Gibbs Wires All-Star Open; Wallace & Gragson Also Transfer

Ty Gibbs en route to victory in the All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Lesley Ann Miller for Toyota Racing photo)

WILKESBORO, N.C. - Ty Gibbs led flag to flag to win Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway and lead the transfer cars into the main event. 

Gibbs’ Toyota teammate, Bubba Wallace, finished second to claim the final race-in spot and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Noah Gragson won the fan vote to earn his place in NASCAR’s $1 million special event.

After rain washed away qualifying on Saturday, the rulebook set the starting lineup, with Gibbs and Alex Bowman leading the field to green.

Once Gibbs took off from the field, he never looked back in the 100-lap preamble to the 40th running of the NASCAR All-Star Race.

“Yeah, we were pretty good. I feel like we were pretty solid, so it's good to make it and good to see Bubba make [the All-Star Race], too,” Gibbs said after locking into his second All-Star Race in two career attempts.

“I feel like we learned a lot with what we're going to do [in the big show].”

Bowman and Wallace battled for the second spot throughout, and after some shuffling, the Mobile, Ala. native eventually cleared himself for the final transfer position.

Once the scheduled midway caution flew on lap 51, every team headed to pit road for a mandatory four-tire pit stop, which saw many teams switch to their “option” softer-compound tires.

The green flag flew again, but was soon replaced with the sole caution for incident of the race, when Austin Cindric was caught in between Gragson and Carson Hocevar, resulting in Cindric’s No. 2 Keystone Light Ford Mustang Dark Horse being turned into the outside wall.

Once the race resumed, the battle for second took center stage. Drivers like Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley, and defending Open winner Josh Berry had moved toward the front, looking to challenge for the second transfer spot, to no avail.

That left Wallace able to transfer into his fourth career All-Star main event.

“I guess we deserve to be in the All-Star, but we've got to go fight for it every once in a while,” Wallace said beside his No. 23 Alltroo Toyota Camry XSE.

“We were able to squeeze away there and hang on to second. But that's the most stressful spot to be in,” Wallace added.

“You never want to look up in the mirror, and you know how good Josh [Berry] is on short tracks, so it's like, hey, I kind of did some short track stuff, too, so I think I've got a little bit figured out, but we were able to hang on and have a good day so far.”

Berry and Haley finished third and fourth, respectively, to see their nights come to a premature end after the conclusion of the Open.

Gragson, who finished fifth, was informed of his fan vote victory just moments after the checkered flag flew.

“We didn't quite have what it took there in that race, but you fans pulled through,” an emphatic Gragson said. “It's been great so far, and we're going to go try and race for a million bucks. Appreciate all the fans.” 

Gibbs, Wallace, and Gragson will round off the field of 20 for the NASCAR All-Star Race. 

Broadcast coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90, while the green flag time has been moved back to 8:30 p.m. ET to give defending All-Star Race winner Kyle Larson extra time to arrive at the racetrack to race.

Larson completed the first part of his Sunday double by qualifying fifth in the No. 17 McLaren-Hendrick Chevrolet for next weekend’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

He’ll attempt Double Duty next weekend, competing in both the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Tony Stewart is the only driver in history to complete all 1,100 miles, doing so in 2001.