NASCAR All Star Race Sunday starting lineups set after heat races

And with that, the starting lineups for NASCAR All Star Race Sunday is set, and all that remains is the race to set the race.

Brad Keselowski had already claimed the pole position by virtue of his fastest lap in time trials on Friday but backed it up by winning the first 75 lap heat race on Saturday afternoon. He did so impressive fashion by fending off William Byron and Ross Chastain, who each had fresher tires.

“Those guys were running hard and that’s what they’re supposed to do,” Keselowski said. “It’s always a battle on these short tracks to have the right balance between driving the car hard enough to stay up front, but not driving it too hard to run the tires off of it and that’s part of the challenge of being a race car driver and I welcome it.”

Christopher Bell will join him on the front row for the start of the 250-lap main event by virtue of winning the second heat race. At one point, Chase Briscoe stayed out on older tires but the track position wasn’t enough and Bell drove by anyway.

“So it seems like, if you stay out, you really, really, really need to keep the lead,” Bell said. “And it seems like we saw the same thing in heat race one, where Brad was able to win the race on the old tires, but Tyler Reddick who had old tires fell way back.

“So yeah, I mean it’s a very, very, tough decision and I’m thankful that I’m not in the crew chief’s box because it’s tough. And whatever you do, your opponents are going to do the opposite.”

The two heat races set the starting lineup for the drivers already in the main event. The first race set the inside row and the second race set the outside row.

There are still three more starting spots to be determined however. There is the 100 lap ‘All Star Open’ for those not already in the show. The top two finishers from that race will advance into the main event. A fan vote winner will get the final starting spot.

The main event starts at 8 p.m. on FS1.

Starting lineups

All Star Race

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Christopher Bell
3. Ross Chastain
4. Joey Logano
5. William Byron
6. Chase Elliott
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Kyle Busch
9. Alex Bowman
10. Chris Buescher
11. Josh Berry
12. Daniel Suarez
13. Tyler Reddick
14. Chase Briscoe
15. Austin Dillon
16. Austin Cindric
17. Ricky Stenhouse
18. Harrison Burton
19. Kyle Larson
20. Denny Hamlin
21. All Star Open Winner
22. All Star Open Runner-Up
23. Fan Vote Winner

All Star Open

1. Shane Van Gisbergen
2. Carson Hocevar
3. Noah Gragson
4. Michael McDowell
5. Ryan Preece
6. Zane Smith
7. Justin Haley
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Ty Gibbs
10. Ty Dillon
11. Cole Custer
12. Erik Jones
13. Riley Herbst
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Cody Ware
16. AJ Allmendinger
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Chad Finchum