”
It hurt even more because first prize money for the exhibition race is $1 million, and second place pays a small fraction of that amount. Bell was happy to line his pockets with the lion’s share of the purse.
It was the quality of the competition, however, that excited Bell the most.
“Man, that was an amazing race,” he said. “There were so many guys up there racing for the lead. We saw two-wide, three-wide for the lead. It’s just a pleasure to race here, and especially whenever you get to drive this Mobil 1 Toyota Camry.
“These boys (the No. 20 crew) have done such a good job on this thing. I told them going into it, this was the best car we’ve had in a long time. Joey was fast. He gave us a lot of competition, and the 12 (Ryan Blaney) was really good there and the 9 (Chase Elliott). They had competitive cars. The strategy—we knew it would be all over the place and it fell our way.”
Bell acknowledged that the urgency of passing Logano in the closing run forced him to push the issue.
“He did a great job of trying to keep me behind him, and I knew that once I got that run off Turn 4, it was like alright, I’m going to have to be a little more aggressive and kind of leaned on him and got him out of position.
“I knew once I got the lead, I had the tire advantage so I should be able to cruise, and it worked out that way.”
On the same tire strategy as Logano, Chastain held third at the finish, followed by Hendrick Motorsports drivers Alex Bowman, Elliott and William Byron. Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher completed the top 10.
Kyle Larson, fresh from Saturday’s 21st-place qualifying effort for the Indianapolis 500, turned his first laps in the No. 5 Chevrolet on Sunday night. After a two-tire stop on Lap 178, he was running third when he slapped the wall on Lap 214 and finished 21st, three laps down.
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, PA (June 13. 2026) It’s been a recurring theme in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks. Denny Hamlin is out front.
The veteran driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota claimed his fourth Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Of note, with poor weather expected later Sunday afternoon, the green flag start time (1 p.m.) has been moved up two hours earlier than its originally scheduled time.
This marks the 51st pole position of Hamlin’s career and comes as the popular veteran is attempting to win three consecutive races for the first time in his celebrated career after victories the last two weeks in Nashville and Michigan.
He was the last driver to take to the track in Saturday’s qualifying session and just nudged Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Kyle Larson from the top position in the final minutes – Hamlin’s lap of 173.250 mph around the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pocono track was .057-second quicker than Larson’s best.
“Certainly had the grip, this whole team just did a great job with adjustments, making it a little better from practice, I didn’t execute a very good lap there in Turn 2, but overall I thought I hit [turns] three and one pretty decent – just good enough,” Hamlin said.
He acknowledged he and the team are certainly on a hot streak at the moment with wins in the non-points paying All-Star Race four weeks ago plus the two victories in the last two weeks. The effort has helped Hamlin cut 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick’s 100-plus point advantage over him atop the standings to only 51 points heading into Pocono, a place Hamlin has won a record seven times.
“It’s certainly going well and confidence is up with these guys [on the team] that every time I enter a corner at about 200, I know they’ve built me a car that’s going to stick,” Hamlin said, acknowledging his three-in-a-row opportunity.
“This is the best shot for sure, we’ve got a little work to do on the car overnight to get it to be a race winner, but I feel like we’re in that box where we need to be and we’ll fine tune it from here.”
Starting behind Hamlin and Larson are Daniel Suarez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Hamlin’s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs (No. 54 Toyota) and defending race winner Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota).
Chris Buescher, who won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono in 2016, qualified sixth – his No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford the first Ford on the grid. Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will start their Toyotas seventh and eighth. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Ford) – who also earned his first career series win at Pocono in 2017 – round out the top-10 on the grid.
Of note, 23XI Racing’s Reddick will roll of 15th and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start from the rear of the field after a qualifying session accident. RFK owner-driver Brad Keselowski had engine trouble in the session and will start alongside Wallace on the last row.
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, PA (June 13, 2026) – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway Saturday featured a record 18 lead changes and a record 10 cautions – including a seven-minute red flag period – but in the end, it was a very familiar scenario in Victory Lane: championship leader Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team celebrating an inspired drive.
Allgaier led a race best 35 of the 100 laps – ultimately taking the lead for good on a restart with two laps remaining. Haas Factory teammates Sam Mayer – who was Allgaier’s greatest challenge on the day – and Sheldon Creed created a three-wide push for the lead on the final restart but ultimately slid backwards as Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate William Byron was able to push Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet forward to create a gap on the field.
The advantage was all Allgaier needed to race off to a .607-second win over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews – who passed Byron on the last corner of the last lap for second place.
The victory was the 2024 series champion Allgaier’s first at the historic Pocono 2.5-mile triangle-shaped track giving him wins now at 21 different venues. And it marked the fifth win of the year for Allgaier, tying his previous high season win total.
“First of all, I’ve got to say thank you to William Byron because without his shove at the end of the race, it was probably game over,” Allgaier said before thanking the fans for filling the grandstands.
“This season has been special with [crew chief] Andrew Overstreet and this whole number seven team and this pit crew right here,” he said, adding with a grin, “We’re going to go celebrate this one for sure.”
Slowed by all the caution flags – four in the opening 25-lap stage alone – the early part of the race never allowed for one driver to establish a rhythm and truly set a pace among all the starting and stopping.
Polesitter Taylor Gray led 24 laps and won the opening stage and Crews claimed the stage two win. But the final half of the race was really a duel between Allgaier and Mayer, who led 14 laps and exchanged the lead with Allgaier frequently in the race’s closing laps – sometimes on the same lap. They started side-by-side out front on the three final restarts and Mayer looked like his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet would at least keep Allgaier honest. In the end, Mayer and Creed finished fourth and fifth.
“It was either the double zero [Creed] was trying to make a block, or just a push gone wrong a little bit,” Mayer said, of the unsuccessful three-wide move on that last restart. “Just really unfortunate circumstance. We actually had a really good launch.
“At the end of these races, you’re not going to not take a run so I don’t blame my teammate for pulling out of line like that, but obviously it put me in a bad spot,” Mayer continued. “The middle [lane] was okay if I had people with me. … obviously today we executed really, really well, so lots to be proud about, but obviously I’m very devastated right now because I just want a shot at it and don’t feel like I haven’t gotten a really true shot at it when the white flag flew.
“We were close today executed really good and really proud of everybody. One day it’s going to be my turn, and I can’t wait.”
Incredibly, Allgaier’s effort – the 33rd victory of his career – now puts him an unbelievable 250 points up on second place, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love in the series championship standings with seven regular season races remaining. Love only completed a single lap after being collected in the first of 10 yellow-flag incidents on the day.
“Just frustrated obviously, thought our Camaro was going to be good today,” Love said, adding, “Only got one lap to feel it out but I was happy with that one corner, wish we had gotten a few more.”
Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, the defending Pocono race winner Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top-10.
Jeremy Clements led a lap and finished 16th in a historical day for his career and the series. The 41-year-old South Carolinian tied Kenny Wallace for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series most all-time starts – 547 races. Wallace set the record in 2011 and last raced in 2015. Clements will claim the mark for himself when he takes next week’s green flag at San Diego.
The series heads to Southern California for next Saturday’s inaugural United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on the Coronado Naval Base.
BROOKLYN, MI (June 6, 2026) – Kris Wright and the No. 81 McAnally Hilgemann Racing team a hoping for better days after a frustrating DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 powered by Precision Vehicle Logistics Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Wright started 27th in the No. 81 iHeart Radio Silverado RST on the 2-mile oval. The race was only 7-laps old when Wright was involved in an accident, causing him to lose a lap while his team made repairs.
Wright was quickly back on pit road on Lap 18 after a left rear tire issue required additional work by his crew. Wright returned to the race three laps down at that point.
“Brutal day for our iHeartRadio team,” said Wright. “The No. 81 crew worked hard all weekend to get speed in the truck, and we never really had the opportunity to show what we were capable of.”
Fuel-only pit stops during the races final stage enabled Wright and his team to finish 31st. Corey Heim was the race winner.
Fan favorite Cleetus McFarland, in only his second series start, rallied from a late race spin that brought out one of seven yellow flags – and finished 25th on the lead lap.
The trucks are off next week and will return to action June 19 in the inaugural NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race in San Diego on the Naval Base Coronado (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’m looking forward to getting to San Diego in a couple of weeks,” said Wright. “Road courses have always suited my driving style, and it’ll be special to spend the weekend in Coronado celebrating the military members who will be in attendance.”
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