Logano wins the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”255″][/media-credit]Joey Logano holds off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on the final green-white-checkers restart and wins Friday night’s VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway. This is the second time Logano has won back-to-back victories. The first time was in October 2009 at Kansas Speedway and Auto Club Speedway.

“That’s the exciting part for us. Two wins in a row. Dollar General has had a tough run with us at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) for a while right now, so exciting to get them in victory lane.” Logano said.

This was Logano’s third Nationwide Series victory of the season and his fifth top-10 finish in 2012.

With five laps to go, Logano was behind race leader Elliott Sadler on the restart. Logano pushed Sadler to turn one and Sadler got loose, went up the track into Hamlin and turned sideways into the outside wall.

“I was trying to push him, trying to help him. We did it the restart before that. I was able to push him ahead and get ourselves in first and second.” Logano said.  “Older tires and his car wasn’t really good all through the gears. He spun his tires a lot. It got me stuck on him and I was trying to get off him when I saw him getting crossed up, but I couldn’t backup enough. I feel terrible.”

Sadler went to the pits with heavy damage and without any oil pressure.

“You just don’t bump draft every place you go, especially not at a place like Darlington.” Sadler said.

Sadler finished 24th and sits 23 points behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (finished 6th) in the series standings.

“It was frustrating. It was a good points night because they had a bad night and not because we had a good one.” Stenhouse said.

Hamlin dominated the race and led for 102 of the 147 laps. At one point he had over a six second lead.  Hamlin finished second. It’s his fourth top-10 finish in 2012.

“It’s unfortunate. We lost a cylinder I guess under caution because I had it wide-open those last couple laps. I just couldn’t do anything. It’s a shame. We wanted to get a win for these Sport Clip guys, but tough way to end it.” Hamlin said.

Keselowski finished third, Sam Hornish Jr. fourth and Austin Dillon finished fifth. Dillon was also the highest finishing rookie.

“I’m proud of our effort with the Snap-on Discount Tire Dodge to get a solid finish out of it. We want to win these races so we’re going to keep pushing but this is still my best finish at Darlington and that’s progress and thankful for the hard work by everybody on my team.” Keselowski said.

Danica Patrick finished 12th and Travis Pastrana finished 17th.

“I had a really good time.” Pastrana said. “You have to get through these races.’ To end up on the lead lap in the top-20 — we weren’t driving the fastest, but I tell you what, I couldn’t be happier right now.”

Stenhouse Jr. is the leader in the points standings with a 23 point lead over Sadler.