Hours after team owner Roger Penske’s IndyCar drivers swept the front row of this year’s Indianapolis 500 in qualifying, Logano added a $1 million prize pool with his victory in the annual all-star event of NASCAR.
Logano, who has yet to win a points-paying NASCAR Cup Series race this season, started on the pole and led 199 of the 200 laps, which included using multiple tire compounds this season.
Denny Hamlin ended up being Logano’s toughest challenger, nearly taking the lead in a three-wide move midway through the race, but also closing the gap in the final laps before Logano edged him out by 0.636 seconds.
It is the second All Star Race victory of Logano’s NASCAR career.
The race got off to a wild start that ended with a fight in the garage between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch.
Busch got loose and crashed into the outside wall on the first lap and then on Lap 2, Busch hit Stenhouse and sent his No. 47 hard into the Turn 2 wall, knocking him out of the race. A frustrated Stenhouse then parked his wrecked car in the Busch team pits.
After the race, Stenhouse, who waited until the end of the race since there is no tunnel on the course, confronted Busch after the race, which started as a heated confrontation and ended with fists flying.
Chris Buescher finished third, Kyle Larson, who qualified fifth for the Indy 500 earlier in the day, was fourth and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Busch.
NASCAR displayed a caution on lap 102 of 250, the first of two planned cautions for the ‘All Star’ in the race. All teams were required to complete a pit stop four times, but could use either a primary tire or an “option” tire, which was softer but was also supposed to wear out faster.
Logano was the first out of the pits as all teams elected to use the ‘optional’ tire as it showed virtually no noticeable drop over the first 100 laps. On the restart with 92 laps remaining, Logano led Buescher, Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski.
With 82 to go, Ty Gibbs spun in Turn 1 after contact from Busch, bringing out another caution. Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez took the yellow flag and used the primary tire as Logano led the restart on Lap 124.
Blaney passed Hamlin to take second place with 60 laps remaining and quickly began to make up ground on Logano.
On lap 152, NASCAR displayed the second of two planned ‘All Star’ cautions and this time the teams did not have to pit.
Logano and several others remained on the track, while Larson was the first out of the pits of those who entered. The race returned to green with 42 laps remaining.
Within five laps, Larson, the first car on new tires, had moved from tenth to third place, behind Logano and Hamlin. Larson’s charge eventually stalled as the finish turned into a battle between Logano and Hamlin.
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