Logano wins the Food City 250 at Bristol

[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”223″][/media-credit]Joey Logano won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway after a one hour delay due to rain.  Logano led three times for 81 laps and captured first career Bristol win. This is Logano’s sixth NNS win of 2012 and the 15th NNS victory of his career.

“Man, it feels like it’s been a long time coming, but we finally got a victory here at Bristol. There are a lot of tracks that I’d like to win at, like all of them, but this is one of those places where I’ve always wanted to win and we’ve been so close over the years. We should have won this race last year and we should have won here in the spring. Now, we can leave here and say we are Bristol winners.” Logano said.

The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Toyota extended its lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s point standings by 13-points over the No. 2 of Richard Childress Racing (RCR)and a 32-point lead over the No. 6 of Roush-Fenway Racing (RFR).

Ricky Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-5.

“It was a real good night for the Monster Energy Camry. All these guys — they worked hard, they did a good job and we missed a little bit of something tonight — kind of like last year.” Busch said.

Trevor Bayne started on the pole with a colorful paint scheme in honor of Pat Summitt and her Lady Vols. Summitt was the grand marshal and waved the green flag for “her car” to start the race! Bayne led for about a turn when Logano took the lead from the high side and started to pull away.

Lap five was when the first caution flag when the No.31 of Justin Allgaier got turned into the wall from Dillon in turn 2. Allgaier was not happy and tried to run him down.  But he had a flat tire and spun into the outside wall in turn four and tore the back of his car off.  Allgaier came into the pits and his crew chief was not happy. “He just flat wrecked us!”.

Nobody came in to pit because they could not fuel the car till lap 50 due to the competition caution.

They restarted the race on lap 11 with Logano, Bayne, Brian Scott, Stenhouse Jr. and Dillon in the top-5. Everyone got a great restart and Bayne got a good run off of two and took the lead. He was getting challenged from his teammate of Stenhouse who is driving a NOS Energy paint scheme. Stenhouse Jr. was trying to get the lead but Logano was sneaking up and challenged Stenhouse Jr.

The second caution arrived on lap 25 when Brad Keselowski smacked the wall when he was behind the lap car of Brad Teague and Scott had a run and bumped him in 3 and 4. Keselowski went in and had tons of splitter damage but also got docked a lap because he fueled the car up before the competition caution.

They went back to green on lap 32 but it didn’t last long. One lap later the No.31 of Allgaier cut a tire and threw some debris on the track. The only person that hit pit road was the No.20 when he radioed his crew chief saying he thought a tire was going down. They took four tires and was on there way. He restarted in the 28th position.

They went back to racing on lap 40 with Sadler as the race leader with Bayne, Dillon, Stenhouse Jr.and Busch as the top-5. Sadler cleared Bayne for the lead with Stenhouse Jr. following.

The fourth yellow was waved on lap 45 when the No.81 car of Jason Bowles spun on the front stretch. Bowles drove away and went to pit road to get some fresh tires. The leaders went to pit road and NASCAR decided to make this the competition caution.  Bayne came in and was complaining of being two free and got only right side tires and was off. Busch could not drive in on the bottom and got a air pressure adjustment with four tires and fuel.  Sadler got an adjustment and fuel only.  Sadler won the race off pit road.

They got the green flag once again on lap 54 with Stenhouse Jr. leading. Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney did not pit and were first and second. Stenhouse Jr. cleared Blaney and was on his way. Blaney was getting freight trained and was out of the top-5 within 3 laps!

Brian Scott was in the wall on lap 63 when the No.54 of Busch just flat out turned him on the backstretch. Scott, who drives for Joe Gibbs racing, is kinda like a teammate to Busch since Busch drives for Joe Gibbs in the Sprint Cup Series. Scott went to the garage due to damage to the front bumper.

They went back to green on lap 69 with Stenhouse Jr., Sadler, Kevin Harvick, Kahne and Logano as the top-5. Stenhouse Jr. was opening a gap to second place of Kasey Kahne when Kahne passed Sadler and Harvick and was looking for the lead. Logano was getting more and more speed and passed Kahne for second and was challenging for the race lead. He was trying and trying but could not get it done. He finally took the lead when the lapped down cars were in front of the leaders and Logano made them as a pick for Stenhouse Jr.

They had a long green flag run until lap 113 when the No.41 of Fain Skinner spun and the caution came out. All the leaders came on to pit road in what could be the final stop of the night. Stenhouse Jr. came in and was reporting he was loose in and tight off and got four tires and fuel. Logano was too loose and got a air pressure and four tires and fuel. Bayne was describing his car as “snappy loose” and got also the four tires and was on his way. Blaney came in for his first stop and got four tires and fuel and said the car was fine. Harvick let the race off pit road with only taking two tires and fuel.

They went back to green on lap 122 with Harvick leading. Harvick was looking good but you can never count out the No.18 and his teammate Sadler.

Logano took the lead from Harvick on lap 170 but the caution waved on lap 173 when the No.24 of Benny Gordon spun out off turn 2.

They went back to racing on lap 180 with Logano and Harvick still battling side by side. They were beating and banging for multiple laps and Harvick was trying to hold him off but then Logano took over the top spot on lap 215 due to what else? Lap Traffic! He was pulling away till the caution came out on lap 228 when the No.99 of John Wes Townley cut a tire and was slowing on the backstretch.

Harvick had to go in during this caution due to being out of fuel and he would lose a lap. Harvick eventually got the lap back and finished 15th.

They went back to green on lap 235 with Logano leading. Logano pulled away with a dominant restart and looked to be on his way to victory until the caution came out on lap 242 when Dillon got loose and collected Bayne.

This set up a green white checkered where Logano pulled away for the final time for the victory.