Joey Logano Wins Lousy Charlotte Race Redeemed by Chase Drama
Joey Logano's fourth victory of the Sprint Cup season was a masterpiece only of domination. For the second week in a row, the winner easily won at a track where he had never won before, as NASCAR Stats noted:
This time the previous winner, Kevin Harvick, finished second without leading a single lap. Harvick had led 355 out of 400 laps in Dover, Delaware, on October 4. This time, in Charlotte Motor Speedway's Bank of America 500, Logano led 227 out of 334. The first race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup's second segment took place on Sunday afternoon after being rained out Saturday night.
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Harvick, who has won three times and finished second in 11 races, said to NBC Sports, "Obviously, you want to win, but with so many guys having trouble, you want to capitalize on a top-five run, too. It was definitely one of those days that could have been better but could have been a whole lot worse."
A sparse crowd might have contested that point. It was a cold war in the sunshine and a war of attrition for the remaining 12 drivers contending for the championship. What laps Logano didn't lead were mainly the property of Matt Kenseth, who finished second in attrition by virtue of finishing 42nd to Kasey Kahne's 43rd.
Logano and Kenseth combined to lead 299 laps. All others combined for 35.
Some who watched the telecast undoubtedly dozed off. Logano will sleep well for the remaining two races in this round because race winners automatically advance into the next one. Next up is Kansas Speedway. The third is at Talladega Superspeedway, in Alabama, which is as unpredictable as a thunderstorm and comparable on occasion to a tornado.
Lots of wrecks happen there. For Logano, the Charlotte victory means it won't matter. He can crash at Talladega--or, for that matter, Kansas—and advance into the so-called Eliminator Round, anyway.
"This makes Talladega way easier," Logano said in Victory Lane. "I know that's what'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 win it this time at Charlotte.
"We'll get a lot of sleep here the next couple of weeks."
See?
"It is so critical to get that win out of the way," third-place finisher Martin Truex Jr. said. "Logano's the only one who's going to sleep for the next two weeks."
See?
| Joey Logano | 227 |
| Matt Kenseth | 72 |
| Sam Hornish Jr. | 22 |
| Kyle Busch | 4 |
| Kyle Larson | 3 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 2 |
| Austin Dillon | 1 |
| Jeff Gordon | 1 |
| Clint Bowyer | 1 |
| Carl Edwards | 1 |
A race spent with the leader barely in sight of his pursuers included all kinds of madcap antics back in the pack, perhaps bred from the sheer desperation of futility.
Eight of the top nine finishers were eligible Chase contenders, but the exceptions were glaring.
Kenseth, who has more victories (five) than any other driver this year, didn't finish at all. He placed 42nd after a tailspin that began when he lost the top spot on a pit stop that was questionable tactically and imperfect in execution. He had led 72 of the first 76 laps but never appeared anywhere near the front of the pack again and crashed not once but twice. His yellow Toyota suffered a mercy killing.
Kenseth excels at making an understatement. "Everything kind of snowballed, you now?" he said in deadpan fashion.
He also maintains a gift for self-deprecation.
"I mean, you do the best you can every week," Kenseth added, "and if this is the best I can do, it's amazing I have a job..."
It may have been the most un-Kenseth race ever.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (28th) hit the wall so many times that he said once via radio communication with his crew, after hitting one, that it was even harder than all the other ones. Later he said he lost count.
Kyle Busch (20th) experienced several scrape-alongs with the cushioned walls and, because it is his way, went public with the suspicion that NASCAR officials had been less diligent than they should have been in clearing the track of oil and grease.
"You know, you can't pass anybody," he said for the benefit of the TV audience. "Single-lane race track and then you put oil on the top lane to try to make anything happen, and then you put yourself in the fence, so thanks to NASCAR for cleaning that up, but just every single year, it keeps going the same way."
Busch's Chase performances over the years have produced few of his career highlights. Kyle Larson took the blame for a bizarre crash between him and Busch at the entrance of pit road. The comedy of errors apparently occurred because, at the same time, the two engaged in decisions whose cross purposes were synchronized. Busch decided not to pit. Larson decided to do so. They unsuccessfully made an "X."
Ryan Newman (15th) had problems ground literally (via sheet metal) with Kenseth's. Earnhardt's downward spiral began when he and Carl Edwards had an on-track tiff.
"That (meaning Edwards) put us in the wall the first time," Earnhardt said, "and they didn't clean up the oil and we hit the wall again.
"A lot of oil up there."
It didn't rain on Sunday, though. At least not water.
"I think we'll take it," Roger Penske, owner of Logano's Ford, said. "I think it's better when you can go on to the next bracket. I guess the real end game here is to move on in this Chase."
Duh.
"There's a lot of fast race cars out there right now," Logano, even though he couldn't prove it, said. "Last week, obviously, the [No.] 4 was dominant. This week we really had a fast car. Next week? Who knows? You can't rely on anything."
It would help, though, if more than one of the fast race cars would go so at the same time.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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