BRISTOL, Tenn.
Even when NASCAR stopped the race it couldn’t slow down Joey Logano.
Logano led all 300 laps to a dominating win in Saturday’s Drive to Stop Diabetes 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his second Xfinity Series win of the season (in three starts) and 23rd of his career.
None of the eight cautions nor the 10-minute red flag to remove debris from part of the energy-absorbing SAFER barrier could do much to slow Logano. Late in the race, rookie Daniel Suarez provided the biggest challenge to Logano, but eventually fell behind while navigating lapped traffic.
Chris Buescher finished third, Erik Jones fourth and Ty Dillon was fifth.
Turning point
Jones actually won the pole but Logano wasted no time time passing him for the lead before the first lap was complete. He remained out front the rest of the way. Logano is the first driver to lead every lap in an Xfinity Series race at Bristol.
Three who mattered
Joey Logano: Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney are clearly going to be in contention again to give Team Penske’s No. 22 Xfinity team another series owner’s title this year.
Daniel Suarez: The rookie’s career-best finish comes on one of the sport’s toughest tracks.
Chris Buescher: Failed to qualify for a race last season as a rookie and now tied for the Xfinity Series points lead this season with Dillon.
Observations
▪ Joe Gibbs Racing certainly has a wealth of young talent and they continue to show their ability in the Xfinity Series. However, if the learning curves of Jones and Suarez continue to skyrocket, there will be enormous pressure to move them to the Cup series, where JGR has no room at the inn.
▪ Whatever the problems for Roush Fenway Racing, the organization certainly isn’t lacking anything in this series. Buescher now shares the points lead and Darrell Wallace Jr. is running strong and Ryan Reed already has a win.
They said it
“I’ve never led every single lap in a race before. That’s amazing. You’re waiting for something to go wrong.” – race winner, Joey Logano
N@SCAR
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