Joey Logano wins at Kansas and advances to next round of Chase
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – On a day when many of the drivers considered to be his main rivals for the championship faltered, Joey Logano can now be almost carefree throughout the next two races of the Chase.
Logano took the lead on the final restart of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway over Ryan Newman and held off Kyle Larson over the final 15 laps to win and ensure his advancement into the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
On the next-to-last restart, Logano took four tires and was sixth as cars ahead of him took two tires. While taking two or no tires would have been tempting; the team chose to stick with the four-tire plan it was utilizing throughout the race. It paid off.
He was second after the first green flag lap and when the caution came out for Kasey Kahne, it meant Logano would restart on the front row with Ryan Newman, the race leader. The last restart was no contest. Logano had the lead into turn one.
“The two of us were up in the top and we were able to make our cars pretty equal,” Logano said. “And whoever was up front was going to win that race there, so having a good start, get the lead and take his air away.”
Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, the Chase points leader before the points reset after last week’s race at Dover, suffered a tire failure and hit the wall. So did Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jimmie Johnson got crashed on lap 85. All three drivers had at least three wins before the Chase began.
Earnhardt Jr. said the tread came off the tire that failed. Keselowski had no explanation. He was running in the top five when he hit the wall.
“We blew a tire, not really sure why,” Keselowski said. “Just really didn’t have an aggressive set up in the car. Just blew a tire.”
“Just Russian Roulette and it was our turn.”
A Goodyear official interviewed by ESPN during the race couldn’t pinpoint a common cause for the tire issues in the race. Kevin Harvick, the driver who has arguably had the fastest car all season, came to pit road under green because he thought he had a flat tire. He didn’t. But he was only able to work his way back to 12th after the pit stop.
Since Logano is advancing to the next round of the Chase, he doesn’t have to worry about his finishing position at Charlotte next week or Talladega in two weeks. It’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen at the restrictor plate track and now Logano can run the race the way he wants with no points repercussions.
“[The win] means a lot. Team Penske is where we need to be. Unfortunately Brad didn’t have the best day but we had a couple of fast Fords coming in here.”
And now that Logano has wins in the first two rounds of the Chase, a repeat performance in the third guarantees he’ll be competing for the title at Homestead.
“We got a real shot at winning the championship and I think we’re one of the teams to beat.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
