Kevin Harvick won the Monster Energy All-Star Race on
Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win the $1 Million prize.
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| Sean Gardner/Getty Images |
Harvick was fast throughout the night, and led 36 of the
93 laps run. But after getting caught
back in traffic early in the race, Harvick said his car struggled to regain the
speed he had when the green flag dropped.
“We got a little behind on the first pit stop, and
traffic wasn’t our friend,” Harvick said.
“I was not very good on the bottom; I would push and slide. In a straight line, this thing was a rocket.”
NASCAR implemented a new rules package for the
All-Star Race that slowed the cars down and promoted more side-by-side
racing. Restrictor plates, normally seen
at the much larger Daytona and Talladega, bunched the field up into a pack and
created more drafting.
Harvick said his team has run well on the restrictor
plate tracks leading into this non-points event.
“These guys…put a lot of effort into a lot of
restrictor plate racing,” Harvick said. “Our
car was super fast…this is just unbelievable.”
Daniel Suarez transferred into the All-Star Race after
winning the second segment of the Monster Energy Open, the last-chance race for
all those not already qualified for the main race. Once in the main event, Suarez drove to the
front with a fast car.
Suarez said his car was slow to get going, which hurt
him on the final restart.
“I feel like we had a car actually capable to win the
race,” Suarez said. “For whatever
reason, on restarts my car was taking one lap to go.”
“It hurts to be close and not get it.”
Unofficial results:
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Daniel Suarez
3. Joey Logano
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Chase Elliott
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Kyle Larson
8. AJ Allmendinger
9. Kyle Busch
10. Kasey Kahne
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12. Austin Dillon
13. Jamie McMurray
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Ryan Blaney
16. Ryan Newman
17. Martin Truex Jr.
18. Kurt Busch
19. Clint Bowyer
20. Brad Keselowski
21. Alex Bowman
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| Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images |
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