Joey Logano gets his first NASCAR win of the season
Logano seizes chances in victory at Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. — Joey Logano smiled as if he’d stolen something and gotten away with it.
That wasn’t far from the truth about how he spent his Sunday at Richmond International Raceway.
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 Toyota Owners 400. It was the 18th win of his NASCAR Cup Series career but his first this season.
“We were just fast enough to break through and kind of steal a win,” Logano said. “We had a decent car. We were in the lead when the caution came out there and we looked like we were in pretty good shape — and then, obviously, to have the good pit stops and all that, I don’t know if you’d call that stealing.
“We didn’t get lucky. We were able to just do what we know how to do.”
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. The win came in Logano’s 300th career start on the top-tier series.
“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. 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.”
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,” said Keselowski, who led six times for 110 laps total.
On the final restart, Logano had to get around Kyle Larson and five others who stayed on the track when everyone else pitted. He made quick work of that challenge and pulled away
while Keselowski and Denny Hamlin got caught in traffic dueling for second.
“That’s part of how this racing deal works, and the fastest car doesn’t always win,” Keselowski said.
Keselowski, who had the dominant car for the second half of the race, held on for second, followed by Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick.
“We just didn’t have the speed that the other cars had,” a frustrated Hamlin said. “We finished right where we should have.”
In his first race since announcing he will retire at the end of the season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 30th. He, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman all took a chance when the rest of the field started making green-flag pit stops with about 80 laps to go. The three stayed out hoping for a caution flag that would allow them to get new tires and remain up front.
Johnson eventually pitted, and then he brought about the caution when he side-swiped Earnhardt — his Hendrick Motorsports teammate — into the wall in the backstretch.
“I just have to try to figure out if I just didn’t hear it being told to me or if it wasn’t told to me,” said Johnson, a seven-time Cup Series champion who won the previous two races.
“I just feel terrible, obviously. Man, I’m surprised our cars even kept rolling after that, because I just body-slammed him into the wall, and I could have easily not heard the clear or something else happened. I don’t know, but that’s the last thing you want to have happen with a teammate.”
The caution made the gamble pay off for Newman, who was likely to be passed shortly thereafter by the hard-charging Keselowski. The gain was temporary, though, as Newman wound up seventh.
Pole-sitter Matt Kenseth led the first 163 laps, winning the first stage and racing in the top 10 until a flat tire with 35 laps to go.
Kyle Busch finished 16th after NASCAR flagged him for a commitment line violation with 22 laps to go, dropping him to the back of the field. It was his second penalty of the day after an earlier one for speeding entering the pits. That also put him at the back of the field, and he’d finally made it into contention again when the second one ruined his day.
Bottas breaks through
SOCHI, Russia — Valtteri Bottas claimed his first Formula One win by holding off a late charge from Sebastian Vettel in the Russian Grand Prix.
Mercedes driver Bottas, who started third but snatched the lead on the first lap, finished 0.6 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen took third in the second Ferrari, 10.3 seconds further back.
“Took quite a while, more than 80 races,” said Bottas, who had his debut with Williams in 2013. “Worth the wait.”
Vettel was left fuming after his hopes of passing Bottas on the last lap were dashed by having to lap the Williams of Felipe Massa. But Vettel extended his standings lead to 13 points over Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who trailed in fourth after suffering overheating trouble.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was fifth, ahead of the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon. Eighth went to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, with Massa and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz claiming the final points.
Pagenaud prevails
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Simon Pagenaud took advantage of a caution flag that caught the other leaders on pit road to win the Verizon IndyCar race late Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway.
The 2016 series champion grabbed the lead when Team Penske teammate Will Power pitted on the 137th lap, and the caution came out seconds later when Takuma Sato hit the wall in the fourth turn.
Pagenaud not only ended up with the lead, he had a number of lapped cars between himself and the other four lead-lap cars. Power cut Pagenaud’s 13-second lead to just three with 40 laps to go before Pagenaud pulled away to win by more than nine seconds.
Pagenaud raced to his 10th career victory but his first on an oval, and he gave Team Penske its record-extending 189th series victory. He also took the season points lead.
JR Hildebrand was third for Ed Carpenter Racing, and pole-sitter Helio Castroneves finished fourth for Penske. Scott Dixon, the winner last year, was a lap down in fifth.