{"id":51817,"date":"2025-05-16T20:35:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T01:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=51817"},"modified":"2025-05-19T18:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:46:06","slug":"brad-keselowski-claims-pole-position-for-nascar-all-star-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/brad-keselowski-claims-pole-position-for-nascar-all-star-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski claims pole position for NASCAR All-Star Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. \u2014 A flawless entry into pit road during Friday\u2019s time trials propelled Brad Keselowski to the pole position for Sunday\u2019s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brad Keselowski, driver of the #6 Solomon Plumbing Ford, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race qualifying heat #1 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 17, 2025 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In a unique qualifying format that features three laps and a four-tire pit stop, Keselowski and his team posted a total time of 87.363 seconds (77.264 mph) to earn the top starting spot both for Saturday\u2019s first of two heats and for the $1-million-to-win main event on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In a major upset during the All-Star Open qualifying session that preceded time trials for drivers already qualified for the All-Star Race, Michael McDowell\u2019s over-the-wall crew, composed of ex-football players, won the $100,000 Pit Crew Challenge.<\/p>\n

The No. 71 Spire Motorsports crew fired off a stop in 12.587 seconds, and that time stood up against the 20 All-Star crews that followed. Daniel Suarez\u2019s crew came closest with a lap in 12.600 seconds.<\/p>\n

For Keselowski, the pole was a welcome high point in a season that has been difficult so far. He\u2019s currently 33rd in the Cup Series standings, with no top 10s and five DNFs (did not finish) through 12 races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event, this format pushes you to your limits, from a driver perspective, a team perspective, pit crew,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cI stuck my part\u2014I knew I stuck the entry (to pit road). The exit, I was like \u2018Maybe I left a little on the table\u2019\u2014it\u2019s really hard to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it all came together for an excellent run. The pit crew, they didn\u2019t try to be heroes. They just gave me a really solid stop. (Crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and the team gave me a car that was pretty fast. They just gave me the ball and said, \u2018Go play,\u2019 and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, the two-time defending winners of the Pit Crew Challenge, qualified second at 76.485 mph (88.253 seconds). Slight trouble on the left front tire cost Bell\u2019s crew a chance for a third straight $100,000 bonus.<\/p>\n

Alex Bowman was third fastest, followed by Chase Briscoe, William Byron and defending winner and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano.<\/p>\n

Though Keselowski is guaranteed to start on the pole for the All-Star Race, Friday\u2019s qualifying session set the order for the two heat races on Saturday. The first heat establishes the starting order for the inside row in the All-Star Race, while the second heat orders the outside row.<\/p>\n

Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were seventh-through 10th fastest, respectively.<\/p>\n

Using his road racing prowess to get on and off pit road in the unique qualifying format, New Zealand\u2019s Shane van Gisbergen won the pole position for the NASCAR All-Star Open, which precedes the All-Star Race on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

The top two finishers in the Open transfer to the 21st and 22nd starting positions in the main event.<\/p>\n

In his three-lap attempt with a four-tire pit stop, Van Gisbergen recorded a time of 88.685 seconds (75.112 mph). That was good enough to edge Carson Hocevar (75.942 mph) for the top starting spot in the Open by 0.199 seconds.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen\u2019s total time also was 1.109 seconds faster than Logano\u2019s pole-winning time for last year\u2019s All-Star Race, which Logano won decisively, leading 199 of 200 laps.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael McDowell, driver of the #71 Delaware Life Chevrolet, celebrates with his pit crew in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 16, 2025 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI did a decent job getting in and out of pit road,\u201d Van Gisbergen said, \u201cbut my guys did a great pit stop, too (13.175 seconds)\u2026 It\u2019s been difficult on the left-handed tracks, but I feel like we are getting better, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess my actual lap was good, too, so things are starting to look up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah Gragson was third-fastest among Open qualifiers at 75.338 mph. Michael McDowell was fourth in time trials, thanks in part to his pit crew, which won the Pit Crew Competition and $100,000 bonus.<\/p>\n

Crew members on McDowell\u2019s team are Dax Hollifield (jackman), Max Marsh (front tire changer), Ty Boeck (rear tire changer), Luke Bussel (tire carrier) and Brandon Chapman (fueler).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. \u2014 A flawless entry into pit road during Friday\u2019s time trials propelled Brad Keselowski to the pole position for Sunday\u2019s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In a unique qualifying format that features three laps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":51906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[79,16,774],"class_list":["post-51817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-nascar","tag-north-wilkesboro-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2215622028-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dtL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51817"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51930,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51817\/revisions\/51930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}