Logano's "off week" spent in Chicagoland's Victory Lane

Logano's "off week" spent in Chicagoland's Victory Lane

July 21, 2013 

By Jerry Bonkowski

Special to NASCAR Wire Service

JOLIET, Ill. – Deciding he'd rather race than enjoy a weekend off from the grueling Sprint Cup Series schedule, Joey Logano took the lead on the final restart and led the final 15 laps to win Sunday's NASCAR Nationwide Series STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

It was Logano's second win in the NNS this season, having also won June 1 at Dover International Speedway.

Race leader Sam Hornish Jr. and Penske Racing teammate Logano battled hard on the final restart, with Logano finally storming past Hornish coming out of Turn 2 on Lap 186 and never looked back.

When Mike Bliss lost a tire on Lap 171 of the scheduled 200-lap event, all leaders pitted on the next lap, all taking four tires.

Elliott Sadler exited the pits in the lead, followed by Hornish, Logano, Dillon and Allgaier. Brian Vickers, however, suffered a slow pit stop and dropped four spots to eighth. Part of the problem may have been that Vickers was working with a substitute pit crew, rather than his usual team.

Four laps later, Sadler overdrove a corner and fell from the lead to fourth, followed quickly by a caution on Lap 179 when the motor in Reed Sorenson's car blew up, spewing a oil on the track.

Hornish won the pole in qualifying Sunday morning, his first pole of the season, with Sadler alongside him on the front row. Also of note was Travis Pastrana, who started fifth, his third top-five qualifying effort in his last four starts.

Hornish dominated in the early part of the race until he pitted on Lap 49 after a caution for Harrison Rhodes' car. Hornish was penalized for entering pit road too fast and, even though he exited in second place, the penalty dropped him back to 20th place on the restart.

But there was some consolation in that teammate Logano, managed to take the lead shortly after the restart.

Sadler held the lead at the halfway point (100 laps), but a slow pit stop a few laps later seriously cost Sadler and he dropped back to second as Austin Dillon took the lead.

Pastrana's good start didn't quite finish that way as he suffered a tire issue on Lap 114 that sent his car careening into the wall, bringing out the fourth caution of the race.

Points leader Regan Smith was involved in a solo spin into the infield grass on Lap 128, bringing out the caution, but his Chevrolet suffered minimal damage. Smith was running 12th at the time.

Kyle Larson did not pit, choosing to stay out on old tires and took the lead on the restart on Lap 134, but quickly paid for that decision, dropping 10 spots to 11th in the next eight laps.

Dillon won the Nationwide Dash 4 Cash race-within-a-race promotion for the second straight week, taking home yet another $100,000.

It was the third of four races in the Dash. Sadler won the first event at Daytona three weeks ago, while Dillon won the second event last week at New Hampshire. The final race of the series is Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Hornish finished second, followed by Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers.

Sixth through 10th were Parker Kligerman, Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Brad Sweet and Matt Crafton.

NOTES: The race had an abbreviated start when Joey Gase blew his motor on the first lap, spewing oil all over the track, bringing out the first caution flag of the day. ... Austin Dillon is going to be a very busy man in the next week. After racing Sunday, he has upcoming races Wednesday (trucks race at Eldora Speedway), the NNS race at Indianapolis on Saturday and his first Brickyard 400 on Sunday.