NASCAR All-Star Race Results 2015: Order and Highlights from Denny Hamlin's Win

A late move with just three laps remaining in the final segment was all Denny Hamlin needed to pull away with a win at the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday, surpassing Kevin Harvick. 

After the race, Hamlin talked about the late move—with Harvick on his bumper, Hamlin wisely moved up to the corner and stole the line that Harvick wanted to take, causing him to lose momentum in the process—that earned him the win, per Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com:

"

It was more defense than anything, but it turned into offense for me. He (Harvick) kept getting closer and closer, and eventually he gets to that right rear quarter panel, and your race is done. Initially, I was looking in my mirror, and I knew it was going to be a defensive move to take his line.

But I was just going to have to do something different, because I was starting to lose time. My laps time were dropping off, and I just had to do something different to try to salvage a win, and that was obviously the key move for us.

"

It was also a pretty lucrative move, as Hamlin tweeted after the race:

Marty Smith of ESPN has more on Hamlin's late maneuver: 

And NASCAR on Twitter captured his celebrations after the race, meanwhile:

Here are the full results:

Place	Driver	Starting Position	Laps Led
1	Denny Hamlin	1	26
2	Kevin Harvick	20	0
3	Kurt Busch	16	24
4	Jeff Gordon	9	0
5	Matt Kenseth	17	0
6	Kyle Busch	19	0
7	Kasey Kahne	5	11
8	Joey Logano	11	0
9	Brad Keselowski	3	49
10	Dale Earnhardt Jr	7	0
11	AJ Allmendinger	13	0
12	Clint Bowyer	4	0
13	Greg Biffle	2	0
14	Aric Almirola	8	0
15	Jimmie Johnson	12	0
16	Jamie McMurray	14	0
17	Carl Edwards	10	0
18	Ryan Newman	18	0
19	Tony Stewart	15	0
20	Danica Patrick	6	0

The unique format for the All-Star Race saw the first four segments split into 25 laps, before a 10-lap sprint to the finish for the drivers. 

Brad Keselowski was the early frontrunner, as he won the first segment and held off Kurt Busch in the second. He then led every lap in the third segment, though Busch was able to hold off Harvick to win the fourth segment. 

That's when things got interesting. The first five to enter the pits were Keselowski, Busch, Kasey Kahne, Harvick and Jeff Gordon, but Hamlin was able to get out of the pits first—a key move—and Keselowski was busted for speeding and was penalized, forced to start the final segment from the back of the pack, essentially ruining his shot at victory. 

It was a disappointing result for the driver, who led for 49 laps, almost double that of Hamlin.

But Hamlin's pit crew also deserves major credit for getting him off pit road first despite the driver coming into the mandatory pit stops in sixth place. Harvick then made the most of the golden opportunity his crew delivered him, but it can't be overstated how much that pit stop changed the race. 

Hamlin will now be hoping his victory can lead to a vigorous climb up the Sprint Cup Chase leaderboard, where he currently sits in 15th place, 153 points behind leader Harvick. His win at Richmond bodes well for his spot in the Chase, of course, but he won't want to take any chances. 

He'll be hoping his All-Star conquest serves as the impetus for another win or two down the stretch. Given his strong race and the performance of his pit crew, it probably wouldn't be wise to bet against him.