Paul Menard wins Nationwide race at Michigan
June 14, 2014
Scott Held
NASCAR Wire Service
BROOKLYN, Michigan - Surprise gifts don’t get much better than this.
Paul
Menard won Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide series Ollie’s Bargain Outlet
250 at Michigan International Speedway after leader Joey Logano was
forced to pit four laps from
the finish with a cut tire.
“Hate to wish bad luck on Joey,” Menard said in victory lane, “but we’ll take it.”
Menard
led 18 laps and won the only series race he’s entered this season and
claimed the second Nationwide victory of his career. His first came at
Milwaukee, his hometown
track, in June 2006.
Logano
was in front after the leaders pitted with 44 laps to go and pulled away
after the restart. He led Menard’s Chevy by more than a second late but
pulled onto pit road
on Lap 121 to replace a right rear tire. Menard had smooth sailing from
there and led Sam Hornish Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Brian
Scott to the checkered flag.
Menard
thought he missed his shot on the final restart, when he was the third
car into Turn 1 and lost several positions trying to take the lead.
“The
last restart, I kind of thought I gave the race away getting
three-wide,” he said. “This is a brand new car, a brand new motor we’re
trying out and it proved itself, I
think.”
Logano, seeking his 22nd Nationwide series win, was the final car on the lead lap and ended the day a hard-luck 16th.
“I ran
over something at some point. It pretty much sucks,” he said after
leading 43 laps. “I could tell it was going down on the back
straightaway and had to take it in.
“I hate
giving it away like that. The silver lining is we had a fast racecar
and should’ve won the race. You win some like that, you lose some like
that.”
Earnhardt also said he was losing a tire near the finish but kept the car on the track.
Dylan
Kwasniewski and Trevor Bayne crashed between Turns 1 and 2 after contact
on Lap 79 and the ensuing caution left front runners free to pit and
take on enough fuel to finish
the race. The caution lasted 10 laps and made fuel economy a non-issue
as the pack dashed to the finish.
Kyle
Larson and Chase Elliott were strong in the early two thirds of the race
but were forced farther behind the lead pack after they opted to pit
later in the final caution
period. Elliott, the top rookie in the series points standings, ended
the day sixth, two spots ahead of Larson, who led a race-best 46 laps.
“I felt
really solid about our car all day,” said Elliott, who remained third
in the standings with the finish. “We put ourselves in a tight box and
didn’t have much of a choice
(after following Larson into the pits instead the rest of the
leaders).”
Regan Smith was seventh and ended the race with a 14-point lead over Elliott Sadler in the series standings.
The
race lost 22 laps during four caution periods, the longest of which was
for Kwasniewski’s crash. He was treated and released from the MIS
medical center and took the blame
for the incident after leaving there.
The
day’s first yellow flag came less than two laps in after Hornish spun in
Turn 4 but managed to avoid making contact with other drivers.
“We
wanted to get (sponsor) Sun Energy 1 a lot of exposure so we started
with some slow-motion replays,” he cracked. “I got really lucky (no one
hit me).”
He’s
finished fifth, first and second in the three series races he’s entered
this season. He said he’ll keep trying to put himself into part-time
rides the rest of the season.
Busch set a new qualifying record of 193.242 mph Saturday morning to earn the Coors Light Pole award, his third of the season.
The
series heads to Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisc., next weekend.
Saturday’s race kicked off a stretch of 18 straight weekends for
Nationwide teams, who won’t get a break
until they complete the Oct. 10 race at Charlotte.
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