Joey Logano finishes first in fantastic XFINITY finish at Talladega
Joey Logano survived a thrilling finish to win the XFINITY Series race on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Logano battled throughout the final lap with Chris Buescher, Elliott Sadler and others at the front before emerging victorious in the race that was marred by a couple of big wrecks. Brian Scott surged at the start-finish line to finish second, followed by Austin Dillon, J.J. Yeley and Joey Gase as Buescher faded to sixth at the very end and Sadler fell even further back to seventh after he had led many of the late laps.
Sadler, who led 26 laps in all, was the defending race winner.
Logano, though, ended up leading a race-high 40 laps and the most important one at the end, earning his 24th career series victory and his second at Talladega.
"That was crazy ... It was so intense that I'm still trying to catch my breath," Logano told FOX Sports 1 in Victory Lane.
Logano picked up his third XFINITY win of the season by throwing a big block on the final lap.
Logano was the leader on a restart with eight laps remaining, and he had Sadler hooked to his bumper as drivers jockeyed for position.
But an outside lane formed and came charging, led by Buescher, a teammate of Sadler's at Roush Fenway Racing. As the cars circled the track for the final lap, Sadler had no room to make a move for the lead, and separated from Logano's bumper.
Buescher's pack surged forward, and Logano slid up the track to cut off the momentum.
The block allowed Logano to seal the win.
The biggest of the wrecks left two crew members on the No. 98 Biagi DenBeste Racing team were taken to the infield care center Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway after a 10-car wreck sent cars spinning down pit road.
During the incident, Brendan Gaughan's No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet slid down pit road, hitting the inside wall one pit stall before the No. 98 team's stall.
According to FOX Sports 1 reporter Alan Cavanna, a team representative said the crew members were alert when taken to the infield care center. Team owner Bill DenBeste told Cavanna the crew members were behind the wall when Gaughan's car hit. When the car made contact, it knocked tires off the pit wall and knocked over the crew members.
One crew member was treated and released from the infield care center, while the second was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The incident came on Lap 74 when a large group of cars tried to peel off and pit under green flag conditions. As the front runners slowed and pull down, Daniel Suarez was hit from behind by Ryan Sieg. The contact triggered the wreck and sent cars spinning and sliding down pit road and across the track.
The race was red-flagged for 7 minutes and 56 seconds as track workers cleaned debris and removed the wrecked cars.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
VIDEO: Crew members injured during wild XFINITY wreck at Talladega
