CONCORD, N. Carolina — Jamie McMurray picked up $1 million with his upset win in the Sprint All-Star Race  Saturday night.



McMurray was second on the restart for the 10-lap sprint to the checkered flag. Lined up outside of pole-sitter Carl Edwards, McMurray waged a door-to-door battle with the leader for a lap around Charlotte Motor Speedway, with McMurray surging slightly ahead several times.



The two cars appeared to touch more than once, and McMurray finally cleared Edwards for the lead two laps into the fifth segment.



“A million bucks, that’s what I kept telling myself,” McMurray said.



McMurray then easily pulled away for his first victory in the event.





“For me, in the car, that was as much fun as you can have, a 10-lap shootout, me and Carl going side by side,” said McMurray, who scored the first victory of his career in 2002 at Charlotte. “Carl and I were just going for it. That’s awesome.”



Kevin Harvick finished second, Matt Kenseth was third and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who complained earlier he was driving a dump truck, was fourth. Edwards faded all the way to fifth. Kurt Busch was 11th after qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day.



“Really happy to see Jamie win, it’s always nice to see good guys win,” said Kenseth.



It seemed to be a popular victory as several drivers made a point to congratulate McMurray in their post-race interviews as the driver took his Chevrolet to Victory Lane. He was met there by team owners Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi, who flew into North Carolina before the race after Indianapolis 500 qualifying.



It was a tough day for Ganassi in Indianapolis, where none of his five cars made it into the Fast 9 qualifying round and Scott Dixon was his fastest driver at 15th.



Carpenter sets the pace



American Ed Carpenter set the pace on the first day of qualifying for the 98th Indianapolis 500, leading nine drivers who still have a chance to take pole position Sunday.



Carpenter set a four-lap qualifying average of 230.661 mph (371.364 km/hr) to edge Carlos Munoz at 230.460 mph (371.041 km/hr) for top honors after the Colombian rookie had bumped an earlier run off the top of the speed chart.



A revamped time trials format for the IndyCar classic at the famed 2.5-mile (4km) oval course produced drama as 33 cars made the field for the May 25 race but none of the starting spots were set.



All times Saturday will be wiped out for Sunday, but only Saturday’s fastest nine will each have one chance Sunday to run for the pole and decide the order for the front three rows. The other 24 cars will fill out the back eight rows of the starting grid in a separate session.



Joining Carpenter and Munoz in Sunday’s pole fight will be, in qualifying speed order, Brazil’s Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner; Canada’s James Hinchcliffe, Australian Will Power, American Marco Andretti, France’s Simon Pagenaud and Americans Josef Newgarden and J.R. Hildebrand. — AP