Joey Logano Wins Wild NASCAR Sprint All Star Race
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| Joey Logano collects his first All Star Race victory |
| Jonathan Ferrey/NASCAR via Getty Images |
Full Moon Fever was in full effect in Saturday night's 32nd running of the NASCAR Sprint All Star Race, as Joey Logano came out on top in a race that was both thrilling and confusion and left a lot of people scratching their heads.
Logano got past Kyle Larson with two laps to go to score his first-career All Star Race victory, bringing home a $1million-dollar payday and denying Larson the chance to become the fourth driver to win the all-star event after racing their way into the field.
Teammate Brad Keselowski was able to get past Larson to take second in the closing laps, giving Team Penske their first ever 1-2 finish in the all-star event – a fitting tribute for the team's 50th Anniversary celebration.
It wasn't a cakewalk for Logano, as he had to fight his way past Larson, who himself had earned a spot in the All Star Race in a thrilling last-lap battle with Chase Elliott in the Sprint Showdown run earlier in the day.
"I tell you, Larson is a hard racer. I watched him in the Showdown earlier today and I knew what I was up against. I knew he was going to run hard," said Logano. "I'm a hard racer, so I knew it was going to be a fun battle for sure. I got underneath him once, and I got to the outside of him once, we went up high, and I got underneath him and I got loose underneath him.
"I knew I had position on him going into the corner and had to keep him on my quarter panel and not let him get to my door, so I drove in there hard. He was going to drive in there hard to keep on my door and I was going to drive in there hard to keep him at my quarter.
"What a crazy battle for a million dollars at the end. This is the All-Star Race. It's special just to be in the race. Forget winning it–it's just special. It's neat to be in Victory Lane."
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] Saturday night's All Star Race was the first race under a new format partly developed by the drivers – two segments of 50 laps followed by a 13-lap shootout to the finish, with mandatory green-flag stops in each segment and a field inversion in the final segment.
The new format led to confusion as some teams opted to try some late-pit strategies that didn't quite work out.
After rain showers blanketed the racetrack and wiped out qualifying, the field was set by owner's points giving Harvick and Kyle Busch the front row.
Once the race began, Busch and Harvick traded the lead four times over the opening 34 lap before Logano, Carl Edwards and eventually Matt Kenseth all took their turns leading the parade.
As the laps wound down in the opening segment, several drivers had yet to make their required pit stop, among them Kenseth, Edwards, Kyle Busch and Keselowski – all of whom had to stop before lap 47.
Just one lap prior to the cutoff, Jamie McMurray spun to bring out the caution, trapping several cars on pit road and hanging Kenseth – who was waited until the last possible lap to pit – out to dry.
Kenneth's failed strategy tossed the field like a dinner salad, putting half the field a lap down since Kenseth – scored as the leader – never came to pit road to allow those who pitted to get their lap back. Kenseth was also hit with a one lap penalty and was forced to start in the rear for the start of the second segment.
Following the mandatory pit stop between segments, Keselowski and Busch led the field to the green flag for the second segment with just the top 10 cars on the lead lap. After a three laps side-by-side duel, Keselowski cleared Busch and started to pull away
24 laps later, all hell broke loose, as Kenseth collided with Kasey Kahne in turn four while trying to avoid a pitting Chase Elliott, collecting Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick.
The ensuing caution period caused more pandemonium as the laps were winding down to the lap 87 cutoff for drivers to make their mandatory pit stop. Once the green flag was back out on lap 81, drivers began ducking to pit road.
Kyle Busch pitted from the lead on lap 83 but was nailed with a speeding penalty, sending him to the rear of the field, while up front Larson got around Keselowski to take the lead. Larson would go onto win the second segment, followed by Keselowski, Earnhardt, Jr., Logano and Kurt Busch.
A random draw during the final intermission brought the top 11 drivers to pit road for four-tire stops, while the rest of the field stayed out, putting Johnson and Busch in the front row on older tires to start the final 13-lap dash to the finish.
It wasn't hard to predict what would happen next.
On older tires, Johnson and Kyle Busch were dead ducks, and as they leaders came into the backstretch they were already four wide, with Larson and Earnhardt splitting the two with Logano following on the inside to take second.
Once clear of the pack, Logano began closing in on Larson, and finally managed to get alongside for the lead with three laps to go. Larson tried holding Logano off, but the two made contact, sending Larson into the wall.
Keselowski was able to get by Larson's damaged car on the second-to-last lap, but by then Logano had already set sail.
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| Kyle Larson came within three laps of winning the All Star Race |
| Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images |
Larson, who had raced his way into the All Star Race with a thrilling last-lap duel with Elliott in the Sprint Showdown, could barely contain his disappointment having been so close to winning it all.
"I'm super disappointed. I hate that I keep letting my team down. They did everything right. They worked their tails off after I got all the damage in the Showdown," said Larson. "I just got loose and Joey (Logano) caught me. He did a really good job side-drafting me. I tried to hang on his quarter panel like I did with Chase (Elliott) earlier today. I got really loose as soon as I got in the corner
"I'm really disappointed but congrats to Logano. I'm having fun but this will be hard to get over."
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