CONCORD, N.C. -- There may be no more helpless feeling in the world than to feel $1 million slipping through your fingers. With two laps to go in Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race, that may have been the emotion Matt Kenseth was experiencing when Tony Stewart snatched the lead -- and the victory -- away (watch video).

And while Stewart was celebrating his first All-Star victory a few hundred yards away, Kenseth was trying to explain how it all slipped away with less than three miles remaining.

"It's better to run second than anywhere else but first, but on the other hand, it's disappointing when you take two to go on the track and you're in the lead and you come home second," Kenseth said. "I feel bad that we got beat, but I think I could do it 100 times and I couldn't hold him off."

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It's better to run second than anywhere else but first, but on the other hand, it's disappointing when you take two to go on the track and you're in the lead and you come home second. I feel bad that we got beat, but I think I could do it 100 times and I couldn't hold him off.

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-- MATT KENSETH

Kenseth appeared to have the car to beat when he dove below Kyle Busch in Turn 3 with a handful of laps to go, but a caution for debris on the next lap set up what turned out to be the final restart of a hectic 10-lap final segment. Kenseth was able to clear Busch at the drop of the green flag, but so did Stewart, who was able to make his car stick at the bottom of the track.

"All night, the very bottom was the slowest for me," Kenseth said. "The middle, by far, had the most grip. Once I took the lead, I ran around the middle there and Tony almost passed me because he was so much faster then me, he almost went around me. So I chose the bottom the next lap just because I saw he was choosing it, just trying to get in front of him because these cars, if you get one in front of you, you can't usually pass them."

It worked for two laps, as Kenseth was able to keep Stewart at bay, and Stewart stayed in Kenseth's tire tracks. But as the two leaders flashed under the start-finish line with two laps to go, Kenseth realized he had no choice but to leave the door open down low.

"I got in front of him and had a little room back off of [Turn] 4, I thought, so I was going to run back to the middle down there where I was running the best all night," Kenseth said. "That's where my car was best all night. I had about a three-car-length lead on him. I went down there, the splitter hit the ground and it kind of didn't turn and I got in the gas real early and real hard and it just plowed. It just wouldn't turn at all and he just rolled right by me, pretty much like I was tied to a tree."

Stewart was almost in disbelief at his good fortune.

"I can't believe he gave me the bottom," Stewart said. "We got a run off of [Turn] 4 on him and I was prepared to go at least to the middle or the top, and run somewhere different because I wasn't going to follow him through there again. On the entry, he ran up high and I was like, I can't believe he's giving me the bottom again. I got down there, got in the gas real quick and got by."

Like the entire field, Kenseth stopped at the midway point of the first segment for tires and fuel, then stopped for only two tires during the caution flag at the 50-lap mark. After finishing that segment in second behind Busch, Kenseth was one of eight cars that decided to stay out. He wound up second behind Jeff Gordon after the third segment, but there were concerns that the bump stops had worn to the point where the car was dragging the splitter.

"On that break, we knew we had to tighten the car up a lot, which we did," Kenseth said. "We put more air in the tires and did all the things you need to do to do a short run. It was actually pretty good for five or six laps. But with all the short runs and cautions and getting the body banged in a little bit and stuff, it just hurt it with three or four to go. We started getting really tight and it just wouldn't turn at all that last lap and Tony just rolled on by."

And instead of feeling like a million bucks, Kenseth was left to wonder what might have been.

"It sucks getting beat, obviously," he said. "I thought we had a shot."