The Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va.–Joey Logano smiled as if he’d stolen something and got away with it, and that wasn’t far from the truth.
Logano passed distracted and dominant Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski on one restart, then pulled away on another with about 20 laps to go to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway yesterday.
“We were just fast enough to break through and kind of steal a win,” Logano noted.
Logano, who qualified fifth but had to start 37th after making a transmission change, grabbed the lead when Keselowski had to make a defensive move to keep Kyle Busch from passing him on the inside.
His 18th career victory came in his 300th career start.
“I was driving my guts out out there,” Logano said in Victory Lane. “That’s all I had.
“We won with a car that may not have been a winning car, so that’s something to be very proud of as a team,” he added.
“That means the execution was there and we were able to put ourselves in position to race there hard at the end.
“Brad was the fastest car. He was so fast,” Logano noted.
Keselowski got stuck behind some slower cars on the final restart, letting Logano pull away by nearly two seconds.
“I think what we needed was about 10 more laps,” Keselowski said.
He led six times for 110 laps.
Keselowski, who had the dominant car for the second half of the race, held on for second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Kevin Harvick.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his first race since announcing he will retire at the end of the season, finished 30th.
“We just didn’t have the speed that the other cars had,” a frustrated Hamlin said.
“We finished right where we should have.”
