Chastain, Reddick, Almirola, DiBenedetto advance to All-Star Race via Open

To set the field for Sunday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway, twenty-two drivers battled it out in the afternoon’s All-Star Open. Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Aric Almirola advanced to the main event after finishing first in each of the Open’s three stages, while Matt DiBenedetto qualified by winning the Fan Vote. It is Chastain, Reddick ‘s first appearances in the All-Star Race.

Reddick started on the pole after winning the random draw earlier in the week. Chastain, whose was disqualified from Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race after failing post-race inspection, suffered more tech-related woes when his car’s aero opening ducts did not meet specifications, resulting in his crew chief Phil Surgen‘s ejection. Austin Cindric and David Starr were also ordered to the rear for failing pre-race inspection twice and unapproved adjustments, respectively, though Starr was already starting last.

Texas native Chris Buescher‘s Open got off to a poor start when he received a pass-through penalty for jumping the green flag. Cindric was penalised for changing lanes before crossing the start line. Multiple spuns took place in the first stage beginning with Bubba Wallace on lap four, followed by Buescher spinning after contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on lap eight. Lap 15 saw Erik Jones go around before being clipped by Daniel Suárez. Chase Briscoe received a speeding penalty before the next restart with two laps to go. Reddick led much of the stage before Chastain completed his ascent through the grid to take the lead on the final lap and win.

“Holy cow, that was a lot of cars,” Chastain said in a Twitter video. “Couple of good restarts, one bad one. Did everything we needed to do.”

Reddick continued to lead as the second stage began. Behind him, a contingent of Fords followed with DiBenedetto, Almirola, and Cindric. Almirola won the battle for second but Reddick led every lap en route to the segment victory.

A ten-lap final stage closed out the Open. Fords occupied the top four with DiBenedetto and Almirola on the front row ahead of Cindric and Buescher, and the top two ran side-by-side for a lap until Almirola cleared him for the lead. Almirola, who has endured a difficult 2021 season that has seen him score just one top ten across sixteen races and sit twenty-eighth in points, finally had something to celebrate as he took the win to punch his ticket into his fourth career All-Star.

“It has been a really tough year and the guys just continue to work their guts out and bring the best cars we can,” said Almirola. “Here at Texas today, we have a really fast car. We took the long way in but I am glad we are racing for a million bucks tonight. I am thankful to all our partners that continue to stick behind us, even through the bad times. […] I am proud to give them something to smile about.”

Despite not winning any of the stages, DiBenedetto won the Fan Vote to qualify for his second straight All-Star.

“Well the bad news. We let you down. The good news is, you didn’t let us down,” tweeted DiBenedetto’s Wood Brothers Racing team. “This is just impossible to believe. Thank you thank thank you. We’ll get there.”

“We struggled a little bit with the car there,” DiBenedetto added. “We will try to work on it. That is really cool. It means a lot to get the votes from the fans. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that and the opportunity to get into the All-Star Race.”

The four will start at the back for the All-Star Race. Kyle Larson is on the pole.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	10	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	50	Running
2	3	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	50	Running
3	2	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	50	Running
4	9	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	50	Running
5	16	33	Austin Cindric*	Team Penske	Ford	50	Running
6	6	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	50	Running
7	19	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	50	Running
8	12	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50	Running
9	4	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	50	Running
10	11	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	50	Running
11	17	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	50	Running
12	18	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	50	Running
13	15	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	50	Running
14	20	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	50	Running
15	13	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
16	14	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
17	21	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	49	Running
18	22	13	David Starr*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	49	Running
19	1	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	40	Stage 2 Winner
20	5	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	20	Stage 1 Winner
21	8	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	13	Accident
22	7	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	13	Accident

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