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Who else? Kevin Harvick sprints away for All-Star Race win

Kevin Harvick prepares for practice for Saturday’s NASCAR All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Kevin Harvick prepares for practice for Saturday’s NASCAR All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

It’s only fitting that the driver who has won five of the first 12 races of the season is the winner of the All-Star Race.

Kevin Harvick sprinted away on a two-lap dash to the finish and led all 10 laps of the final stage of Saturday night’s All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win $1 million in the non-points event. It’s Harvick’s second All-Star Race win following his win in the 2007 race.

Harvick got a huge push from Joey Logano on the backstretch on the penultimate lap of the race to get around Daniel Suarez. After clearing Suarez, Harvick sailed to victory.

[The All-Star Race was different, just like an All-Star event should be]

Harvick was leading the race easily when a caution flag flew for Kyle Larson’s spin through the grass off Logano’s bumper. The All-Star Race’s rules say that all 10 laps of the final stage must be run under green, so Harvick had to defend the final two laps of the race off a restart.

The racing was entertaining throughout the entirety of the 70-lap race, though it was a bit artificial as NASCAR had choked the engines down, added air ducts to the front of cars and increased the cars’ spoiler height in an attempt to keep cars closer to each other than normal.

The attempt worked. The field stayed relatively close to one another throughout the entirety of the race. But the race also felt forced. It was close because NASCAR did what it could to make it close.

The third stage was won by Harvick after a large crash that collected Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and others. Truex got loose after contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and collected Busch, Kurt Busch and Keselowski.

Full 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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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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