Logano takes late lead en route to NASCAR win at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Joey Logano took the lead with 57 laps to go, survived a restart in overtime and went on to win Monday’s weather-postponed NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race at dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway.

The win was the first of the season for the Team Penske driver and the first on a dirt surface for any Cup driver in 51 years.

“Nothing like winning at Bristol,” Logano said, “but putting dirt on it and being the first to do it is really special.”

Logano became the seventh winner in seven races in 2021 and it goes along with two runnerup finishes this season.

Far from being a dirtracing specialist, Logano said he and his team put in a lot of hours in attempting to make both car and driver fast at the Bristol short track.

“Great car, obviously, to execute the race we did, and get a win,” Logano said.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished second, .55 seconds behind Logano.

“At the start of the race, I was terrible,” Stenhouse, of JTG Daugherty Racing, said. “A green race track and a little bit of moisture in it. But as it blew off, we got back to where we were in practice and felt really god with it.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, looking for his first win of the season, finished third.

Hamlin was second on the final restart but tried to run high on the track and that cost him his shot.

“I thought I could just, on that last restart, run the top in hard but they didn’t prep it in between cautions like they did before so it was just marbles up there,” Hamlin said.