Logano claims third win of 2014 at Bristol

Joey Logano has held-off Penske Racing team-mate Brad Keselowski to win the IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol.

Logano grabbed the lead from Matt Kenseth with 44 laps remaining and took his third Sprint Cup victory of the season and first at ‘The World’s Fastest Halfmile”.

In Victory Lane Logano declared himself one to watch in the Chase for the Sprint Cup after finishing no worse than sixth in the past five races.

“We can win the championship. We’ve showed it at every kind of race track. We’ve just got to keep doing it,” said Logano.

“What a year we’re having. I’m having so much fun. The past six or seven races have been unbelievable.”

“I would never think I’d have a year like this. That’s why the mental side of this is just as important as the physical side. But I’m happy I went through all that. It’s made me what I am now and made me aware of how I have to be, mentally, to win these things.”

There are plenty of other drivers who will lay claim to being a championship threat, but his biggest challenge could come from his own team-mate.

“I think we’re legitimate threats to win a championship this year and I’m proud of that,” said Keselowski.

“I think the results speak for themselves. We’ve just got to keep rolling.”

“I think our two cars were really, really equal. Whoever got out front and got the clean air first was going to win the race and Joey was able to do that.

“The last lap I just dive-bombed it in there on a prayer, kind of hoping it would stick or he would slip or something would happen for me. It made it look cool but it really wasn’t that close.”

The Penske crew made all the right calls including taking tyres while others chose track position in the latter part of the race when caution flags flew.

Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth both enjoyed time in the lead, but fresh tyres proved a critical edge as the Penske duo swept back to the front.

With McMurray needing to win to make the Chase, he led a race-high 148 laps, but lost the handle on his car over the final 100 laps and finished in eighth.

“As the track rubbered up, it just didn’t suit our car as much as it did the other guys”, said McMurray.

Bristol always produces plenty of action and the biggest incident came when Kevin Harvick misjudged a move on race leader Denny Hamlin on lap #162 of 500. Hamlin went into the inside wall and washed back up the track in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Under NASCAR’s strict rules not allowing drivers to exit their car until instructed by officials, Hamlin still managed to throw his HANS device at Harvick’s car from beside the ambulance!

“It was a misjudgement. He knows better. He made a mistake,” said Hamlin.

“He thinks he knows everything. I just wish I had some kind of car left to show him the favour back.”

A tough night for Australia’s Marcos Ambrose who had issues from the outset when he started from 10th.

He reported to the crew that something was not right in the rear of the car. As he fell down the order the crew made repairs to the rear suspension linkage at the first caution on lap #60. At that point he was four laps down and after deciding not to pit under the next caution to get a wave around; he was then forced to make a green flag stop after suffering a puncture.

The Australian’s night was to get worse when he was spun on the front straight and brought out a caution. He finished in 34th place.

“It was a rough night for our team,” said Ambrose.

“We had something break in the rear of the car early on and were hopeful we could recover, but then we had a flat tyre which put us even further behind. We were still fast but just stuck laps down.

“We have a test in Chicago on Monday, so hopefully we can turn our luck around and compete for the win at Atlanta.”

The Sprint Cup Series regular season has just two more races, at Atlanta and Richmond before the Chase gets underway.

VIDEO: Final Laps

VIDEO: Hamlin crash and follow-up

RESULTS: IRWIN Tools Night Race – Bristol Motor Speedway 

 STANDINGS 

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