Logano Wins Second Straight Kentucky Race From The Pole
Logano's No. 20 Toyota was strong, and he easily moved through the field, getting to second place with 93 laps to go. After a caution and red flag with 15 laps remaining, Logano closed in on Kyle Busch after the restart and slipped under him heading into Turn 3 on Lap 190.
Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(June 13, 2009)
SPARTA, Ky. -- In a race where numerous drivers were nabbed for speeding on pit road, Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano sped on the racetrack, winning the Meijer 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race for the second year in a row at Kentucky Speedway.
Logano passed teammate Kyle Busch with 10 laps to go to become the first driver to win two series races at Kentucky. Earlier in the day, Logano also became the first driver to win the pole for a second time at the 1.5-mile track.
"It's really cool," Logano said. "This place is one of my favorite racetracks. It's one of those places that just suits you. To win two-for-two here, that's really cool for me and the whole team. I guess that's the first time anyone's ever done that here, so it's pretty neat. We've got two poles, two wins -- perfect record here, so that's pretty cool."
Busch led six times for 162 laps to lead the most laps for the seventh consecutive race, but his No. 18 Toyota got too tight in the closing laps, and he couldn't hold off Logano.
Following his television interview, Busch was excused from his other post-race media obligations and headed back to Michigan International Speedway, where he'll race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Sunday.
NASCAR issued 27 pit-road speeding penalties during the race, including one to Logano on Lap 71. Logano had come out of the pits second but restarted 15th on Lap 74.
Logano's No. 20 Toyota was strong, and he easily moved through the field, getting to second place with 93 laps to go. After a caution and red flag with 15 laps remaining, Logano closed in on Busch after the restart and slipped under him heading into Turn 3 on Lap 190.
Busch finished second, with Brad Keselowski third, and rookies Brendan Gaughan fourth and Justin Allgaier fifth.
Sixth through 10th were Jason Leffler, Michael Annett, Burney Lamar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kelly Bires. Bires came back after starting 42nd due to having to use a back-up car following an accident on his qualifying lap.
Busch extended his NASCAR Nationwide Series points lead over Carl Edwards to 137 points. Edwards fought an ill-handling car all night and was caught speeding on pit road three times during the race and finished three laps down in 20th.