Kyle Larson cashes in big on All-Star night

Kyle Larson advanced out of the Open and prevailed in the final 15-lap stage to gather the $1,000,000 prize in the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Larson began his fight to the win in the final 15-lap stage in the third row as Stage 3 winner Joey Logano brought the field to the green flag. He raced side by side with Chase Elliott while Kyle Busch waiting in the wings before taking the lead on Lap 2.

Ryan Blaney spun Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in Turn 3 which brought out the yellow flag.

Busch held the lead for a half a lap as Larson's No. 42 Advent Health Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 got a push by Kevin Harvick to take the lead. Erik Jones smacked the wall in Turn 4 and brought out the second yellow flag of the stage.

Joey Logano pitted from fourth place and joining him were Team Penske teammate Blaney and Aric Almirola as the majority of the field stayed out.

Larson broke away on the restart while Harvick cleared Busch for second and Bubba Wallace moved into fourth. Larson’s lead over Harvick see-sawed over the next few laps as Busch hit the wall with nine laps to go.

Logano put on a show behind the leaders as he cut through traffic on the strength of his four fresh tires and moved past Wallace for fourth.

Larson never faltered up front and took the checkered flag .322 of a second ahead of Harvick. He felt euphoric having come from the back and emerging victorious against former series champions Busch and Harvick.

“This whole day was up and down,” said Larson. “From the D-main that we were in to getting a little bit of damage and had to repair the car. Had some great restarts the last few and Harvick gave me a heck of a push to the lead from the third row.

“I had to guess what he (Busch) was going to do behind me and take his air away. I’ve been close a couple times and I feel that every time I’m in the All-Star race, I’ve been close to winning so its need to finally close it out.”

Harvick and Busch recovered to finish second and third after winning Stages 2 and 1 and encountering issues in Stage 3. Harvick suffered from handling issues in Stage 3 and Busch crashed with Austin Dillon.

Logano came home fourth after winning Stage 3 and behind him was Bubba Wallace scoring a top-five after transferring out of The Open.

All-Star race sophomores Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon ended up sixth and seventh. Alex Bowman and William Byron carried the flag for Hendrick Motorsports after transferring out of The Open and finished eighth and ninth and Martin Truex, Jr. finished tenth.

Fireworks erupted on pit road as Clint Bowyer went after Ryan Newman after the pair came together on the cool-off lap. Bowyer ran to Newman's parked car and threw several punches through his window. The argument continued verbally on pit road with no further punches being thrown.