Logano wins the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”257″][/media-credit]Joey Logano won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for his eighth win of the season and the 1 7th NNS victory of his career.  Logano led a race-high 62 laps of 200 en route to his first NNS victory at the mile-and-a-half Charlotte oval.

“We had to work really hard for this.  The 22 (Brad Keselowski) was pretty good the mid-part of the race. He made some good adjustments, I found a new line and was able to make this GameStop Toyota fast enough to win. It was really cool to win a Dollar General race — that is one of our sponsors here at Joe Gibbs Racing. Cool to win that race for them.” Logano said.

Kevin Harvick finished second, Elliott Sadler third, Kyle Busch fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 5.

“Tonight, you just got back in traffic and couldn’t really do much. Mike Beam (crew chief) and the guys did a good job and everybody at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports).  They’ve produced some good cars and we’ve been finishing up front. Top-three, top-four, top-five week in and week out. It’s all we had here in Charlotte.” Busch said.

Sadler started on the pole and led the field into turn 1 and cleared Austin Dillon, then the caution came out for the No.00 of Angela Cope smashed her radiator when everybody checked up on she ran into the back of another car.

The green flag waved on lap 10 with Sadler back in the lead. He got a okay restart but Stenhouse Jr. got up to second and tried to take the lead but Sadler shut the door. The second caution waved when the No.12 of Sam Hornish Jr. and the No.31 Justin Allgaier both got into each other. Hornish was trying to take the over the spot but got two high and forced Allgaier into the wall which sent Hornish Jr. into the wall. Hornish went to the garage while Allgaier tried to fix it on pit road. They found out they had two much damage and sent him behind the wall.

They went back to green on Lap 15 with Sadler leading it. Stenhouse Jr got a good restart and shot to the lead. Sadler was clearing Harvick for second while Stenhouse began to pull away. Stenhouse led for 35 laps but got in some lap traffic and Harvick took the lead. Sadler overtook Stenhouse Jr. as well.

Green Flag pit stops started to occur with the No.7 car of Danica Patrick. she got four tires and fuel and was away. all of the leaders came in on lap 55 with the No.33 car starting the cycle. Harvick said he was a tick tight, so they gave him a air pressure and four tires with fuel and he was away. His Teammate, Sadler, said he was mostly loose and need grip off the corner. He got a Air Pressure, along with four tires and fuel and was away. It was a very long pitstop for the No.2 team. Stenhouse went in and said he had no front turn and wanted four tires. They gave him that with fuel and tried to fix that with a round out of the right rear and was away.

Harvick took over the lead after pit stops cycled back. Sadler, who had the slow stop, fell back to 7th while Stenhouse Jr got passed by Brad Keselowski. Keselowski took over the lead from Harvick on lap 73.

The third Caution waved on lap 82 when the No.19 of Mike Bliss slammed into the wall in turn 2. He reported on his radio that something was not right so they came in and tried to fix it and sent him back out. It did not work. He got out of his car and was okay but had to go to the mandatory trip to the infield care center. all of the leaders pitted under this caution  Stenhouse Jr came in telling the crew he was loose. Logano came in and was tight and got 1 round up on the track-bar and tires with fuel. Denny Hamlin only got two tires and was the first one off pit road. Dillon got a penalty for a tire violation and had to go to the rear of the field for the restart.

They went back to green on lap 87 but that did not last long when the No.38 of Brad Sweet got loose in turn 4 and bumped into Michael Annett like a bumper car and spun out onto the front stretch grass. Dillon was one of the few cars that came in and got fuel only.

They went back to green on lap 95 with Hamlin leading but it did not last long as the No.20 of Logano took the lead while Hamlin was getting pushed back. Keselowski took the lead from Logano a couple laps later and pulled away.

Caution waved once again with 69 laps to go with Debris on the speedway. Keselowski really needed this caution as he had a huge piece of garbage on his splitter and he will get to remove it with coming down pit road.  All of the leaders came in with the No.22 bringing them down.  Keselowski got 4 tires with no chassis adjustment and got two pieces of tape off the grill. Stenhouse Jr told his crew chief that he was little tight, rolling in the center and was little free off. He got them to go down on the track bar and a slight air pressure in the right front. Logano got one up on the track bar and was wanting it to get the car turn into the corner. Sadler got a track bar for his tight condition and got a great pit stops and was the first one to leave pits.

Sadler led the field back to the green but Logano took it away in turn 1 when he was on the high side and cleared the #2. He had a 0.664 second lead over Sadler but was also having to keep Harvick away. Sadler also lost 3rd to Keselowski on lap 149.  Harvick took over the lead with 45 laps to go but everybody is 5-10 laps short of fuel.Logano did not give up and took the lead in turn 4 but Harvick made the slide job work perfectly and kept lead. Harvick got slowed up by a lap car and lost his momentum and fell back to third.

Everybody will have to come in for a little stop and go for fuel. Hamlin started the Green Flag pit stops and he took 2 tires with fuel instead of just taking fuel.  Dillon comes on to pit road with 19 to go and also took tires and fuel with a 7.3 pit stop time. Lagano come in 4 laps later and also takes 2 tires and fuel and leaves with a very fast pit stop of 6.4. Harvick comes in and only takes fuel as Sadler did. Stenhouse Jr took 2 tires and fuel and was off. Keselowski went in and took only fuel but there is some concern that they did not get all the fuel in.

Logano retook the lead after the green flag stops. Keselowski did not get enough fuel in and had to come in again with 4 laps to go.  He finished 18th, 1 lap down.

Sadler now holds a 13 point lead in the series standings over Stenhouse Jr.

“From a fan’s perspective, I think this was one of the best races of the year. When I was running fourth, the leaders were three wide the whole race. These cars put on such a good show with the rules package we have. I’m just really happy my family was here with me. My mom got to ride around in the truck with me when we got the pole. All in all, it’s been a really good night for the company.” Sadler said.

“We just made a mistake on the pit stop, and we will go back out there next week at Kansas and get them. We will come back and get them. There are still four races left, so there is still plenty of time.” Stenhouse Jr. said.