June 5, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Logano claims inaugural Cup win at World Wide Technology Raceway

MADISON, Ill.--From fireworks to feuds and an overtime win, World Wide Technology’s NASCAR Cup coming-out party was epic.

And Joey Logano kept his victory streak rolling in inaugural events starting with the Bristol Dirt Race last year to the Busch Clash at the LA Coliseum in February and in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.

In front of a sold-out crowd, Logano executed a smooth slide job to grab the lead from Kyle Busch on the final restart and held on for his second win of the 2022 season.

"I think it's just kind of being able to adapt quickly as a race team," Logano said of being the first to win a Cup race at WWTR. "I don't think it's just me. I think all of us as a race team, we were able to call the right strategies, adapt to restarts quickly, understand what lanes are going to move, where the track is going, how to adjust on the car. All those things are new.

"I enjoy the challenge. It's fun. Honestly, this weekend we were just fast. We unloaded fast. Like I said, for not having much data, we unloaded quick, and the car went fast this week."

Busch dropped .655-seconds behind Logano after the checkered flag flew. Kurt Busch finished third followed by Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and AJ Allmendinger, who flew to St. Louis from Portland following Saturday’s Xfinity Series win.

The first stage was fairly routine. Polesitter Chase Briscoe led the first 27 laps after blowing a left rear tire. Austin Cindric grabbed the lead and held on for the Stage 1 win. Chase Elliott had a loose wheel on the No. 9 Chevy and was forced to return to the pits. He dropped to 33 for the Lap 54 restart, where Blaney took the lead from Cindric.

The action—and the tempers—heated up in Stage 2. Chastain, who had been battling Denny Hamlin for sixth, moved the No. 11 Toyota in Turn on Lap 64 to trigger the second caution. Hamlin hit the wall and broke the toe link on his car, but the crew was able to replace the pieces, He restarted 36th, five laps off the pace and on a mission to catch Chastain. On Lap 94, Hamlin ran the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevy into the grass. But the cat and mouse game was far from over.

Michael McDowell took the lead from Kyle Busch on Lap 97. McDowell led a career-high 34 laps throughout the event. But Blaney stalled the No. 34 Ford’s progress when his left rear went flat while the No. 12 Ford was running third, for the third caution on Lap 95. On the restart, Chastain hit Elliott and sent him into the spin cycle on the frontstretch.

“That kid needs an ass whipping,” said Elliott’s spotter Eddie D’Hondt over the radio. Elliott replied, “He ran me over getting into (turn) 3 and wrecked me over again.”

Elliott developed a cut tire from the incident and was forced to pit. When the race restarted, both Elliott and Hamlin exacted their revenge on Chastain.

“I owe half of the field an apology,” Chastain said after the race. “Words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track. I almost did today and I deserve everything that they do. I can’t believe I continued to make those same mistakes; overdrive the corners and drive into guys.

“I had time under caution to get reset; and we’d go green and I would drive into somebody. Terrible.”

For Hamlin, the score is far from even.

“It was unfortunate but I said before, you only want to pay back when it counts,” said Hamlin, who finished 34th. “Once he got done taking out the 9 after me, he wasn’t in contention to win anymore. So, I said many times, you going to have to fence these guys hard just to kind of get their attention. But it’s going to have to be meaningful. It’s going to be on a meaningful day.”

NASCAR communicated to Hamlin that it was time to stop the shenanigans, but the hits kept on coming. On Lap 119, BJ McLeod ran into Elliott, who would finish 21st. The fifth caution was called after Bubba Wallace was spun by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Hamlin had a front-row seat for the incident and displayed his displeasure using the chrome horn on the No. 47 Chevy on Lap 129. McDowell was forced to pit and turned over the lead to Kurt Busch, who held the point to the Stage 2 win.

Truex, who was making his 600th-career Cup start, took the lead on the Lap 143 restart. Tyler Reddick was the next tire victim. His spin off of Turn 2 after his left rear went flat and ignited the seventh yellow on Lap 183. Truex came to pit road and made contact with Almirola but was able to continue. Daniel Suarez wasn’t so lucky. He entered pit road sixth but the crew’s jack snapped in half during service and Suarez dropped to 26th.

Kyle Busch regained the lead on Lap 191 but 10 laps into his run, Stenhouse spun on the backstretch for Caution 8. The top 14 drivers remained on the track and with 33 laps remaining, Logano grabbed the lead for the first time in the race. Before he could set cruise control, Todd Gilliland tagged Cole Custer entering Turn 1.

 

With 13 to go, Logano lined up on the inside with Kyle Busch alongside and the Fords of Almirola and Blaney behind. The No. 18 grabbed the lead and appeared to be en route to his second win of the season when Kevin Harvick snapped loose in Turn 3 and slammed into the wall while running 13th.

The 10th caution set up a manufacturer’s battle between Ford and Toyota with the Brothers Busch lining up against the Team Penske duo of Logano and Blaney.

“My car was better on the outside, but it took a few laps for it to get rolling up there,” Kyle Busch said. “Cold tires, firing off on that restart—didn’t have the help behind me. I was going to put my hand out the window and signal to Kurt to push me along and Joey (Logano) was half a car back out my window trying to see it, so the hand signal was going to be irrelevant, so I didn’t do it, which kind of made Kurt too far back. Got into turn one by myself and was too far back.

With a push from Blaney, Logano gained momentum. He easily cleared Busch coming through Turn 3 on the white-flag lap and held on for his 29th career win.

"Kyle is one of the best in the sport," Logano said. "I knew it was going to be a slugfest right there until the end. To be able to have Blaney behind me, he gave me the push. That was what I needed.

"To be able to have position down in the one. He knew the slide job was coming. He knows me pretty well, and he crossed me back. Then I kind of figured it was coming back at me. If I'm willing to do it, he is going to be willing to do it. I just kind of saw it coming and crossed him back and was able to clear him by two, three car lengths off of four to take the white flag. That was kind of the deciding factor."

Elliott retained the points lead by nine over Kyle Busch.