Joey Logano Wins Kansas and Reserves His Seat for the Eliminator Round

Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR

KANSAS CITY, KS – RIS –On a day when so many Chase contenders had horrible days, Joey Logano came through with a sterling performance to win the Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race over rookie Kyle Larson.  Logano beat Larson to the finish line by .480 seconds to notch his fifth victory of the season, tied with Team Penske teammate and former champ Brad Keselowski for most in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year. The win was Logano’s first at Kansas and the eighth of his career.

Toyota's Kyle Busch ran third, posting his first-ever top-five at a track that has plagued him mercilessly in races past. Non-Chaser Martin Truex, Jr. came home fourth, posting his first top-five of the season and his second consecutive top-10. Ford's Carl Edwards was fifth, with fellow Chase drivers Ryan Newman and Busch's teammate Denny Hamlin right behind him in sixth and seventh, respectively.

Logano can now enjoy the next two races at Charlotte and Talladega worry-free, assured of earning one of the eight spots in the Eliminator Round.

“It makes Talladega a lot easier, that is for sure,” Logano said. “To know we are onto the next round, we can focus on a few more races coming up, and we’ll keep trying to capitalize like we’re doing. It’s so much fun to race these cars lately. Everyone at Team Penske has given me great stuff to work with. It’s awesome to be back in Victory Lane again. I felt we had a good car all weekend, but I wasn’t 100-percent sure; but once that top (lane of the race track) opened up, it just took off.”

Favorites Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Jeff Gordon fell by the wayside in a strange turn of events.  Clobbered in a Lap 85 wreck also involving Justin Allgaier, Josh Wise and Greg Biffle, Johnson finished 40th, matching his worst result ever in a Chase race (2005 at Homestead) and faces an uphill battle toward a possible record-tying seventh series championship.

Johnson goes to Charlotte next Sunday last among the 12 remaining Chase drivers, 27 points behind teammate Jeff Gordon in eighth place. Two weeks hence, at Talladega, the Chase field will be cut from 12 to eight drivers.

Earnhardt led 45 laps before a flat right front tire sent him hard into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 122 of 267 while leading the race. Earnhardt limped home in 39th place and dropped to 11th in the Chase standings, 25 points behind Gordon, who salvaged a 14th place finish despite hitting the Turn 4 wall after contact from Jamie McMurray’s Chevrolet.

Keselowski, the 2012 series champion, was running fifth when he blew a right front tire and slammed into the Turn 2 wall on Lap 160. He finished 36th and is 10th in the Chase standings, 22 points behind Gordon.

Johnson, Earnhardt and Keselowski weren’t the only Chase drivers to have issues. On a day that saw all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers tag the wall,  Chaser Kasey Kahne damaged his No. 5 Chevrolet after a restart on Lap 235.

Kahne had taken a wave-around after an early pit stop had left him a lap down and was mired in traffic when the car got away from him in Turn 2. He finished 22nd.

Kevin Harvick, the polesitter,  led 61 laps but brought his car to pit road for an unscheduled stop on Lap 215, mistakenly thinking his right front tire was going down. Harvick lost a lap but used a wave-around and some hard racing in the closing laps to salvage a 12th-place result.

“I thought I had a flat tire and pitted, because you see all the trouble that is going on (with other drivers having tire issues),” Harvick said. “(We) missed it on the handling a little bit today. We qualified well and had good track position. That saved us in the beginning of the race, and when I thought I had a flat, just got us behind.”

Both Logano and Larson agreed that the final restart of the race on Lap 240 was critical. Logano surged into the lead and, in clean air, was able to keep Larson behind him.

“I thought we were pretty equal and were running about the same (lap times) there on the last run,” Larson said. “Just a good finish and we were so even that I couldn’t do anything. I was hoping I would get a run on him in traffic, and all the lappers were giving us the top, so it kind of made it kind of easy for him to run the top.

“Another second and can’t be too disappointed with it. The wins will be coming, so I just have to be patient, and with every time I’m in the top three, it’s just going to make the wins feel that much better.”

The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway is next on the schedule for Saturday night. 

 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 30
Unofficial Race Results for the 14Th Annual Hollywood Casino 400 - Sunday, October 5, 2014
Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles - Purse: $6,148,103

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 4 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 267 48 5 144.7 $364,356 Running 6 122
2 18 42 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 267 42 118.4 $257,900 Running
3 7 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Toyota 267 42 1 104.6 $222,096 Running 1 1
4 15 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet 267 40 109.8 $173,163 Running
5 12 99 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford 267 39 92.0 $148,705 Running
6 17 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 267 39 1 101.8 $135,545 Running 2 6
7 25 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 267 37 89.9 $126,470 Running
8 16 3 Austin Dillon # American Ethanol Chevrolet 267 36 94.8 $158,306 Running
9 13 27 Paul Menard Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet 267 35 87.4 $138,584 Running
10 2 55 Brian Vickers Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 267 34 82.0 $142,220 Running
11 20 47 AJ Allmendinger Clorox Chevrolet 267 33 82.0 $126,543 Running
12 1 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet 267 33 1 116.7 $155,018 Running 8 61
13 27 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota 267 31 82.8 $150,421 Running
14 5 24 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet 267 31 1 92.0 $147,546 Running 1 1
15 11 16 Greg Biffle 3M Filtrete Ford 267 29 77.9 $146,385 Running
16 29 10 Danica Patrick Aspen Dental Chevrolet 267 28 67.9 $111,310 Running
17 9 14 Tony Stewart Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet 267 27 71.5 $136,668 Running
18 19 15 Clint Bowyer PinkLemonade5HrEnergybenefittingLBBC Toyota 267 26 68.1 $136,801 Running
19 23 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Cargill/Sam's Club Ford 267 25 68.9 $136,935 Running
20 22 9 Marcos Ambrose Stanley Ford 267 24 68.6 $127,955 Running
21 35 40 Landon Cassill(i) Snap Fitness Chevrolet 267 0 60.0 $99,710 Running
22 10 5 Kasey Kahne Farmer's Insurance Chevrolet 265 23 1 89.1 $115,110 Running 1 2
23 39 26 Cole Whitt # Moen Toyota 264 21 48.1 $98,385 Running
24 36 7 Michael Annett # Accell Construction Chevrolet 264 20 55.9 $113,843 Running
25 14 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna/Monopoly Chevrolet 263 20 1 93.2 $131,699 Running 3 27
26 30 36 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 263 18 55.8 $110,518 Running
27 37 34 David Ragan Dockside Logistics Ford 262 17 44.4 $115,318 Running
28 26 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 262 16 54.1 $112,607 Running
29 38 83 JJ Yeley Burger King Toyota 262 0 46.7 $94,360 Running
30 31 38 David Gilliland MDS Transport Ford 262 14 43.4 $101,110 Running
31 3 43 Aric Almirola Farmland Ford 260 13 65.9 $128,346 Running
32 33 23 Alex Bowman # Dr Pepper Toyota 259 12 36.4 $91,210 Running
33 40 33 Timmy Hill retroinfinity.com Chevrolet 259 11 32.5 $91,010 Running
34 43 66 Mike Wallace(i) 435 Overland Park Place Hotel Toyota 259 0 29.9 $98,810 Running
35 28 95 Michael McDowell KLOVE Radio Ford 258 9 41.1 $90,575 Running
36 6 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 222 9 1 77.4 $135,793 Running 1 2
37 42 32 Joey Gase(i) Donate Life Ford 213 0 29.9 $90,156 Running
38 34 98 Josh Wise Westside Vapor/Vapor Station Chevrolet 207 6 31.0 $84,465 Running
39 8 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet 204 6 1 88.9 $88,465 Running 3 45
40 32 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 180 4 42.0 $130,401 Running
41 21 51 Justin Allgaier # Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet 84 3 51.4 $80,465 Accident
42 24 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 75 2 36.9 $68,465 Accident
43 41 37 Mike Bliss(i) Chevrolet 17 0 27.3 $64,965 Vibration 

(i) inelligible for points

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the midle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2014, Issue 10, Posted 9:03 PM, 10.05.2014