Logano has enough gas to take the checkered flag
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Joey Logano had enough fuel this time.
A week after running out of gas while leading at Pocono with three laps to go, Logano passed Kevin Harvick on the final turn as Harvick ran dry to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International on Sunday.
Logano completed a weekend sweep after winning the Xfinity race Saturday and gave Roger Penske his first Cup victory at The Glen. Logano also won the season-opening Daytona 500.
“What goes around comes around, I guess,” Logano said after a long tiresmoking burnout. “It’s cool to get through on the other end. I’m still just trying to catch my breath.”
Kyle Busch, who ran out of fuel on the last lap at Pocono while leading, finished second and moved to 30th in points, the cutoff to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup title as he continued his surge.
Harvick coasted home third, Matt Kenseth was fourth, and Kurt Busch fifth. Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Sam Hornish Jr. and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10.
Tony Stewart, who qualified third, was competing at Watkins Glen for the first time after missing the previous two Cup races at the track in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. He was nursing a broken right leg two years ago and sat out last year’s race after the sprint car he was driving in a race at nearby Canandaigua struck and killed 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward Jr. the night before Stewart was scheduled to race at Watkins Glen.
On Friday, Stewart again had to revisit that tragedy. Attorneys representing the Ward family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Stewart. Sunday marked the first anniversary of Ward’s death.
Stewart finished last after his car broke a rear gear midway through the 90-lap race.
In the last road race of his NASCAR career, Jeff Gordon had brake problems and finished 41st.
AJ Allmendinger, the defending race winner and pole-sitter gunning for another victory that would have given a second Chase berth for the one-car JTG Daugherty team, led the first 20 laps with Martin Truex Jr. in tow, but he was passed the next time around and dropped to third as the No. 47 Chevy began to fade.
“Sorry man. I don’t think it’s going to happen today,” Allmendinger told crew chief Brian Burns while running in the top 10 just past the halfway point of the race. “I’m just hanging on there. They’re just eating me alive.”
He finished 24th.