Joey Logano celebrates in victory lane after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Joey Logano ran away from the field to notch his fourth victory of the season and punch his ticket to the next round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a victory in Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Logano led a career-high 227 of the 334 lap distance and beat out Kevin Harvick by more than half a second for his 12th-career victory and his first ever at Charlotte.
Martin Truex, Jr. finished third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch.
Logano’s win was his best finish at Charlotte in 14 starts, his previous best being a third place showing in the 2011 Coca Cola 600.
“Getting this win at Charlotte means a lot,” said Logano. “I think it’s on everyone’s bucket list to win here mainly because everyone’s race team is here. This is home turf for everyone. You want to win in front of your race team that doesn’t typically get to come to the racetrack and get to celebrate with guys that you don’t typically get to have in victory lane when we travel far away from here, so that’s special.
“We’ve struggled here the last three or four years and this week we obviously made some good changes to our race car and had a very fast race car. This helps us recharge our batteries and get ready for the next round and come out swinging for that one.”
With the victory, Logano automatically advances to the Eliminator round of the Chase and takes over the points lead as many of the top Chase drivers fell out of contention early in the race.
Matt Kenseth came into Sunday’s race as the series points leader and started from the pole for event, which had been rescheduled from Saturday night due to rain.
Kenseth led 72 of the opening 76 laps but fell back quickly into the top five before falling even further when he overshot his pit stall during a stop on lap 167.
The miscue put him deep in the field for the restart, and just five laps later he got turned into the outside frontstretch wall off the bumper of Ryan Newman.
Kenseth’s day only got worse as he hit the wall twice more before finally killing his No. 20 Toyota with 93 laps to go, ending up with a 42nd-place finish and dropping from to dead last in the Chase standings.
But Kenseth was far from the only Chase driver to run into their share of bad luck.
Kenseth’s teammate, Kyle Busch, looked to be another strong contender after starting on the outside pole and running in the top five for much of the first half of the race.
While coming to pit road following a caution flag with 104 laps to go, Busch collided with Kyle Larson at the entrance to pit road, damaging both cars and putting them deep in the field for the restart after repairs and pit road penalties.
Busch never recovered from the setback and came home 20th, falling to 10th in the points ahead of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who had cut a tire down early and finished four laps down in 28th spot.
Sunday’s disappointing finishes for the Chase contenders were compounded by the fact that after next week’s race at Kansas Speedway, the Chase moves onto Talladega – a track where drivers run on the ragged edge, and one small mistake could cost any of them a shot at the title.
“This makes Talladega way easier,” said Logano. “I know that’s on everyone’s mind when this round starts and last year we won Kansas when it was the first race of this round and now we were able to get it this time at Charlotte. We’ll get lots of sleep here the next couple of weeks.”
Harvick’s second-place finish propelled him to second in points, while Truex, Jr. moves into third place and hopefully safe from elimination even if disaster strikes at Talladega.
“Third is great and all, but it’s no guarantee,” said Truex, Jr. “Talladega is still there. Logano is the only one that’s going to sleep for the next two weeks. I think going to Kansas, a win is huge. It would be so huge. It’s so critical to try to get that win out of the way.”
Carl Edwards finished sixth in the race and moves up to sixth in the points. Austin Dillon was seventh, followed by Chase drivers Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski, who are now seventh and eighth in points, respectively. Aric Almirola rounded out the top ten.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America 500 – October 11, 2015
1. (3) Joey Logano, Ford, 334, $329873.
2. (11) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 334, $240750.
3. (15) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 334, $172320.
4. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 334, $147225.
5. (6) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 334, $139150.
6. (8) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 334, $117040.
7. (14) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 334, $141151.
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9. (13) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 334, $136681.
10. (9) Aric Almirola, Ford, 334, $133651.
11. (23) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 334, $124198.
12. (30) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 334, $117891.
13. (25) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 334, $94850.
14. (16) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 334, $80200.
15. (10) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 334, $115475.
16. (17) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 334, $114033.
17. (18) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 333, $117470.
18. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 333, $104733.
19. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 333, $88575.
20. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 333, $132066.
21. (31) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 333, $107258.
22. (33) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 332, $120100.
23. (34) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 332, $78625.
24. (4) Greg Biffle, Ford, 331, $111808.
25. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 331, $77945.
26. (36) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 331, $104859.
27. (29) David Gilliland, Ford, 330, $99453.
28. (12) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 330, $93495.
29. (40) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, 330, $90028.
30. (37) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 330, $77635.
31. (32) Michael McDowell, Ford, 329, $73420.
32. (27) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 329, $82742.
33. (35) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 328, $73070.
34. (43) Alex Kennedy #, Chevrolet, 326, $72945.
35. (42) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 325, $72795.
36. (26) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 325, $80615.
37. (19) David Ragan, Toyota, Engine, 289, $99695.
38. (39) Cole Whitt, Ford, Accident, 262, $67602.
39. (7) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Engine, 257, $112066.
40. (28) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 251, $67530.
41. (41) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 244, $55530.
42. (1) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, Accident, 236, $124166.
43. (20) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, Accident, 58, $66030.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 139.76 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 35 Mins, 05 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.703 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 44 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Kenseth 0; Kyle Busch 1-4; M. Kenseth 5-76; J. Logano 77-121; J. Johnson 122-123; K. Larson 124-126; C. Edwards 127; J. Logano 128-231; A. Dillon 232; J. Gordon 233; C. Bowyer 234; S. Hornish Jr. 235-241; J. Logano 242-284; S. Hornish Jr. 285-299; J. Logano 300-334.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Logano 4 times for 227 laps; M. Kenseth 1 time for 72 laps; S. Hornish Jr. 2 times for 22 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 4 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 3 laps; J. Johnson 1 time for 2 laps; J. Gordon 1 time for 1 lap; A. Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; C. Edwards 1 time for 1 lap; C. Bowyer 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 16 in Points: J. Logano – 3,048; K. Harvick – 3,042; M. Truex Jr. – 3,041; D. Hamlin – 3,040; Kurt Busch – 3,039; C. Edwards – 3,039; J. Gordon – 3,037; B. Keselowski – 3,035; R. Newman – 3,029; Kyle Busch – 3,025; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 3,016; M. Kenseth – 3,003; J. McMurray – 2,130; J. Johnson – 2,092; P. Menard – 2,083; C. Bowyer – 2,082.
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