Joey Logano (No.22) leads over the field during the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Photo Credit: Phil Cavali | The Podium Finish)
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Joey Logano was well on his way to defending his title as the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race winner, but with a late race promoter’s caution, along with an ill-planned strategy call, the dream fell short for Logano, as he had to settle for a second-place effort at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Logano led a race-high 139 laps before eventual race winner Christopher Bell reeled in the driver of the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse with under 10 laps to go, swinging past Logano on fresher tires to take home his first-ever All-Star Race win.
The Middletown, Connecticut driver began his evening from the fourth starting spot, moving decisively through the field to battle with pole sitter Brad Keselowski in the early portions of the 250-lap event.
After the first caution of the day was prompted by Daniel Suarez’s heavy contact with the outside wall, Paul Wolfe, the crew chief of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, decided to change all four Goodyear tires. This strategy allowed them to restart in fourth place as they began the process of moving back to the front once again.
After a series of cautions with about 150 laps remaining, Logano made his way back to the front of the field on Lap 122 and pulled ahead of Bell, leading the next 55 consecutive laps.
Joey Logano (No.22) battling with Christopher Bell (No.20) for the race lead in the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Photo Credit: Phil Cavali | The Podium Finish)
As the run went on and Logano’s lead began to increase over the rest of the field, a newly added rule to the All-Star Race, the promoter’s caution allowed for a caution to be thrown at any time between laps 100 to 220, and with 35 laps to go in the race, the 1996 winner of the All-Star Race, Michael Waltrip displayed the yellow flag, setting up for a close and gutsy finish around the 0.625-mile oval.
During the caution period, both Team Penske drivers, Logano and Ryan Blaney, who were in the top five, chose to remain on the track instead of pitting. This decision put them at a disadvantage on the restart since they had older tires, while most of the field took the opportunity to service their race cars.
As the final green flag run began with 28 laps to go in the event, Logano and Bell began an all-out battle for the lead, as Bell continued to try and search for position underneath Logano, allowing for Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman to get into the mix for the race victory.
As the field took on 10 laps left in the race, Bell made his race-winning move on Logano as they raced towards the downhill descent into Turn 1, Bell used up his No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE to get to the inside of Logano, shunting the two-time Cup Series champion up the track, allowing for Bell to runaway with the lead.
Logano, on older tires, was unable to catch Bell for the lead, finishing right behind the No. 20 car with a runner-up finish, which could have been his second consecutive All-Star Race victory.
“I mean, it is what it is.” Said Logano in a post-race interview. I don’t know. Sure, sure. He did it good enough that I couldn’t get back to him, because I was going to show him what fair was, just couldn’t get there. Just couldn’t get there with the tires.”
The runner-up finish left Logano and crew chief Wolfe scratching their heads on what could’ve been done to play the strategy game to better fortune.
“Obviously not. We got beat by that, I mean, I felt like it was 50/50. I mean, we were going to put two (tires) on, and then, last minute, we decided to stay out. I thought six cars were going to be enough (buffer), you know. I said it’s a similar situation to what Brad (Keselowski) had in the heat race — 30 or so laps on the tires, he stayed, he was able to manage. But the difference is, it’s a heat race to the feature, and what are people willing to do in a heat race versus a million dollars and for the win at the All-Star Race. It changes the game a little bit. ”
“So yeah, just, we didn’t make the right call, right? I mean, we go down together, right? We do all this stuff together. We had the best car and we did most everything, right? We just made one decision off.”
Logano sets his sights on Memorial Day weekend, as the Cup Series gears up for the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 25. Coverage of the event will begin at 6:00 pm ET on Amazon Prime Video, with radio coverage provided by The Performance Racing Network, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
