Ty Gibbs’s pit crew won the Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway Friday (May 19). The rookie will lead the All-Star Open field to the green flag after his crew posted a blistering time of 13.012 seconds.
Gibbs won over every All-Star driver, with Daniel Suarez’s crew being the best of the All-Star Race drivers with a 13.297-second run. He leads heat race one Saturday, while Chris Buescher will lead the second heat race. Buescher earns his heat pole with a 13.381 time.
Heat one will feature Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Briscoe starting in the top five, while heat two will have Austin Dillon, last week’s Darlington Raceway winner William Byron, points leader Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson behind Buescher.
For the open, Josh Berry will be on the front row with Gibbs while Corey LaJoie, Harrison Burton and Justin Haley will round out the starting top five.
The event featured a flurry of pit-road penalties. The biggest penalty was on Brad Keselowski. Keselowski posted a time of 13.044 seconds, but a loose wheel meant that he received a five-second penalty. He will compete in the second heat starting in eighth.
Other notable drivers that received penalties are Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson, JJ Yeley and Ryan Newman.
Cup Pit Crew Challenge Qualifying Results
The All-Star heat races will kick off Saturday, May 20 at 7:20 p.m. ET. The All-Star Open will run on Sunday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m. ET, and the All-Star Race will start at 8 p.m. ET. Coverage for all these events will be provided by FOX Sports 1.
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime