Harvick holds off Suarez to win All-Star race and $1m

Kevin Harvick withstood a late charge from Daniel Suarez to claim the All-Star race and the $1million winner's cheque on Saturday.

Published : May 20, 2018 08:41 IST

A few surprising drivers seemed to have a shot at winning the NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway but Kevin Harvick found victory lane yet again.

Harvick, who leads the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season with five victories, held off a late charge from Daniel Suarez in the final 10-lap shootout to claim the race and the $1million winner's cheque on Saturday.

He took the final restart with two laps remaining ahead of Suarez, with Denny Hamlin third.

Suarez, who raced his way into the field by winning a stage in the Open qualifier earlier in the evening, got a push from Hamlin to briefly take the lead.

But Harvick's number four Stewart-Haas Racing Ford had been fast all night, and he quickly regained the lead and held on to win his second All-Star race. He also won the 2007 event.

"I knew if we could just get to the backstretch … we had a rocket," Harvick told FS1.

In addition to Suarez, several other surprising faces raced near the front during the event, among them AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney.

A multi-car crash in overtime of stage three ended the hopes of several drivers, including Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.

Truex Jr. appeared to run out of room trying to run four-wide, got loose and sparked the chaos.

"It just sucks we couldn't finish it off … It was just one of those deals at the end of the race," Truex Jr. told FS1. "I knew if I lifted there, and all those other guys kept going, we wouldn't have won there."

Joey Logano finished third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott.

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