Joey Logano went from near worst to first in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
After Logano’s Team Penske crew changed the transmission in the No. 22 Ford following Friday’s qualifying. With the change, NASCAR moved Logano from his fifth place starting spot to next to late on the 38 car field.
But when the checkered flag flew, he was the first across the finish line to score his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season, locking him into the playoffs.
Logano worked his way into contention throughout the 400 lap race, taking the lead for the first time on a lap 371 restart after he and teammate Brad Keselowski chose to stay out under caution. When the final caution flew with less than 25 laps to go, Logano and Keselowski hit pit road, while six cars made the call to stay out.
“The boys had a great stop which gave us good track position to pass the cars that stayed out,” Logano said. “We were able to have a good start, work our way past those cars and tried to take off the best I could. I knew the 2 (Keselowski) was so much faster than everybody and I had to get out there as quick and as far as I could. He was on his way to catch me. I think he was catching me a couple tenths a lap. That was all I had inside the car and I burned them up early trying to go.”
Back under green, Logano charged to the front on fresh tires, retaking the lead from Kyle Larson with 16 laps to go. From there, he went on to hold off Keselowski for the win.
With the victory, Logano joins NASCAR Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Rusty Wallace, along with Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin as a winner in their 300th start.
“I am proud of the effort of the team,” said Logano. “We executed under pressure today and brought a car home that was a 5th-10th place car home to victory lane.”
Keselowski appeared to have the strongest car in the second half of the event, leading 110 laps and winning the race’s second segment.
“Disappointed not to bring it home, but that’s just the way these things fall with double file restarts and half the field staying out and half the field not,” Keselowski said. “You kind of take the good with the bad on those deals. Got the outside lane and got behind two or three cars that I’m pretty sure I lapped six times today. Somehow they’re on the lead lap through wave arounds, and when the restart came we just were bottled up.
“By the time I cleared those guys, even though we were a little bit faster than Joey, he already had a straightaway on us, and I felt like if I had five or ten more laps, I could have gotten to him and passed him, but there was only a handful of laps left, so that was the way it went.”
Hamlin finished in third, with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in fourth and Kevin Harvick in fifth.
Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola rounded out the top ten.
While the Team Penske teammates had a strong day, several of the other favorites had issues. Polesitter Matt Kenseth was dominant in the first segment of the race, and would lead 164 laps, the most on the day.
Kenseth was fighting for position in the top with less than 40 laps to go when contact with Chase Elliott cut down a tire on the No. 20 Toyota. Kenseth would end up 23rd in the final rundown.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who announced earlier this week that he will retire at the end of the 2017 season, used pit strategy to move to second in the final 100 laps of the race. With 57 laps to go, Earnhardt, Jr. and teammate Jimmie Johnson made contact coming off the second turn that sent Earnhardt, Jr. into the wall, bringing out the caution.
Earnhardt, Jr.’s bad luck continued 13 laps later when a cut tire sent him spinning in turn three. He would finish 30th.
“He said he didn’t see us,” said Earnhardt, Jr. “He had pitted and got tires and we were out there running around the top and weren’t ready to pit yet. He said he didn’t get any notice that he had a car outside. He was coming to pass me. I was running the top right against the fence and really wasn’t watching the mirror, so I didn’t know he was there or anybody was coming. T.J. (Majors, spotter) was giving me pretty good warning about guys getting on my inside, but otherwise when you are running the top you don’t have to worry about it everybody kind of takes care of you, but Jimmie didn’t know we were there.
“Came off the corner and didn’t know the car was there. It was an explosion, but the car held up pretty well. It knocked the sway bar arm off of it, so we ran the last bit of the race without a sway bar hooked up. It wasn’t a great day.”
“I just have to try to figure out if I just didn’t hear it being told to me or if it wasn’t told to me,” Johnson said. “I just feel terrible, obviously. Man, I’m surprised our cars even kept rolling after that because I just body slammed him into the wall and I could have easily not heard the clear or something else happened. I don’t know, but that’s the last thing you want to have happen with a teammate.”
Johnson, coming off back-to-back wins at Texas and Bristol, had a sub-par day. Along with the run-in with his teammate, Johnson was pinched on pit road for an uncontrolled tire after the end of the race’s first segment. After spending a portion of the race a lap down, Johnson got the free pass to get back on the lead lap when Earnhardt, Jr. spun on lap 356.
In the end, the seven time series champion finished 11th on the day.
Kyle Busch was strong early on, contending for the lead in the opening laps. But a pair of pit road penalties spoiled his day. The first came after a lap 35 caution when he was caught speeding on pit road. After working his way back into contention, Busch had worked his way to second place when the final caution flag flew with 25 laps to go.
Busch exited the pits in second place, but was again penalized, this time for a pit road commitment line violation. In the end, he would have to settle for a 16th place finish.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott and his team worked all day to try to move the No. 24 Chevrolet into contention. On the race’s final pit stop, Elliott came off pit road tenth. But a penalty for an uncontrolled tire put him back in the field. In the end, he finished 24th.
“We just never really hit on anything and I thought we were going to salvage a decent day there by just luck and then kind of the way everything worked forward and just got in trouble there at the end and it hurt too much,” Elliott said.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Richmond International Raceway – Richmond, VA
Toyota Owners 400 – April 30, 2017
1. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 400.
2. (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400.
3. (16) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
4. (4) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 400.
5. (6) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
6. (10) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 400.
7. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400.
8. (9) Kurt Busch, Ford, 400.
9. (25) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400.
10. (3) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 400.
11. (17) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400.
12. (11) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 400.
13. (29) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 400.
14. (18) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400.
15. (8) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 400.
16. (7) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400.
17. (23) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 400.
18. (21) Danica Patrick, Ford, 400.
19. (30) David Ragan, Ford, 400.
20. (38) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 400.
21. (28) Landon Cassill, Ford, 400.
22. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 400.
23. (1) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 400.
24. (14) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 400.
25. (26) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 400.
26. (24) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, 400.
27. (36) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 400.
28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 400.
29. (27) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 399.
30. (12) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 398.
31. (31) Gray Gaulding #, Toyota, 398.
32. (34) * Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, 396.
33. (33) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 395.
34. (37) * Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 393.
35. (35) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 392.
36. (2) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 378.
37. (22) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 333.
38. (20) Erik Jones #, Toyota, Accident, 4.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 93.685 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 12 Mins, 08 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.775 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 53 laps.
Lead Changes: 18 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Kenseth 1-163; B. Keselowski 164-204; M. Kenseth 205; D. Hamlin 206-228; K. Harvick 229-237; B. Keselowski 238-251; K. Harvick 252; D. Hamlin 253-286; B. Keselowski 287-319; R. Newman 320-344; K. Harvick 345; B. Keselowski 346-357; Kyle Busch 358; B. Keselowski 359-360; D. Hamlin 361-362; B. Keselowski 363-370; J. Logano 371-378; K. Larson 379-383; J. Logano 384-400.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Kenseth 2 times for 164 laps; B. Keselowski 6 times for 110 laps; D. Hamlin 3 times for 59 laps; J. Logano 2 times for 25 laps; R. Newman 1 time for 25 laps; K. Harvick 3 times for 11 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 5 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,42,78,4,11,2,31,1,14,22
Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,20,4,11,42,31,1,14,13,22
Top 10 in Points: 1. Kyle Larson – 398; 2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 358; 3. Chase Elliott – 346; 4. Joey Logano – 333; 5. Brad Keselowski – 327; 6. Kevin Harvick – 286; 7. Jamie McMurray – 282; 8. Jimmie Johnson – 270; 9. Clint Bowyer – 266; 10. Kyle Busch – 235.
