Joey Logano shines at Las Vegas with NASCAR's new aero package
Photo by Dave Biro of DB3 Imaging
LAS VEGAS—For Joey Logano, the waiting was the hardest part.
After 12 attempts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford finally found his way to Victory Lane on Sunday.
“It’s about time,” Logano said after taking the checkered flag in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Logano pitted for the final time on Lap 217. He won the race against Kevin Harvick off of pit road and cycled back to the lead on Lap 227. Although his Penske teammate Brad Keselowski challenged him in lapped traffic and seized the lead for four circuits, Logano regained the point on Lap 244 and held on by .236-seconds over the No. 2 Ford at the finish.
“Brad and I were so evenly matched, and the way the draft works, you just can't drive away,” Logano said. “My car got tight there the last five, six laps, and Brad was catching me so quick, and I got stuck behind a lap car, and I was like, oh, man, but man that was so close, and to be able to get it there at the end was a lot of fun.
“My heart is still running, but what a great team to get back in Victory Lane after last year, to get us back into the Playoffs is a nice feeling, and we can go on and race aggressively towards the Playoffs.”
Kyle Busch finished third followed by Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin.
Harvick started from the pole and only relinquished the lead in the first stage during green flag pit stops. He won the opening stage and lapped all but 18 cars after the first 80 laps. Keselowski elected to take two tires during pit stops under yellow and jumped from 10th to first for the start of Stage 2, followed by Kyle Busch, Harvick, Logano, Hamlin, Truex, Erik Jones, Elliott, Stenhouse and Suarez.
Logano passed Harvick and Busch then set his sights on his teammate. He took the lead from Keselowski on Lap 97, with Busch and Harvick following. Busch ran down Logano and finally passed him on Lap 120. When he pitted 10 laps later, Busch was busted for speeding and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty two laps later. He dropped to 25th, one lap down.
“If we didn’t have the speeding penalty on pit road, we would have won this race,” said Busch who was going for a sweep of the weekend’s races after victories in the Gander Outdoor Truck Series on Friday and Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. “But the guys gave me a great piece and we were certainly fast there at the end. We were running some of them leaders down and closing in on them running 31-flats and once I got within the vicinity of them, I just stalled out to 31.40s and couldn’t go any faster in order to gain on them anymore.
“I would try to go low, they would go low, try to go high and they go high and it’s just an air game. Very frustrating, but overall we had a really fast car—the M&M’s Camry was good and driver threw it away.”
Byron, one of the last cars to pit, inherited the lead until he came for service on Lap 150. Logano cycled out to the lead—and the Stage 2 win 10 laps later. Kurt Busch, who pitted on Lap 146, remained on the track when the leaders came in for service.
He held the lead when the race went green for the final stage on Lap 168 with Harvick, Logano, Hamlin, Truex, Keselowski, Elliott, Stenhouse, Almirola and Jones in tow. Despite a valiant effort by Harvick, Kurt Busch was able to block the No. 4 Ford’s run—and his momentum for the next 10 laps. Harvick finally regained the lead on Lap 188 and Logano passed Busch for second two laps later.
Kyle Busch worked his way back into the top 10 on Lap 173 and took the lead on Lap 216 during green flag pit stops. Logano cycled back to the point on Lap 227 and despite attempts by Keselowski, Logano had a two-car lead at the finish.
“This Discount Tire Ford Mustang was really strong, and I thought it was a pretty good race,” Keselowski said. “I passed Joey with the lap traffic there and caught a break there, and then lap traffic cost me the lead to Joey and he pulled a good slide job, and I tried to pull it back and I was just a touch too nice to him.”
While Logano described the battle as “more intense than I wanted it to be,” team owner Roger Penske enjoyed the show from the sidelines.
“Well, I’ve seen it all, and over the years with teammates racing each other, but on the one side, you worry a little bit, but on the other side, boy, isn't that great because we're competitive and we're racing for first, our cars,” Penske said. “To me, just knowing these are guys that are professional, they've won races, they're teammates, but at the end of the day, the best man wins. I don't want one of them to knock him out, if you follow me, but Brad could have gone underneath him there maybe and won.”
Still, Logano, 28, prevailed for his first win of the season and the 22nd of his Monster Energy Cup Series career. He currently holds a two-point lead over Harvick in the standings.
In a race that produced no cautions—other than for stage breaks—but 19 lead changes among nine drivers, Logano was pleased with the performance of the new aero package but admits it was intense.
“You can't get away,” Logano said. “You're constantly looking around. Mentally I'm exhausted right now, there's just so much going on in the race, and you're trying to draft down the straightaways and get in the right gap and you're trying to keep cars from being able to draft to you. You're working lap traffic as best as possible. You're getting into corners and you're working different lanes. It's just ‑‑ there's so much strategy that goes into driving these race cars now that I thought it was entertaining as can be.
“I don't really know what to say if you don't like that. That was ‑‑ it's not very often where you're going to have a green flag run that long and have a finish that close between three cars. That's something, I'll tell you what. I’d say it's a big thumbs‑up for the sport. I'm proud to be a part of that, and something that ‑‑ it'll be interesting as the year goes and as these teams keep evolving and changing their setups and things like that.
“But so far, Atlanta was a good race, this was a great race. You know, it proves that we don't have to have big crashes to have a good race. I think that was something that was pretty cool to see today.”
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