Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet seemingly morphed into an armored car by virtue of driving home with a cool $1 million Saturday night for winning the 35th NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson earned his spot in the All-Star Race after winning the Monster Energy Open preliminary event earlier in the evening.
Even though he’s finished third and eighth in his last two regular season races, it has not been an easy season for Larson, who has struggled in several races (including three DNFs in a four-race stretch due to wrecks), dropping as low as 21st in the standings after Talladega (he’s back up to 15th after last week’s race at Kansas).
But on Saturday night, Larson was the best driver and wound up taking the victory.
“This is unbelievable,” Larson told Fox Sports 1. “This whole day was up and down, from the B Main (the Monster Energy Open) we were in to getting a little bit of damage and repaired on the car.”
Early in the final stage, Kyle Larson got a great push from Kevin Harvick, who was running sixth at the time. Harvick pushed Larson right through the middle of the pack to grab the lead. That would prove to be the move of the race.
“Harvick gave me a heck of a push to get to the lead from the third row, and then to get by the 18 (Kyle Busch) on the final restart,” Larson told FS1. “Man, this is amazing. I feel like every time I’ve been in the All-Star Race, I’ve been close to winning. It’s neat to close it out. ... There’s a lot of people from the shop here today, so we get to do some celebrating and I’m excited about that.”
Harvick finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace.
“Letdown” is the way Harvick described his night to FS1. “That’s how you take the fastest car and don’t win the race with it. You spot ‘em the whole field.
“It was an incredible Busch Beer Ford. It was just unfortunate the way pit road went tonight because it wasn’t even close to anybody having a good car like we had tonight. It was just a great night from performance, just a bad night on pit road.”
Sixth through 10th were Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr.
MORE: Results from NASCAR All-Star Race
Kyle Busch won Stage 1, Kevin Harvick won Stage 2 and Joey Logano won Stage 3.
Stage 1 notes: William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson transferred into the All-Star Race by winning the first three stages respectively in the preliminary Monster Energy Open race held earlier in the evening. Also transferring into the All-Star event was Alex Bowman, who won the fan vote. … The opening stanza went into overtime – with three extra laps for a total of 33 laps – after Erik Jones brought out the caution with four laps to go after hitting the wall, resulting in a blown right front tire.
Stage 2 notes: Ryan Newman went sailing through the front stretch grass just two laps into the 20 lap stage, bringing out a caution flag. The incident caused damage to the front end of Newman’s Ford, but he was able to bounce back.
Stage 3 notes: Erik Jones, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch were all involved in a wreck three laps into the scheduled 20-lap stage. During the ensuing caution, Kevin Harvick was penalized for pitting too soon and his crew went over the wall too soon, leaving him to restart at the back of the pack. … But Harvick didn’t sit and sulk: he went from 18th to sixth in just 16 laps. … After his early-stage contact, Kyle Busch held back for the remainder of the stage, only to emerge fourth as Stage 4 began.
Stage 4 notes: After an apparent left rear tire failure, Denny Hamlin suddenly slowed and went spinning two laps into the scheduled 15 laps after being hit in the rear by Ryan Blaney, who had nowhere to go. The wreck collected Austin Dillon, as well. … With 12 laps left, Jones lost his right rear tire and hit the wall, bringing out yet another caution. ... Clint Bowyer threw a volley of punches at Ryan Newman through his car window after the race.
BOOM!!!! @KyleLarsonRacin WINS THE ALL STAR RACE!!!@TeamChevy @AdventHealth @CGRTeams #ilikewinners
— Chip Ganassi (@GanassiChip) May 19, 2019