Chris Buescher Wins NASCAR All-Star Race Heat 2 at North Wilkesboro

RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher will lead the outside lane to the green flag in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race after dominating Heat 2 on Saturday night at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Starting from the pole, Buescher jumped out to an early lead and was able to maintain the top spot for the entirety of Heat 2.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon started second in Heat 2 and was able to hold onto the position despite a lot of pressure from Byron throughout the whole 60-lap event. William Byron finished third, while the battle was on behind his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top-five finishers in Heat 2.

The race was slowed only once for caution, under which NASCAR required teams to change from slick tires to wet weather tires.

At the time of the caution on Lap 25, Buescher had led every lap and was followed by Dillon, Byron, Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson as the field came to pit road for non-competitive pit stops.

The drivers in the second Heat race took the green flag with slick tires on the cars after the rain let up and some track drying efforts took place between heat races. When the caution flew after 25 laps, the rain had picked up a bit and NASCAR told teams to put the wet weather tires on the cars on the stop.

When the field went back to green, the skies opened up a bit more and the race was run in rain conditions, not just a sprinkle as in Heat 1. Buescher was able to hold onto the top spot and drive away from the field.

Larson struggled on the restart, getting gouged out of the way by Wallace for fourth only to get stuck on the outside lane and drop out of contention.