Joey Logano wins the 2015 CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway

A controversial finish saw Joey Logano emerge victorious Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, a win that denied Dale Earnhardt Jr. advancing to the third round of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff.

On a green-white-checkered overtime restart, Logano was leading with Earnhardt lined up second when a race-ending crash erupted just after the CampingWorld.com 500 returned to green. The field was then frozen with Logano officially declared the winner, his third consecutive victory and giving him a sweep of all Round 2 events.

“I saw the [caution] lights come on when I was still in the lead and I thought we had it,” Logano said. “It is all about how the timing loops are and the camera to make sure that is what happened. It is such a crazy race. ... To pull it into victory lane here at Talladega is so cool.”

Earnhardt finished second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards.

Although he led a race-high 61 laps, Earnhardt was one of four drivers eliminated from the Chase Sunday, joining Ryan Newman and championship favorites Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin, teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. Earnhardt entered Talladega in a sizeable points deficit and essentially needed a victory to stave off elimination.

Despite the disappointment, Earnhardt did not question NASCAR’s decision to call for the yellow flag denying him the opportunity to retake the lead. Had the race stayed green, Earnhardt believed victory was assured because his Chevrolet was superior to Logano’s No. 22 Ford.

“I feel like no matter the rules, when the race is over, I can live with the result as long as everyone else is going by the same rules,” Earnhardt said. “Per the rule book, it sorted out and I finished second. I’m okay with that. We could argue (NASCAR) could have waited another hundred foot to throw the caution, but they didn’t have to. They threw it when they needed to. I’m fine with that.”

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick finished 15th to narrowly advanced to the Round 3 by six-point margin.

However, several drivers called the means Harvick went to make the third round into question, including Hamlin and Kenseth, who allege Harvick deliberately wrecked Trevor Bayne on the final restart to assure he transferred. Harvick denied any wrongdoing, saying his car was damaged and he was attempting to move out of the way when he contacted Bayne.

“We weren’t running very well there at the end on restarts and we were just trying to get out of the way,” Harvick said. “I don’t know if I clipped (Bayne) or if he came across as I was coming up.”

Neither Kenseth, Hamlin nor Bayne were buying Harvick’s explanation.

“(Harvick) knew he was blowing up, so he said he was going to stay in his lane,” Kenseth said. “(Bayne) then went up and outside and he clipped him and caused a wreck because he knew he’d make the Chase that way.”

Hamlin took to Twitter to voice his displeasure over how the final laps transpired.

“What a joke we have a car with no motor wreck the field to end the race,” Hamlin tweeted. “Complete crap. Sorry to anyone who spent $ coming to this circus.”

NASCAR reviewed the chain of events and met with Joe Gibbs, Kenseth and Hamlin’s team owner, before concluding Harvick did nothing intentional and would not be punished.

“There is no evidence right now that there was anything (Harvick) did that was questionable other than moving out of line,” NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton said “There are some of the teams that questioned what (Harvick) car did on the restarts. We went back and walked through it with them.

“Procedurally from NASCAR, we don’t see anything there that is suspect so far. We haven’t seen anything.”