Jamie McMurray restarted second and used the outside line during the final 10-lap segment to pass race leader Carl Edwards to win Saturday nights NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. McMurray captured his first career All-Star race win and the first for team owner Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sebates.
“This is an amazing race. I’ve been fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 but the All-Star race is different. When I woke up this morning, I was like ‘I’m just going to have fun. We were talking about the old days of the All-Star race when it was more laid back. It’s way more serious now. That’s what I told the pit crew – just have fun. It’s about having a good time today and doing your best and fortunately we were the best ones today,” McMurray said.
Crew chief Keith Rodden made the call to take track position over tires and McMurray came off pit road second and in position to win the race.
“Keith did an unbelievable job. He was a huge secret in the garage and I’m so glad that I get the opportunity to work with him. We’ve had good cars all year long. We had some bad luck but this is one of those races that make up for a lot of bad times,” McMurray said.
2007 All-Star champion Kevin Harvick finished in second place. Harvick was unable to catch McMurray after moving into second with five laps remaining.
“The guys did a great job putting a fast race car on the track. We recovered from the first one and the second one cost us the race. All in all, they put a car on the race track that was capable of winning and we just didn’t get it done,” Harvick said.
Mat Kenseth has a strong car all night and finished third.
“I don’t know what we were missing — most of the night I felt like we were very mid-pack and made some good adjustments and had a really good pit stop at the end,” Kenseth said. “Really happy for Jamie (McMurray). If we can’t win it’s always nice to see good guys win.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also looking for his second All-Star win, but came home fourth in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS.
“They made the car a little bit better there at the end. But we’ll think about it and look at everything we need to look at to make it better for the 600 and I’m happy for Jamie (McMurray, race winner). It’s a pretty cool deal for him. We need to work a little bit and get a little better and the guys will do it. I’m confident that when we come back here next week we’ll be good,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Carl Edwards captured his second straight Sprint All-Star race pole and lead 18 laps en route to a fifth place finish.
“That’s frustrating. I just went back and watched the replays. Jamie just did a perfect job on the start. I had him cleared for a minute. If I would have pulled in front of him in turn one, if I would have gone high, I think we would have won that race, but I was just so reluctant to give up the bottom. Jamie just did a perfect job,” Edwards said.
Kasey Kahne won the second and third segments but hit the wall off of turn four in the fourth segment. Teammate Jeff Gordon also had a good car but lost control of his car on lap 61 after something mechanical went wrong.
“I’m not exactly sure what. Hopefully we didn’t damage it too bad so we can’t find out what it was. I was going down the backstretch going into turn three and I felt something in the front end give. All of a sudden I had more wheel and I wasn’t even in the corner. As I got in the corner, the car just went straight. It wasn’t like it was a right-front where it just shot there; it just slowly went there. We’ll have to do some investigating to find out. It was certainly one fast Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet up until that point,” Gordon said.
Kyle Busch spun after making contact with Clint Bowyer while trying to get around both Bowyer and his brother Kurt Busch. In the second segment, Busch bumped Bowyer’s rear bumper and got loose and as Busch went around the front end of Bowyer he clipped Busch, sending him spinning into the outside wall. Joey Logano was unable to avoid Busch and was also collected in the crash.
“Had a good run through (turns) one and two and off turn two. Kurt (Busch) got real bottled up on the outside and slowed down so I knew I was clear to go to the bottom and swoop down and try to get underneath (Clint) Bowyer and when I did he blocked me and I hit him and he got squirrely and then I was still under him and it hit me and turned me around the wrong way on the backstretch and got in the outside wall,” Busch said.
“Just going for it with Kyle (Busch) back there. His brother (Kurt Busch) was really tight and I think he was fighting two tires or staying out or something and about got in the fence and kind of caused Kyle to make an evasive maneuver, which kind of moved me down. It’s just racing for a million bucks,” seventh place finisher Bowyer said of the accident.
Final All-Star Results
——————————————————–
1 Jamie McMurray – Chevrolet
2 Kevin Harvick – Chevrolet
3 Matt Kenseth – Toyota
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr – Chevrolet
5 Carl Edwards – Ford
6 Jimmie Johnson – Chevrolet
7 Clint Bowyer – Toyota
8 Brian Vickers – Toyota
9 Denny Hamlin – Toyota
10 Brad Keselowski – Ford
11 Kurt Busch – Chevrolet
12 Tony Stewart – Chevrolet
13 David Ragan – Ford
14 Kasey Kahne – Chevrolet
15 Josh Wise – Chevrolet
16 Ryan Newman – Chevrolet
17 Jeff Gordon – Chevrolet
18 Martin Truex Jr – Chevrolet
19 Greg Biffle – Ford
20 AJ Allmendinger – Chevrolet
21 Kyle Busch – Toyota
22 Joey Logano – Ford
The Sprint Cup Series will return to Charlotte next weekend for the season’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600.
