2023 NASCAR All-Star Race
The 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race was a non-championship NASCAR Cup Series stock car exhibition race that was held on May 21, 2023, at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Contested over 200 laps, it was the second exhibition race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. This event marked the first NASCAR race taking place at North Wilkesboro Speedway since the 1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400.
Report
Background
The All-Star Race is open to race winners from last season through the 2023 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, all previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup champions who had attempted to qualify for every race in 2022, the top two race finishers of the All-Star Open, and the winner of the All-Star fan vote are eligible to compete in the All-Star Race.
Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.
denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.NASCAR All-Star Race
Practice
Practice results
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 20.615 seconds and a speed of.
Qualifying (Pit Crew Challenge)
The 2023 Pit Crew Challenge set the starting lineup for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and the qualifying heat races. Ty Gibbs scored the pole for the Open with a time of 13.012 seconds. Daniel Suárez scored the pole for Heat Race 1 with a time of 13.297 seconds. Chris Buescher scored the pole for Heat Race 2 with a time of 13.381 seconds.
Qualifying heat races
For the first time in NASCAR Cup Series history, an oval race was conducted in the rain when the first heat race took place in inclement weather. Cars used rain tires for the first heat, and the second race started dry, but teams switched to rain tires during the race.
Media
Television
Fox Sports was the television broadcaster of the race in the United States. Lap-by-lap announcer, Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, 1985 All-Star Race winner Darrell Waltrip, and 1991 and 1992 All-Star Race winner Larry McReynolds called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little, Regan Smith and Josh Sims handled the pit road for the television side.
Radio
Motor Racing Network continued their longstanding relationship with Speedway Motorsports to broadcast the race on radio. The lead announcers for the race's broadcast were Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 winner of the All-Star Race Rusty Wallace. The network also had one announcer stationed in turn 4: Dave Moody. Steve Post and Kim Coon were the network's pit lane reporters. The network's broadcast was also simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.