Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez each won a stage in the NASCAR Open to advance to Sunday night’s All-Star Race, and Erik Jones won the fan vote to also advance.
Stenhouse led all 20 laps in the opening stage to win and move on to the All-Star Race. This is his fourth All-Star Race appearance.
“The Kroger team has been working really hard the last few weeks and we’ve been getting results, which is nice,” said Stenhouse, who has scored three consecutive top-10 finishes. “Now, we get to go race for one million dollars and be in the big show.”
Landon Cassill crashed in the second stage, ending his race. Corey LaJoie stayed out while the rest of the field pitted, but he couldn’t keep Buescher, who had pitted for four tires, behind. Buescher led the final nine laps of the stage to win and advance to the All-Star Race for the second time in his career.
“It was good work by our team from where we started practice and through qualifying and to be able to race our way into the All-Star race,” Buescher said.
In the final stage, Tyler Reddick spun in Turn 4, tagged the wall and was hit by Harrison Burton, who had nowhere to go, ending Reddick’s hopes of making the All-Star Race.
Suarez went on to win the final stage to advance to the All-Star Race for the third time in his career.
By winning the fan vote, Jones will compete in his third All-Star Race.
The All-Star Race is scheduled to take the green flag at 8:13 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1.
