Kurt Busch is the great winner of the Sprint Cup All-Star race after storming from 5th place to the lead when his brother Kyle and his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin tangled in the 3rd Lap of the final All-Star race segment. Still Kurt Busch had to survive 2 late cautions and held off Martin Truex Jr. before he grabbed the $1m check to the winner of the race.
Busch's victory made the evening extra special for team owner Roger Penske, whose IndyCar drivers Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe finished first, second and fourth, respectively, in pole qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day.
Although the race lasted only 100 laps. most of the action was packed into the final 10-lap segment, in which only green flag laps counted toward the checked flag..
At the final final segment of the race -- during which crews could work on the cars but were not allowed to change tires -- Jimmie Johnson was leading the field towards the mandatory 4-tire pitstop.
However, it was Hamlin first off pit road, followed by Kyle Busch and Johnson when the field took the green flag for the final 10-lap shootout.
Yet, a wreck in the first corner caused by Martin's braking, damaged eight cars and eliminated McMurray, David Reutimann, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards hopes for the $1m check.
Hamlin and Kyle Busch were battling on Lap 93 fro the lead, with Busch getting a strong run to the outside of him. Hamlin moved up the track in front of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, and Busch hit the outside wall after running out of room causing him a tire blow and made him to clip Kasey Kahne's Ford that caused the fifth caution of the race. Furious Kyle drove to the garage, telling his crew on the radio that they needed to keep him away from Hamlin.
Yet his brother took full advance of the JGR duel being on his way to victory after completing Lap 98 of 100 with only JJ to threatening his $1m check. Kurt Busch picked the outside lane and took the green flag with Jimmie Johnson beside him, followed by Logano and Hamlin. Busch pulled away again, but before the cars got back to the finish line, Johnson was hit by Denny Hamlin causing him to spun across the infield grass putting the race again under yellow for the sixth time. It was another big blow for Jimmie Johnson that was leading the 2 first segments of the All-Star race, experiencing another bad performance.
Kurt Busch was then clear to put the race away in the final two-lap dash, and he exulted on the radio after taking the checkered flag:
"Way to go boys!" Busch . "A million cool ones -- whoo!...Man, this car was a rocket ship at the end. This is huge. This is one of the big marquee events. We were able to dodge the wrecks and, ultimately, we had the fastest car when it counted."
As Joey Logano finished 3rd, the top 10 in the non-points Cup Series race was completed by Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski , Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Bobby Labonte.
Truex and Biffle transferred into the main event by claiming the top two spots, respectively, in Showdown race. Edwards, who finished 10th in the Showdown, completed the 21-driver field as the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote.
Although, Juan Montoya had one of the fastest cars in the Showdown, but his progress through the field was halted abruptly when he turned across the nose of Regan Smith's Chevrolet and crashed into the outside wall as the cars entered Turn 1 on Lap 17.
