Mission accomplished: Logano wins opening race of Contender Round
Team Penske's Joey Logano dominated Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, drawing first blood in the opening event of the three-race Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
With the victory, his fifth of the year and eighth of his career, Logano automatically becomes the first of eight drivers to advance to the semifinal Eliminator Round of the Chase.
And with a number of title contenders encountering serious problems on the day, it was a huge triumph for Logano and his No.22 Team Penske Ford.
"Getting us to the next round -- this is awesome," said Logano, who has won two of the four Chase races so far. "We've got a real shot of winning the championship and I feel like we're one of the teams to beat, so I'm having fun with it."
Rookie Kyle Larson finished second in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet, followed by the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch, who scored his first top-five finish in a Sprint Cup race at Kansas. Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards completed the top five.
"I thought we were pretty equal at the end," said Larson, who has virtually clinched Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year honors. "We were so even, I couldn't do anything. Another second, I can't be too disappointed."
Busch, who historically runs poorly at Kansas, was pleased with his result, even though his car didn't have the pace of the frontrunners. Still, it was a bullet he dodged.
"It's a matter of trying to piece these things together like that," said Busch. "We know we we've got some work to do with our program. Those two guys up front (Logano and Larson) just left us. They were flat-out flying today."
It was an eventful afternoon at the 1.5-mile Kansas track.
Kevin Harvick started from the pole for the eighth time this season, flanked by Brian Vickers. Harvick took the lead at the green, with Logano immediately moving into second.
Harvick led the first 43 laps, before Jamie McMurray caught and passed him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took over on the point on Lap 76, when he drove around McMurray.
Then, the first significant moment of this round. On Lap 85, Greg Biffle turned Jimmie Johnson around at the exit of Turn 2, and put Johnson hard into the inside retaining wall on the backstretch, the contact also collecting Justin Allgaier and Josh Wise. The crash left Johnson in 40th place and put him in a deep points hole.
On Lap 122, Earnhardt blew his right-front tire and went hard into the wall, ending what up until then had been a great day, finishing 39th.
At Lap 134, the halfway point, Harvick led Logano, Kyle Larson, McMurray and Kasey Kahne.
On Lap 160, Brad Keselowski was next, blowing a right-front tire on his Penske Ford, though not hitting as hard as Earnhardt did. Still, he ended up a hugely disappointing 39th.
Under caution, Kahne took the lead by virtue of a two-tire pit stop, when most of the lead-lap cars took four. But Kahne spun his tires on the restart, with Logano and Harvick pulling away in the lead.
Larson was coming on, though, and with 80 laps to go, he was up to second behind Logano.
Harvick pitted under green on Lap 215 with a suspected flat right-front tire. But the tire was not flat, just apparently vibrating.
Matt Kenseth, another Chase contender, pitted on Lap 220 with what the driver said was a flat left-rear tire.
Biffle hit the wall on Lap 230, bringing out a caution and sending the leaders down pit road. This time, Newman, Kyle Busch and Hamlin took two tires each, with Logano coming out fourth, the first car on four fresh Goodyears.
On the Lap 234 restart, Logano immediately jumped to second, and Kahne hit the wall, sending the track yellow again.
This time, the race restarted with 28 laps to go, as Logano broke to the lead over Busch and Larson.
And from there, Logano was able to hold on for the victory, despite some late-race pressure from Larson.
"We were able to make our cars pretty equal and I felt like whoever was out front there was going to win the race," said Logano. "I was able to have a good start and get the lead and then just basically take his air away and get through there and make sure I worked the traffic good and all that."
