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Sammy Smith pit box cover blows off in heavy winds at North Wilkesboro

Stephen Samraby: Steve Samra05/17/25SamraSource
North Wilkesboro, NASCAR
Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

It’s a sunny afternoon for the NASCAR Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday afternoon. However, Mother Nature is still making her wrath felt by way of the wind.

Check out the video below, shared by Steve Taranto of CBS Sports. The wind actually blew the cover on top of Sammy Smith’s pit box off, and now it’s as sunny as can be. Time to re-up on the sunscreen for the No. 7 team.

Smith’s pit box isn’t the only area where the wind is having an impact in North Carolina. Taranto added some insight into how some huge gusts actually had the partitions protecting NASCAR’s start/finish line blown inward, and they had to be set back straight. Check that out below, as well.

As you can tell, it may be a sunny afternoon, but it might not be the nicest day to go racing at North Wilkesboro. Still, the crowd is in good spirits, as it’s tough not to be when there’s some racing going on here.

The main event of the weekend is, of course, the All-Star Race. That’ll see the best in the Cup Series go head-to-head for a cool million on Sunday evening. A veteran wheelman will start on the pole, and he could use a solid performance.

More on NASCAR’s trip to North Wilkesboro this weekend for the All-Star Race

Brad Keselowski is on pole for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race via his wicked fast qualifying time, three laps on the North Wilkesboro track, and a pit stop. The highly-anticipated event will begin with Keselowski out front. This could turn his entire season around. 

Brad Keselowski has not had a good season. At all. The struggles have been intense and have left this No. 6 team with no idea where to go. This could be the light in the tunnel that they needed. 

Last year, Joey Logano jumpstarted his season, on his way to his third championship, by winning the All-Star Race. Does Wilkesboro have a little of that magic left for Keselowski?

Brad Keselowski will lead Heat Race #1 to green on Saturday. Then, regardless of his finishing position in the heat race, he will have the pole for Sunday’s main event. Keselowski didn’t even make it close for the rest of the field. He was way out front on time. 

During his career, Keselowski has won a lot of races. He has been a champion. However, he has yet to win an All-Star Race. What if Sunday is the day he punches his ticket and cashes his $1,000,000 check? 

Friday’s action included the Pit Crew Challenge as well. A piece of the total qualifying effort, the pit stops were insanely competitive. Tenths and hundredths of a second separating each team from one another. 

While Brad Keselowski had the fastest total qualifying run, his pit crew didn’t win the $100,000 prize for their work. Instead, another underdog team emerged victorious.

— On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.