Logano wins Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland
The lone ranger stood tall in victory lane.
Joey Logano survived a risky decision on a late caution to win Friday's Nationwide Series Dollar General 300 at Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway.
Leading the race when a caution flag flew with only 14 laps to go, Logano crew chief Dave Rogers decided not to pit despite nearly 40 laps on the tires. When everyone but Logano and Jason Leffler pitted, Logano felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"So I'm the lone ranger here, huh?" Logano asked Rogers over his radio.
The gamble paid off.
Kyle Busch, who finished second, and the remaining handful of cars on the lead lap had fresh tires, but Logano still pulled away on the restart with less than 10 laps to go. Logano finished the race two seconds ahead of Busch as the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates finished 1-2 for the fourth time this season.
"The pit call at the end, I'm about three years older right now," Rogers said. "I'm not going to take credit for the call. I'm going to tell you the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing built an excellent race car and Joey Logano's a heck of a wheel man and made it happen at the end."
In his first race at Chicagoland Speedway, the 19-year-old set a race record by averaging 147.343 mph to break the mark set by Busch last year.
"I guess it's safe to say the fastest car won the race; that was really awesome," Logano said. "The caution came out at the end and it was like, 'Shoot, I don't know what to do on this one.' That's why Dave gets paid the big bucks. I just kind of left it in his hands."
In posting his 15th top-10 finish of the season, Busch solidified his spot atop the Nationwide point standings. He now leads Carl Edwards, who finished sixth on Friday, by 192 points.
Still, Busch's frustration was evident after being unable to catch Logano in the final laps. He, like nearly everyone, was surprised at Logano's ability to pull away.
"We had two (fresh tires) and I felt like those two were going to be good enough in order to beat him," Busch said. "I felt like they had made the wrong call there and that we were just all going to go right by him."
The race started clean with 92 green-flag laps before the first of only two cautions finally struck. Edwards, the pole-sitter, led the first 17 laps before Logano and Busch dominated the remainder of the race.
Brian Vickers, who will be on the pole for today's Sprint Cup Series LifeLock.com 400, finished third, followed by Leffler and Kevin Harvick.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=306278">Busch has ties to Chicago area<span class="date"> [7/10/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>