Logano Avoids Last Lap Drama For Clash Win At Daytona

Going into the final lap of Sunday’s rain postponed running of the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway, Joey Logano was hoping to push his teammate to the lead.

Halfway through that lap, Logano found himself en route to the victory in the non-points, pre-season race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

The hole opened for Logano when his teammate, Brad Keselowski, tangled with defending race winner Denny Hamlin in turns one and two while racing for the lead on the final lap.

With momentum from a push by on the Logano, Keselowski drove low under Hamlin in turn one. Hamlin moved low to try to slam the door on Keselowski, but moved a little lead, leading to contact between the two cars.

Keselowski lost forward momentum, while Hamlin made more contact with Austin Dillon, sending his Toyota spinning off turn two.

Meanwhile, Logano drove his No. 22 Ford high, wide and handsome off turn two, and powered away to his Clash victory.

“It’s cool to win the Clash,” said Logano. “We came close last year and it’s really neat to be in victory lane and a good start to our day.”

Logano said teamwork among the Ford teams was the key to besting the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.

“That was the play, he said. “The Toyotas are so selfless, I guess is the way to look at it. They are able to work together and think of one car of winning, and they’re really good at that. We had to think the same way as Ford and with Stewart-Haas and the Penske cars and we were able to get a good enough run to work together enough to break them up and make the passes and then there at the end was kind of a mess.

“Everything was going really fast. Everything was going on and I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Keselowski had no qualms about the move he made on the final lap.

“It is the Clash, it’s not the 500 and I guarantee he knows and everyone else who is watching today that I’m gonna make that move again,” he said.

Keselowski added that he had no chance of getting off of Hamlin’s car once the contact was made.

“No, once you make contact the banking kind of wedges you two together. It’s unfortunate. I had to make the move. I know all the other drivers are back watching and they know not to make that block on me again.”

Hamlin said he couldn’t have changed much about the final lap.

“There’s really not much I can do differently at the end,” he said. “Perhaps staying in the middle lane there through one and two and trying to side draft. He (Keselowski) had help from the 22 (Logano). I was in a bad spot there. He was just coming so much faster than what I was. There’s not much that I could have done to defend.”

While Logano scampered away to the victory, the race for second coming to the finish line was one to watch, as Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Danica Patrick raced three wide across the line, with Busch coming away with the runner-up position after contact between he and Bowman.

After the race, Busch said he told Bowman on pit road that he felt they could have caught Logano on the final lap.

“When the 22 (Logano) got so far out in front that he was a lone duck and I feel like if we both could have worked together then we could have tracked them back down and then the three of us could have gone for the win instead of just automatically giving it to the 22. Just trying to see what his (Bowman) mindset was with it all and figure out what got him to that decision.”

For Bowman, who was driving the No.88 Chevrolet after winning the pole at Phoenix last year while subbing Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the third place finish was a great result in a one-off ride.

“It wasn’t a bad day by any means,” said Bowman. “It was all we could hope for. To come home third is really gold. Just thankful for the opportunity to drive this thing. Had a lot of fast Chevrolet’s out there for Hendrick these 12 races. Just very thankful for the opportunity.”

Patrick’s fourth place finish is one of her best overall results since her move to stock car racing some four years ago.

“If you’re gonna have one track where I’ve had good races, you kind of hope Daytona is one of them or maybe the one,” she said. “It would be great to get a 500 win, but it’s great to run up front. We start off with the biggest race of the year.”

Kevin Harvick, in his first drive in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, came home with a solid fifth place finish.

While Logano saw the highs of success on the day, one driver who had an unexpectedly bad day was defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Acai Berry Market: SegmentationThe acai berry market can be purchased in 2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg or 20mg according viagra 100 mg to the instructions provided to you by your doctor to get the best results. Any individual, who is purchasing viagra interested to endure a plastic or cosmetic surgery, is more than required to discourse his medical record with his doc. Psychosexual therapy treatment for impotence: Various researches estimate that around 90% of order sildenafil the cause of male impotence emanates from psychological causes. In the meantime, one viagra online for women pdxcommercial.com can opt for ED pills. The first incident for Johnson came on lap 17, when Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet broke loose coming off turn four, making contact with Kurt Busch, sending Busch’s Ford hard into the outside wall.

Johnson was able to continue, but saw his day come to an end when his car snapped loose again off of turn four, this time sending his Chevrolet hard into the inside wall. Johnson was uninjured, but his car was too damaged to continue.

Oddly enough, breaking loose off turn four is nothing new at Daytona for Hendrick Motorsports, as it ended the days of Johnson’s teammates, Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in last year’s Daytona 500.

“It’s bizarre because it drove really good everywhere else, then off of (turn) 4 the first time I had a handling problem was when it broke free and I got into the No. 41 (Kurt Busch) and then after that it was really loose,” Johnson said. “After that caution and the last long stretch before I crashed again. Just off of turn 4. The sun certainly sits on that edge of the track a little bit harder than anywhere else. We will take some notes and learn from those mistakes and apply that to the (Daytona) 500 car.”

It was a rough day for another pre-race favorite, Martin Truex, Jr. The driver of the No. 78 Toyota was trying to follow Harvick through traffic going into turn four with 15 laps to go when he drove across the front bumper of Kyle Larson’s car.

That contact sent Truex, Jr. spinning in turn four, making contact with Chris Buescher before tagging the wall with the front end. The damage brought Truex, Jr.’s day to a premature end.

“Well, I was having trouble with my mirror all day,” Truex, Jr. said. “I just flat cut in front of (Kyle) Larson and spun myself out so it was our own mistake. We didn’t get the mirrors quite right in the car before the race and then just trying to fit in the hole I wasn’t sure I could fit in and trying to get track position towards the end of the race. Completely my fault but glad we didn’t tear up a lot of race cars there.”

Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Buescher and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Advance Auto Parts Clash – February 19, 2017

1. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 75.
2. (13) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 75.
3. (8) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 75.
4. (12) Danica Patrick, Ford, 75.
5. (7) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 75.
6. (1) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 75.
7. (14) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 75.
8. (16) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 75.
9. (17) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 75.
10. (3) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 75.
11. (15) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 75.
12. (4) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 75.
13. (2) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 74.
14. (11) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Damage, 61.
15. (5) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, Accident, 60.
16. (6) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 48.
17. (10) Kurt Busch, Ford, Accident, 16.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 143.831 mph.

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 18 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.120 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 4 for 16 laps.

Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers.

Lap Leaders: B. Keselowski 1-8; D. Hamlin 9; B. Keselowski 10-19; Kyle Busch 20-24; J. Logano 25-27; D. Hamlin 28-74; J. Logano 75;.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin 2 times for 48 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 18 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 5 laps; J. Logano 2 times for 4 laps.