Rear View Mirror: Pepsi 300

I watched the Nationwide race again today on ESPN Classic. I couldn’t help myself; it was just a plain awesome race! I thought I might offer up my take on the race with a little blog action. Sure, not my usual style, but I don’t usually watch the Nationwide Races.

I swear I had so much fun with NASCAR this week. BOTH my drivers won their races and my favorite crew chief finished second (love you Chad. I am very happy for Jeff Gordon, but I already wrote about him this week. This little blabber is all for Joey Logano.)

As a Joey Logano fan, I was very happy to see him in victory lane once again. He needed that morale booster in Nashville badly after his dismal Cup start in 2009. You have to hand it to him, he ran a great race with Kyle Busch. It was so exciting!

“It’s been awhile,” a smiling Logano said after the race. “We had a really good run here the last time we were here and got caught up in a wreck. It was awesome to be able to get that win this time. Ever since I’ve been coming to Nashville I’ve been wanting to win that guitar and this is just awesome.”

There were so many twists and turns to the race. It was a great stand-alone race, and I think helped showcase a lot of young talent to fans who tuned in for the race because they had nothing better to do and needed a race fix.

Nashville is one track that most drivers covet a win at because the track awards a unique trophy to the race winner:  a Sam Bass-painted Gibson Les Paul guitar, which Logano proudly carried home in a case after the race. With a trophy like that, drivers race hard on every lap and don’t give an inch, thus making the racing there unlike anything else on the Nationwide schedule. It was great to see an exciting event like that on a holiday weekend.

The race itself was dominated by the Joe Gibbs organization in the 18 car of Kyle Busch and the 20 car of Joey Logano. Busch and Logano led 172 of the race’s 225 laps. Logano led nine times for a race-high 95 laps. Busch led six times for 77. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of action on the track. The two JGR traded the lead back and forth all day with Logano leading the most important final 10 laps and finishing 0.487 seconds in front.

Perhaps one for the highlight reel was when, moments after Logano took the lead from Busch for the last time, the 86 car of Joe Nemecheck went tumbling down the front stretch near the start-finish line. NASCAR had to throw the red flag to clear the debris.

I’d also like to give some props out to Carl Edwards for being really happy for Joey and saying that the guy he was racing with there at the end (whose name I forgot) really deserved sponsorship. Classy, Carl…just classy. Edwards led three times for 45 laps and was in contention until loose lug nuts forced him to pit under green just past the halfway mark. Edwards, who has three Nationwide wins at Nashville, was shuffled back to 20th, but made a charge to the front late in and posted a fifth place finish. It wasn’t a bad day for Edwards considering the bad luck he had.

Busch, as usual, seemed a tad put-out, but did give props to our man Joey, so I think that’s an improvement from a few weeks ago when he looked like he would throw tires at folks any second.

“He had a better car on the short run, and we had a better car on the long run,” Busch said. “[The team] did a great job and it was just a shame we weren’t able to get out there and win this thing. That’s kind of frustrating, but we finished second.”

On a side note, the crowd looked a far cry from the 25,000 that the track had reported to be in attendance for the event, and some drivers were not happy with the "fan all access” policy the track had adopted for the event. Kyle Busch in particular had a few things to say about the issue.

“There were a lot of people with a lot more access than typical,” Busch said. “Some fans need to respect the drivers a little more because they’re bringing suitcases of diecasts for us to sign. Yeah, it’s our job to sign for the fans and to treat them nice, but when they have three suitcases, that’s a little ridiculous.”

Lastly, on a non-NASCAR note…My heart goes out to the folks in Tennessee who were devastated by the string of tornadoes over the weekend. I have to give more props to Flipz (Carl Edwards) for thinking of the folks that lost thier homes in the storms too.

I hope you enjoyed the race. If you didn’t see it, I am indeed sorry because folks…you missed a good one

Disclaimer: The opinions & statements in this article do not necessarily represent those of Fox Sports

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