Joey Logano won the IRWIN Tools Night race for the second straight year with a victory over Kevin Harvick in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Logano led 143 of the final 147 laps after getting past his Penske teammate Brad Keselowski on a restart with 64 laps to go and then held off a strong charge by Harvick over the last 50 laps to secure his third victory of the season.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer.
With the victory, Logano further solidified his position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup field with just two races left in NASCAR’s “regular season”, tying Matt Kenseth for the second-most wins this season behind Johnson and Kyle Busch, who lead the Chase standings with four wins apiece.
“We’re hitting it at the right time, that’s for sure,” said Logano. “There was a point in the season that we were racing top-10 a lot, but not necessarily for a win. I feel like we’re right where we need to be, just like we were last year at this point. I can’t wait for the Chase to start.”
Saturday night’s race started with the Joe Gibbs Racing troika of Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards making up the first three starters.
Kyle Busch had the dominant car for much of the race, leading a race-high 192 laps as the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Hamlin, Busch and Carl Edwards traded the lead nine times over the opening 300 laps.
Running second behind Edwards, Busch was forced to put for a loose wheel on lap 346 and ended up two laps down.
With Busch out of the picture, Logano worked his way up to Edwards and the two battled it out for eight laps before Edwards was forced to pit for a flat tire.
The eighth and final caution flag of the night on lap 437 brought the field to pit road for their final stops with Logano winning the race off pit road over Kyle Busch, who fought his way back from two laps down only to get hit with a speeding penalty during his final stop.
Up front, Keselowski elected to stay out and took over the lead, but with older tires he was a sitting duck as Logano powered underneath his teammate on the restart to regain the top spot. Harvick worked his way around Keselowski as well was back on Logano’s bumper within 10 laps.
Harvick stayed right on Logano’s tire tracks for the last 50 laps, looking for Logano to stumble or get pinned behind a lapped car, but Logano managed to navigate the traffic to keep Harvick at bay long enough to grab the checkered flag, finishing a car-length ahead of Harvick at the stripe.
Keselowski managed to cross the line in sixth, followed by Edwards, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Ryan Newman.
Harvick’s second-place finish marked the 10th time this season he’s finished in the runner-up position – including running second to Logano in the season-opening Daytona 500. Although he and his team rallied back from two early pit-road penalties, Harvick was disappointed with his Bristol performance.
“I made a mistake there on pit road and got us behind and just didn’t get our Budweiser Chevy through traffic like Joey (Logano) did,” said Harvick. “There were a couple of times when it was pretty close but I wasn’t letting off the gas. I just needed to be a little bit closer to him to make something happen.
“All in all, I’m really proud of my team. They showed the heart and determination that you have to have. This hasn’t been my favorite place to drive, but they bring really fast race cars here and that overcomes a lot of my talent lack that I have at this particular track.”
Harvick continues to hold the lead in the series points standings by 43 over Logano and 89 over Earnhardt, Jr. while Keselowski and Johnson each moved up a spot to fourth and fifth in the standings, respectively.
With his fifth-place finish, Bowyer continued to hang onto the 16th and final transfer spot in the Chase field, last among the four winless drivers vying for a spot.
“This was a big night for us. We needed this,” said Bowyer, who recently announced he will be a free agent next season after splitting from Michael Waltrip Racing. “We desperately needed a solid run right there. I mean obviously you’re hungry for a win with this organization given everything it had and I drove my ass off we just come up short.”
Matt Kenseth, fresh off his victory last weekend at Michigan, wound up with a 42nd-place finish after his engine let go just 110 laps into the race. He was one of four drivers to post a DNF in Saturday night’s race, joining David Ragan, Kyle Larson and Michael Annett.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
IRWIN Tools Night Race – Aug. 22, 2015
1. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 500, $365198.
2. (7) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, $262605.
3. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500, $195330.
4. (10) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, $190166.
5. (9) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 500, $166213.
6. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500, $167786.
7. (3) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 500, $121995.
8. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500, $175286.
9. (20) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 500, $135970.
10. (18) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500, $145670.
11. (21) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, $142826.
12. (14) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 500, $138468.
13. (16) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500, $147896.
14. (11) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 499, $124060.
15. (22) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 498, $150985.
16. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 498, $122685.
17. (31) Aric Almirola, Ford, 497, $150171.
18. (26) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 497, $133905.
19. (40) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 497, $134049.
20. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 496, $151521.
21. (8) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 496, $113535.
22. (15) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 496, $101285.
23. (28) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 496, $128468.
24. (29) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 496, $111635.
25. (17) Greg Biffle, Ford, 496, $134018.
26. (25) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 495, $130818.
27. (32) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 495, $109440.
28. (23) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 495, $127175.
29. (33) Cole Whitt, Ford, 495, $112278.
30. (27) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 495, $103385.
31. (30) Michael McDowell, Ford, 495, $97275.
32. (36) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 494, $109712.
33. (42) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, 493, $99555.
34. (38) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 492, $96895.
35. (34) Josh Wise, Ford, 491, $96760.
36. (37) David Gilliland, Ford, 488, $104675.
37. (43) Mike Bliss(i), Chevrolet, 486, $96505.
38. (39) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 480, $91228.
39. (41) Timmy Hill(i), Ford, 476, $87165.
40. (4) David Ragan, Toyota, Accident, 443, $110479.
41. (12) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 356, $107073.
42. (13) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, Engine, 110, $112101.
43. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Engine, 0, $71665.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 96.89 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 45 Mins, 02 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.220 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 52 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin 1-26; Kyle Busch 27-52; D. Hamlin 53; Kyle Busch 54-127; D. Hamlin 128-154; Kyle Busch 155-224; J. Logano 225-252; C. Edwards 253-280; Kyle Busch 281-302; C. Edwards 303-345; J. Logano 346-350; C. Edwards 351-353; J. Logano 354-432; B. Keselowski 433-436; J. Logano 437-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch 4 times for 192 laps; J. Logano 4 times for 176 laps; C. Edwards 3 times for 74 laps; D. Hamlin 3 times for 54 laps; B. Keselowski 1 time for 4 laps.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 908; J. Logano – 865; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 819; B. Keselowski – 793; J. Johnson – 792; M. Truex Jr – 771; M. Kenseth – 753; Kurt Busch – 713; D. Hamlin – 712; J. McMurray – 696; R. Newman – 683; P. Menard – 674; J. Gordon – 672; C. Edwards – 666; C. Bowyer – 655; A. Almirola – 620.
