“What a crazy battle for a million dollars at the end,” Logano said. “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.”
The lineup for the final 13-lap segment was setup following a round of caution flag pitstops, with only 11 cars being allowed to pit following a random draw. Missing out on the pitstops were Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch who were running 12th and 13th, respectively, after the end of Segment 2. The duo started on the front row for Segment 3, but were quickly passed by cars with fresher tires.
Larson got out to a substantial lead, but Logano was able to catch and pass him with two laps to go to score the win.
Brad Keselowski finished second with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch rounding out the top-five finishers.
“A decent night, but not the great night we wanted with the Miller Lite Ford ending up second,” Keselowski said. “I’m pretty happy for my teammate Joey Logano. He kind of did exactly what you would expect out of an All-Star Race format and made a pretty incredible pass to win the race.”
Rookie Chase Elliott finished sixth with Trevor Bayne, Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounding out the top-10.
The talk amongst drivers, crews, media and fans post-race was the format of the event. Many drivers were confused during the running of the race and expressed their frustrations over team radios.
“There was a next-to-last lap pass for the lead. There were several passes for the lead,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know how you can get much more compelling racing that what we saw today.”
The Sprint Cup Series stays in Charlotte and will run the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday night.