NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — After nearly three decades, the NASCAR Cup Series made their long-awaited, points-paying return to the hallowed grounds of North Wilkesboro Speedway for the Window World 450.
Mother Nature brought rain that washed out qualifying, putting last week’s winner Ryan Blaney on the pole, but a power steering unit replacement requires the Atlanta winner to start at the back of the field.
Ty Gibbs took the lead and ran with it for the opening laps until a lap 40 caution broke the action when Zane Smith slid into John Hunter Nemechek in turn 1, causing the 42 Toyota to spin.
The accident allowed Trackhouse Racing star Shane van Gisbergen to capitalize, seizing the top spot from Denny Hamlin after the 11 team decided to stay out to gain track position.
Hamlin’s gambit paid off in the form of stage points while his teammate Gibbs mounted a charge on van Gisbergen in the closing laps of the 80-lap first stage. Gibbs ripped around the high side to claim his fourth stage win of 2026 by roughly half of his Monster Energy Toyota.
Stage 1 Results:
1. Ty Gibbs
2. Shane van Gisbergen
3. Joey Logano
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Carson Hocevar
6. Christopher Bell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Chase Briscoe
9. Austin Cindric
10. William Byron
Unfortunately for Gibbs, that run was as good as it got for the 54 group as the 23-year-old sped on pit road under yellow, sending him to the back of the field for the restart.
During the second set of pit stops, three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano scooted into the top spot after a great stop from the 22 crew, but it was the three-time Supercars champion that wrestled the advantage away on the restart.
Logano proceeded to stalk the Kiwi for the next handful of laps before swinging by the 97 on lap 113, and save for 22 laps during green-flag stops in stage 3, that was all she wrote for the rest of the field.
The Shell Pennzoil machine powered to a career-high 323 laps led en route to his 38th career victory and his first of a trying 2026 campaign where he entered the race outside the Chase.
It didn’t come without controversy though as a major moment took place during the stage 2 green-flag pit cycle when Alex Bowman attempted to dive onto pit road on lap 183, but he found the 45 Comparion Camry of Tyler Reddick underneath him, spinning out both cars.
The resulting caution showed that many fan favorites and frontrunners found themselves one or more laps off the pace, including all of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Christopher Bell, and Ross Chastain.
In fact, Bell lost the nose on his Toyota on the restart, clipping Josh Berry in turn 3 to send the Wood Brothers Ford Mustang into the outside wall on lap 199, bringing out the final caution for cause.
The final 60 laps of that run looked a lot like the long run before pit stops as the 2024 All-Star Race winner at Wilkesboro claimed his first stage win of 2026.
Stage 2 Results:
1. Joey Logano
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Chase Briscoe
4. Bubba Wallace
5. Shane van Gisbergen
6. Carson Hocevar
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Todd Gilliland
10. Daniel Suárez
From there, Logano and Hamlin treated the fans to a calculated duel between two cagey veterans with an extensive history of beef between them.
Logano held onto the advantage, but Hamlin kept his old rival honest throughout the entire final stage, hovering between a second and a half-second gap to the 22.
Lapped traffic served to stymie Logano’s best run of the season, but the Connecticut native would not be denied, sending his team to victory lane for the first time since Texas in May of last season.
Hamlin, Briscoe, Gibbs, and van Gisbergen constituted the top-5 finishers while Wallace, Keselowski, Gilliland, Suarez, and Preece rounded out the top-10.
Ryan Blaney lost a great night in the final stage when he sped on pit road entry during green-flag stops, ending his night in 11th, two laps off of Logano’s pace.
The highest-finishing Hendrick car was William Byron in 12th after a categorically quiet night for the 24 group while Larson, Elliott, and Bowman ended the night 15th, 17th, and 26th, respectively.
Christopher Bell came home 19th and perennial Chase candidate Chris Buescher wound up 20th.
The next stop on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a stop to even more hallowed ground, this time trading new asphalt for a yard of bricks as the stars face off in the 30th running of the Brickyard 400. Coverage begins at 2pm Eastern time on Sunday, July 26th on TNT, truTV, and HBO Max.
(Top Photo Credit: David Jensen/Getty Images)
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