Christopher Bell emerged from the smoke Sunday night like a gladiator stumbling out of the Colosseum, still wearing his helmet, wide-eyed and victorious, as fireworks burst in the sky and a sold-out North Wilkesboro Speedway briefly ceased to exist under the weight of its own chaos. It was loud. It was smoky. It was unhinged. And it might have been the best NASCAR All-Star Race in a generation. Bell, the soft-spoken assassin, had just bagged a million bucks and left the rest of the field wondering what the hell just happened.
“North Wilkesboro, how about that one?” Bell shouted like a man who just realized he left the grill on. “That right there is absolutely incredible. North Wilkesboro, best short track on the schedule.”
And for once, he’s not wrong. It had everything: speed, strategy, chaos, and a random caution that felt less like race control and more like someone pulling stunts with a PlayStation controller.
In the end it came down to tires. Two tires versus none, thanks to a caution that Joey Logano—who spent the better part of the night curb-stomping the field—described as “gimmicky.”
Logano, last year’s All-Star winner and the dominant force of the evening, led 139 laps. That’s out of 250, in case you’re wondering whether anyone else showed up. There were 18 lead changes among eight drivers, which, if you’ve been keeping score, is more than the last two All-Star Races combined. So yes, it was spicy.
And while there were five cautions, it was the final one that threw a wrench in Logano’s million-dollar plans. This year’s format included something called a “Promoter’s Caution”—which is a nice way of saying, “what’s a million-dollar race without a little reality show drama?” It was supposed to happen sometime after lap 100 and before lap 220. It came on lap 217, thanks to former All-Star winner Michael Waltrip, who not only waved the caution flag from the stand but dropped it like a hot wing onto the track.
Up front, Logano stayed out. Bell dived into the pits like a seagull spotting French fries, grabbed two tires, and suddenly, we had ourselves a race. In the final laps, Bell’s Toyota had just enough grip to blast past Logano with nine laps to go.
Logano held on for second, but let’s just say he was not in the mood for a Gatorade shower.
“I’m pissed off right now. Just dang it, we had the fastest car. The Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was so fast,” he growled. “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.”
Then he turned his sights on Speedway Motorsports, the folks who own the track, and possibly a dartboard with someone’s face on it now.
“Yeah, I’m all about no gimmicks with the caution,” he said. “I am all about that. I’m a little — me and Marcus Smith aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, okay? I’ve got to have a word with him.”
But gimmick or not, Bell’s crew absolutely nailed it in the pits, executing a two-tire stop with the kind of precision that would make a Swiss watch jealous. Bell knew who to thank.
“Man, they’re the best,” he said. “There’s nothing else to say. This sport can be so humbling because behind the car, behind the wheel, you’re just a small part of success.
“These boys right here, Adam Stevens on the pit box, all the mechanics, all the engineers that put this thing together, they’re the big picture. I’m the guy that gets to sit up here and talk to you and take pictures, but without them, I’m nobody. I owe it all to these guys.”
Behind the Logano-Bell showdown, Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five. William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher made up the rest of the top 10—presumably after having flashbacks to the last time North Wilkesboro felt this alive.
Earlier in the day, the All-Star Open handed invitations to two first-timers: Carson Hocevar and John Hunter Nemechek, who finished one-two to punch their tickets. And because America loves a fan favorite, Noah Gragson got in by winning the Fan Vote—for the third year in a row. At this point, we might as well just give him a reserved parking spot.
Bottom line: if you tuned in expecting a snoozer, you got a street fight. Smoke, tires, temper tantrums, and a million bucks on the line. NASCAR’s All-Star Race finally felt like, well… an All-Star Race.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.