Jamie McMurray left Charlotte one million dollars better off after securing his first Sprint All-Star Race victory.
McMurray began the final 10-lap segment tied in a thrilling battle with polesitter Carl Edwards, eventually winning and heading off down the road to book his spot in Victory Lane. A late charge from Kevin Harvick looked like it could threaten McMurray’s party, but it was not enough to deny the Chip Ganassi Racing driver from his mammoth paycheck.
Coming in behind McMurray and Harvick across the line were Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., with Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top five.
“My little boy, when I woke up this morning, he asked what we were going to do today, and he said, ‘I’m going to play in my sandbox,'” said McMurray. “He said, ‘what are you going to do, Dad?’ I said, ‘I’m going to race for a million bucks, Carter.’ It’s so cool that we were actually able to win.”
“He said a train,” he added, when asked on what Carter wanted to do with his dad’s winnings. “so Carter, you are going to get a really cool train in the next few days.”
Harvick looked set to take the victory at the end of the penultimate segment, leading the field down pit road for the last time based on the average finish in the first four segments, but missed out on the lead in pit road before the final 10-lap segment of the race.
Kyle Busch won the opening segment of the race but was involved in a wreck in the second segment, colliding with Clint Bowyer and sending Busch into Joey Logano, knocking out two of the pre-race favourites for the win.
Kasey Kahne came down pit road in second, having won the second and third segments, but a heavy hit on the wall in the fourth segment meant he had to make lengthy repairs and dropped him to the tail of the field. Edwards won the race off pit road, followed by McMurray, Harvick, Kenseth, setting up the thrilling ten lap battle for the win.
